Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-22

not for moment suppose that there are
enough men in the ranks of the United
Nine Workers of America who are wholly
free from the money faint to run such
scheme as have outlined-an Incorporated
union and the administration Of the entire
labor question for all the mine owners.
If there are such men, capable of doing
this work thoroughly and honestly, they
are in the wrong business. They should
be managing railroads or banks or depart
ment stores.
ut is all a question of administration"
concluded the speaker. II am not per-
sonally inimical to unions. They do lots
OF good, and lots of harm as well. In the
main, l think they tend to elevate the
ranks. But they cannot be recognized rs
long as they are unwilling to assume the
whole burden of adminstrati ton without
cost to the owners. Rather would l have
the mine owners eXpend money in the es-
Establishment of training schools and the Gre
alton of pension funds Such methoss
would get us back to closer relations with
the workers We are too far apart now
for safety or comfort or the welfare of
both sides"
AS the stands today, recognition
of the union is little more than a shibbo-
leth with the miners, and a vitality i'm
portant issue with the operators. Yet there
Is no sign In the hard coal district that
the miners are likely to hold the principle
lightly, as something that can be waived.
Unionism has become an intimate factor IN
their lives They are prone, as their tenn
per runs today to fight more desperately
Tor this principle than for the eight hour
day, and quite as fiercely as for an IN
creased wage scale They realize in a
vague but sufficient manner, that questions
OF hours and wages can be fought over and
tnen compromised, and the end may be a
slight gain. But at this stage of the case
there Is no compromise possible in the rec
nf fIn
spring, If it comes, will be the more bit
terry conducted on both sides, because the
opponents are struggling over an ''irre-
ouclble minimum
The matter of the hours Is necuIiar In tic
bearing on the broader question at issue
ne most conservative union men in the
mine district are those who cut the coal
under contract the true miners. They
work on the basis of much ton and
are required by their contracts to produce
daily certain minimum of coal, free from
slate. Their union, on the other hand, by
a tacit II not an expressed stipulation, for
blds them to get out more than that mini
num- Thus the miner Is caught some
where between the operator and the union
Yet he is a strong union man as a rule
the kind of union man who eventually be-
comes district president. He Is often we'll
educated. 1t is related that a party of
visitors to the mines encountered a man
sitting on block of coal reading a book
by the light of his torch. One of the
women stepped to his side and asked him
what he was reading. Without a word he
held forth the book and the torch. The
volume was "Emerson's Essays"
These men make on the average from
81 to So a day net, after paying for their
powder and their helpers. Their scale of
pay ranges up and down according to the
mine conditions. A man may be paid more
per ton in one heading and less per ton
in another heading of the same mine, ac-
cording he works on the top. middle or
lower vein of coal, according es the mine
Is dry or wet, gaseous or pure, slaty or
otherwise. But withal the contract miner
cannot cut more than a certain tonnage or
he hears from his union, nor less than his
tonnage or he hears from the superin-
tendent
In order to make his tonnage he must
have the assistance of at least two men
rule is enforced he cannot get put his coal
without hiring more help, AMI inasmuch
as he pays his own helpers, he Is not to-
day a strenuous advocate of the eight
hour demand.
X
Yet the contract miner is a stanch union
man. and he will stand by the demand for
recognition perhaps even more insistently
than the other classes. although he is
factor for peace. 1t is just POSSIBLE that
there will be an issue at the December
convention between the contract miners
and the outside workers over this point
of hours, although the chances are that the
demand for the shorter day will go into
the catalogue of claims, inaslnuch as the
union is already on record in the demands
of 1902, and at least one Of the district
conventions in the Scranton region has this
year resolved to the same effect.
At the same time the eight.hour demand