Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-04-06
WANT ARBITRATION
Mitchell and Miners Throw Bombshell at Operators.
TAKE UNTIL MONDAY TO CONSIDER IT
If Proposition Is Accepted All Opera tions Will Be Resumed at Once. Refusal by Owners h Fore.
 ahadOwed,

shadowed.
 NEW YORK, April 6.-Having failed to come to an agreement among them selves, the hard coal miners of Penn sylvania, through their representatives. proposed to the operators th& all mat ters in dispute be referred to a board of arbitration for settlement, the tri- i bunal to be composed of the board of conciliation which was created by the award of the anthracite strike commis- sion in 1903, with Judge George Gray l of Delaware, or any person he may ap- point, as chairman and umpire. | If the operators accept the proposi- ton and q convention of mine workers | approves the plan the 160,000 men now idle in the anthracite fields will return to work at once. While it had been l reported for several days that the min CTS might ask that the differences be arbitrated, the proposition made to the mine owners came to them as great l surprise as they did not believe the union leaders were ready to leave the controversy to third party at this time. 1 That the operators will accept the miners proposal as submitted is not generally believed. In fact, it is inti- mated they may fiatly refuse the offer on the ground that existing conditions are the result of arbitration. The en- ployers have decided to carefully con- slider the miners latest move and prom ise to give President Mitchell and his men an answer on Monday, when an other meeting of the two subcommit- tees will be held in this city. President Mitchell threw bombshell into the camp of the operators by of fering to submit all the points in dis pute to the board of conciliation, which went out of office with the expiration of the three year agreement on March 31.
 MitchelPs move was entirely unex- pected and confounded the seven rail- road presidents making up the oper- ators' committee. It puts the situation right up to the operators. Mitchell's offer is to submit the questions in dis pute to a committee in which each side is equally represented, final de- cision to rest in the hands of man to be appointed by Judge Gray, whose fairness is unquestioned.
 "If the operators don't agree to this," remarked one of the union leaders, "it will be because they invite a strike. And if strike comes, all that will fol- low will be on the operators, not on us. We want peace."
 The proposition of Mir. Mitchell was made, as he explained, fin the interests of peace" He set forth that the miners have real grievances and the only fair way to settle them is to take testimony on both sides. weigh 1t and leave the decision to a disinterested person in case the representatives of the dispu- tants fail to agree.
 The conference of the subcommittees lasted less than an hour, and at it's con- clusion the operators held meeting to informally discuss the miners of fer. Later they issued the following statement:
 Tt should be observed that in the astutely drawn proposition of MT. Mitchell and his committee the oper- ators are asked to submit to arbitra- ton the question of the closed shop and the check off
 Tt should also be observed that Mir. Mitchell's committee abandons the pro- posal for one year agreement and suggests an arbitration, the term of which would expire on April 1, 19OS- a presidential year-thus affording a new opportunity to make this great in- dustry the football of politics. The op- orators had already offered. it will be remembered, to extend the findings of the coal commission until April 1, 19O9."