Evening star., 1905-10-27


will treat delegations from the union de-
Gently and discuss matters frankly and
fairly with them strike may be avoided.
Such treatment will be regarded as equiv
alent to a recognition of the miners union
and the officers of that body will consent
to renewal of the present agreement for
another three years Several of the union
leaders nave told me that, under such cir
cumstances, they would be willing to with
draw and postpone the demand for an
eight-hour day.
The policy of the Federation of Labor.
as declared annually for years, is eight
hour day for everybody; and it Is the ambi-
tion of John Mitchell, just 1t Is the am
bftion of Samuel Gompers, to accomplish
that purpose before he retires from his
official responsibility. Mitchell is pledged
to secure an eight-hour day for the hard
coal unions, just as he has obtained 1t for
the soft-coal unions; but his position is
made exceedingly difficult and embarrass-
ing by the fact that the miners themselves,
or at least a great majority of them, do
not want an eight-hour day. They think
1t would be to their disadvantage, and
many of them do not hesitate to say so.
As l have already explained. a miner
need not work any longer than he pleases.
and does not average more than six or
seven hours a day. His helper, however,
whom he is compelled to pay, and all the
other employees, inside and outside of the
mine, are now working nine hours. They
were working ten hours before the last
strike. The miners constitute about 30
per cent of the total number of employees
and receive about 80 per cent of the wages
paid Therefore they cannot see any ad-
vantage for themselves by securing an
eight-hour day for the rest of the men on
the pay-rolls. And few of them are willing
to make the sacrifice that a strike will re-
quire The intelligent miner reasons in
this way:
What the Miners Say.
II am making good wages and am doing
as well as possible. If an eight-hour day
to tod fLa fnr rxri11 n 1Iyo n nrn
duce less coal, because every breaker in
the anthracite district is now working
nine hours to It's full capacity. If breaker
works only eight hours, however, 1t will
require less coal from the mines, and the
decrease will have to be divided among the
men. That means a reduction in my
earnings. At the same time l will have to
pay my helper just as much as am pay
ing him now, and he will do one hour less
work and accomplish only eight-ninths as
much.
"Furthermore wherever eight-hour days
have been adopted in the soft-coal regions
the miners have been compelled to work
that full time. In the anthracite regions,
under present conditions, am not required
to work any longer than l please. fJohn
Mitchell wants to put us on the same basis
as the bituminous miners-that is, he VIII
require US to make an agreement under
which everybody, inside and outside the
mines, will work eight hours. The outside
laborers are the only ones who will get any
advantage from this
To Be Discussed in Convention.
These points will be thrashed out at the
convention to be held at Shamokin In De-
cember. John Mitchell, being pledged to
an eight-hour day, will do his best to secure
it. and for that reason he has been spending
most of the summer in the anthracite re-
gions, reorganizing the union, and the tele-
graph dispatches have announced that ne
hnir- md
This is not strictly true. He has coaXeo
back $1,000 old members into the union
fold There are altogether about 10000
workmen I'm and about the anthracite mines.
On April /, 1903, when the present arrange
ment went into force, about l3o,Goo OF them
were upon the rolls of the union. lmme-
diately after the agreement was announced
the membership began to faIl OH ana tiie
unions practically went to pieces, because
their purpose had been accomplished There
was nothing for them to do, and the men
refused to pay dues to support committees
and officers who were not needed. By July
/, 1903, the membership was reduced 10
10000 However, when the operators re-
fused to acknowledge the representatives
named by the miners for the conciiation
board. the men rushed back to the unions
and began to pay their dues, so that IN
thirty days there We're more than 1GOooo
names on the rolls. When that controversy
was settled they quit paying dues again,
and last January the membership had run
down to less than f0G0o men. BY thor
ough canvass and the use of his personal
influence Mitchell has brought back about
90 coo men, and the membership of the
union in the anthracite regions is again in
the neighborhood of 100000. These men
will be represented al the Shamokn conven-
tion in December, but there is very bit
ter feeling the part of many men who
have remained loyal against those who fell
from grace and have been coaxed back into
the organization without being compelled
to pay intermediate dues.
An Ancient Controversy.
This is an ancient controversy. 1t exists
wherever there is organized labor, and the
policy of the federation has always been
to leave the matter to the locals. If a union
in one town will receive into its fold a
backslider who has not paid dues for two
or three years it is nobody's business. If
a union in the next town refuses to readmit
a member until he pays up all the dues ac-
crued during the time he has been out, that
is matter for its own determination The
numerical strength of unions always falls
off after a strike. 1t is customary for half
more of the members to quit in fair
weather and come back in a Storm-and
miners are no exceptions. But those who
have remained in the unions since the last
strike in the anthracite regions, and have
regularly paid their dues. inclined to
make fight at the Shamokin convention
against this policy of the federation. They
consider it an encouragement to disloyalty;
the treasury of the union is practically
empty and there is no fund available in
of a strike.
Position Of the Operators.
On the other hand, the operators are in
an excellent situation. In anticipation of
trouble they have been accommodating coal,
and already have at least ten million tons
slowed away a reserve. Before April
first the surplus will amount to twelve If
not fifteen million tons. and many manu-
facturers and other consumers of anthra-
cite coal throughout the country have large
stocks put away in case of emergency. One
of the best posted operators told me that
the visible supply of anthracite coal would
last four months, and six months under
economic management. Retail dealers
throughout the country are sending circu-
lars to their customers calling attention to
the proba bilities of strike, and ever since
Mitchell came into the anthracite regions
last summer and began to reorganize the
unions large consumers have been laying in
stocks of fuel. pending trouble. Therefore
the operators are much better prepared for
the strike than the miners.