The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-02-27
INTO THE BREACH President Roosevelt Again Steps in to Prevent
 a Great Coal
 Strike. LETTER TO JOHN MITCHELL
NOTES WITH CONCERN FAILURE
 OF LATE CONVENTION

Urges Miners Leader and Mir. Robbins
 as Joint Chairman of the Trade
 Agreement Committee of the Nation
 al Civic Federation to Further Ef-
 fort for SettIement--As Result Mr.
 Mitchell Calls Another National Con-
 ventIon of the United Mine Workers
 for March 15 to Try and Reach an
 Agreement With the Soft Coal Opera
 tors--Latter Sanction the Step.
 New York, Feb. 26.-President Roose- welt has again intervened as peace maker between the coal miners and operators and as the result of letter addressed by him to John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers of America, a national convention of the Mine Workers will be held March 15, to try and reach an agreement with the soft coal operators in the hope of averting the threatened strike of April l in the bituminous coal fields.
 The presidents letter and the an- nouncement that the national conven- tion would be called were made public tonight by MT. Mitchell, after a long conference with Francis L. Robbins, president of the Pittsburg Coal compa- ny, and chairman of the bituminous operators, who came to New York this morning, and other representatives of the soft coal interests.
 The presidents letter to MT, Mitch ell follows:
 White House,
 "Washington, Feb. 24.
 ''Sir:-I note with very great concern the failure in your late convention on the joint Interstate agreement to come ito basis of settlement of the bitumin- ous mining scale of wages. You in this businessh have enjoyed great industrial peace for many years, thanks to the joint trade agreement that has resulted in the action of your successive con ventions.
 "A strike such as is threatened on April is a menace to the peace, and general welfare of the country. I urge you to make further effort to avoid such a calamity.
 You and MT. Robbins are joint chairmen of the trade agreement com mittee of the National Civic Federation, and 1t seems to me that this imposes additional duty on you both, and gives an additional reason why each of you should join in making a further ef- fort.
 'Very respectfully,
 (Signed) "Theodore Roosevelt"
 The conference did not adjourn until nearly 8 o'clock tonight when MT. Mitchell announced that after the read ing of President Roosevelt's letter At was agreed both by himself and the operators that the national convention should be called. The miners were in session recently at Indianapolis, but failed to reach an agreement with the operators. President Mitchell himself has been quoted as saying that so far as he knew there would certainly be a strike in the bituminous fields April 1.
 The negotiations for an agreement between the hard coal workers and the anthracite operators have been pro gressing smoothly tosall outward pur- poses, and arrangements have been made for a joint conference Wednes- day between the subcommittee hav- ing the settlement of the difficulties in hand
 With the anthracite negotiations well under way President Mitchell has been deyoting most of his time recently to efforts to bring about settlement of the differences in the soft coal regions
 MT. Mitchell has not announced any details of to-day's conference, nor did he say just when the call for the con- vention which will fix the place Of meeting will be sent out March 15, he believes, is the earliest date the convention can be summoned and he believes that if there is to be peace the two weeks between the date fixed for the miners assembly and April 1, when the present agreement with the oper- ators expires, is sufficient time to bring about the desired result.