The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1906-03-23
OVER A ROCKY PATH
PEACE PLANS TRAVEL

Indianapolis. Ind. March 20.-The
miners and operators of Indiana, Ohio,
Illinois and western Pennsylvania met
in joint conference at Tomlinson Hall
this afternoon at 2 o'clock Presi-
dent Mitchell, of the United Mine
Workers. called the conference to or
der. George w. Traer, an operator,
OF Chicago, was elected chairman Of
the joint conference and w. B. Will
son, of the miners was chosen secre-
tary, with c. l.. Scroggs, of the Illi-
nGis operators. and f. L. Brooks, or
the Ohio operators, as assistant sec
Ietaries.
President Mitchell in an address be-
fore the joint conference this after
noon said the conditions under which
the conference is being held are the
most extraordinary in the industrial
history OF the country. He said:
Fortunately or unfortunately as cir
Cumstances may show the president
Of the United States interviewed when
10th sides were preparing for strife.
GREAT INTERESTS AT STAKE.
mot only cur own personal inter-
ests, but those of our entire country
are at stake | have given the sub
ject as much attention perhaps as any
enc here,
Il have reviewed the situation lead
ing to our disagreement SIX weeks ago
not so much as a miner as an official
charged with great public RESPONSE
hihty. | am now more firmly con-
WINGED than ever that our demands
made six weeks ago we're just. l
believe the claims we made then have
Eeen confirmed by conditions since
our adjournment.
Because OF cur training and en-
Iironment we may not be able to see
these conditions impartially. But we
are ready to meet you to try to reach
an agreement with you. l believe we
owe it to ourselves and to our Coun-
try to use our best efforts to reach
an agreement for peace in the coal
fields.
'In order to have some concrete
basis for our deliberations l do now
move that the reports of the miners
scale committee presented at our last
conference be now adopted"
WINDER SPEAKS.
j. H. Winder, chairman of the oper-
atOrs, then spoke. He said:
''At our last meeting we considered
the subject thoroughly under condi-
tions then existing in the trade. we
felt that substantial reduction should
be asked for.
But knowing how difficult it would
be to convince the miners that sucL
aCoudition would be just the operators
concluded to sacrifice to some extent
their position and make proposition
to renew the present scale for the en-
suing year. Since adjournment of that
convention there has nothing develop
co in the trade to justify us in chang
ing our position.
"On behalf of the state of Ohio l
offer this resolution:
THAT the present scale of wages
with all the conditions attending We
renewed for one year from April l,
1906.
RESOLUTIONS TRANSFERRED
Both resolutions were at once trans
ferred to the joint scale committee
and this committee will meet in sec
let session tomorrow morning at 3
o'clock All discussion as to what it
will do is purely problematical
Peace is coming to the coal opera
tors and coal miners over a rocky
path. The outlook for her arrival
soon was not promising tonight The
Tp nj
Pennsylvania operators are fighting
among themselves and new lining
Up Of the Mitchell-Lewis factions on
tie miners side of the house ads to
the complications of the situation.
The operators fight among them
selves was conducted behind closed |
doors. When they met to go In a body
to Tomlinson Hall the clash was
brought on by Frank S. Peabody, head |
Cf the Peabody Coal Company of Chi
Cago, and connected with numerous
large mining properties, who took the |
stand that the operators were not
ready TO meet the miners. He said that
they should first decide where and how
they stood and formulate some policy |
before meeting the miners.
THE ROBBINS PLAN.
F, L. Robbins, whose plan was to |
throw the matter into the hands of the |
scale committee, head off any public |
demonstration and define his stand in
committee session, insisted that the
operators meet the miners His plan, |
though not stated, was to throw the
whole matter into the hands of the
scale committee as soon as the joint
conference was organized, and thus
TO gain his point
Peabody offered a resolution de-
claring that the operators were op-
posed to any scale that would increase
the cUst of producing coal in any way
beyond the scale adopted in 1904.