The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-30
Anthracite Men Quit Monday,
and Soft Coal Workers
Tomorrow.
TO REOPEN NEGOTIATIONS.
eaer Notified That the Scale
Committee Will Meet Him
Here Tuesday.

Final Break Comes in Joint Bituminous
Conference in indianapolis with BOb.
bin still Declaring His Willingness 70
Grant the 1900 Scale-Some Soft Coal
Mines May Work on Tina Basis-Mitch.
ell and Hts Fellow Leaders Then De-
cIde to Call Out the Anthracite Men
When the Present Agreement Expires
without Attempting to Erect Truce
Unions Treasury I'm n Sad Plight.
INDIANAPOLIS, March 29.-At 10 o'clock
tonight the anthracite scale committee.
which has been formulating a proposition
to submit to the coal operators. formally
determined to order all the anthracite
miners to quit work on Monday, and the
ORDER was sent out from headquarters
Immediately.
The members Of the union are ad visedthat
negotiations for a scale have failed. that
the award of the strike commission expires
March 81 and that they will not return to
work on Monday.
A telegram was sent TO President Baer OF
the Reading, notifying him of the action
just taken, and saying that u subcommittee
of the Anthracite scale committee would
meet him in New York on Tuesday for the
purpose Of reopening negotiations.
The action of the United Mine Workers
officers in calling q strike in the anthracite
fields is a surprise to the delegates here, as
early this evening it looked as if there would
be an agreement whereby they would work
thirty days longer, or while negotiations for
a settlement were pendinsfs~s~~
This statement was Issued tonight by
the anthracite miners committee after a
meeting held at their rooms in the State
Life Building;
The committee appointed by the Shamokin
convention December II met tonight and
had under consideration the letter signed
by Mr.. Bder dated March ~, and wired him
the following reply:
If Agreeable to YOU Il meeting of the joint
sub -committee will be held in New York Al
10 O'Clock Tuesday. April ,, for the purpose
of further considering the wage scale in the
anthracite field.
ne committee having the matter III
charge i%nstructs the anthracite miners. eX-
cept the men necessary to run the pumps and
pre- serve The properties. TO suspend work
Monday morning. April .. pending further in
structions from the committee appointed by
the Shamokin convention.
The entire miners committee will me?t In
New York Tuesday night to hear The rep-rt Of
joint Subcommittee.
"JoHS MITCHELL, Cha irman.
"r. d. NICHOLS. President District No. l.
Nv. II. DETTREY, President District No. I.
john FAHY, President District No. o."
The final break between the bituminous
miners and mine owners cams this after
noon when the joint conference adjourned
without day. Tonight a strike order Is
being prepared at the headq uarters of the
United Mine Workers, calling out all the
bituminous miners after midnight Saturday
night.
There is a bare possibility that the order
may be changed after the miners meet in
their final convention Tomorrow, when
they will consider the question of letting
such operators as will pay the 1908 scale
continue to run their mines But the pos
sibility of the miners consenting to this ar
rangement is so remote that the strike
order is being prepared as if they had al
ready passed upon the question and had
decided against it.
Both sides to the controversy stood
firmly by their positions in the final session
of the joint conference this afternoon, and
for several minutes after the last PROPOSE
ton made by the miners was rejected each
side sat silently waiting for some one to
move the adjournment which would mark
the end of the relations that have con-
tinued with slight Interruptions for years.
President Mitchell looked at Chairman
Winder of the operators and Chairman
Winder looked at President Mitchell. Then
all eyes in the assembly were turned upon
the two men, but neither made an attempt
to speak.
The silence became constrained and
both miners and operators showed som
restlessness. Chairman Winder rose at
last and formally moved that the joint
conference be declared adjourned sine die.
TIL g motion carried, and the miners and
operators filed out of the hall after eleven
days of ~fruitless discussion.
The day opened with cauouses on the
part Of the miners who wanted to consider
the question Of making a scale with Francis
L. Robbins, president of the Pittsburg
Coal Company, who has accepted the miners
offer and insists that they permit his mines
to operate, regardless Of contracts with the
other members of the competitive district.
1t was supposed that the question would
be suggested in the general convention
called by President Mitchell for o O'Clock,
and many of the delegates wanted TO talk
over the matter among themselves. It
developed that the miners OF Ohio and
Illinois, the former led by Lewis and the
latter by Ryan, were almost to a man op-
poeed to letting Robbins work his mineay
the main reason alleged being shat riots