The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-04-10
OPERATORS ID PRESENT
 A COUNTER PROPOSITION
WILL DECLINE TO ACCEPT AR- EXPIRATION OF THE
 MINERS.

Have Been Working on Their Scheme
 Ever Since the Adjournment Last
 WeeIx-NEinOr Details Expected to be
 Completed by To-day When Their
 Answer Will be Made--Their Offer, it
 is Said, Involves an Arbitration Plan
 Very Different From the One Sug-
 gested by President Mitchell.
 New York, April 9.-At the joint con- ference of the subcommittee of the anthracite coal mine owners and thelr employees to be held here tomorrow, the operators will decline to accept the ar bitration plan as presented last week by the mine workers and will, in its stead, present counter proposition which. if agreed to by President Mitchell and his men, will bind each side for more than two years. The op- orators have been working on the new plan ever since the adjournment of the joint conference of last Thursday, and the inability of the presidents of the hard coal carrying railroads to com plete minor details caused a postpone- ment of twenty-four hours of the con- ference scheduled for today. The exact nature of the counter proposition was not made known by the operators and they do not intend to permit it to be- come public property until it shall have been presented to the miners.
 ;e, id b0uynyyop tbp 0ff1r inc wolves an arbitration plan very differ ent from the one presented by the min CTS; one that will call for the settle 1nent of only new grievances that may be found to exist, after an impartial Investigation has been made. The op- orators still maintain the position that the miners in their demands have not called attention to anything that has not already been passed upon by the anthracite coal strike commission
 There is a strong impression among the miners committee that the opera tors will propose that President Roose- welt be requested to summon the strike commission to review the entire con- troversy. They decline, however, to indicate how they would receive the suggestion. The committee Is familiar to a considerable extent, with condi- tions in the anthracite region and, therefore, would not have to go over the entire ground, as would be the case if an entire new set of men were select ed.
 The operators representatives were in close conference most of the day, and promise that unless something unfore- seen should occur they will be ready with their answer to the miners arbi- tration plan tomorrow. The reason given for the postponement was that the large coal companies desired to ob- tain the sentiment of all the independ- ent operators before they drew up their formal answer, and as some of the in dependents were engaged in exchanging views today in the upper Pennsylvania coal fields, it was deemed best to wait until they had taken action. The oper- ators, through a representative, said the general policy had been decided upon and that the minor details will be dis posed of at full meeting of the sub- committee tomorrow prior to the con- fereYce with the miners.
 The postponement of the conference until tomorrow afternoon came as a disappointment to the members of the miners general scale committee. The more than thirty members who had spenf Sunday at their homes returned here during the day fully expecting that the operators would be ready to proceed. A meeting fthe scale conl- nittee had been fixed for tonight, but the request of the operators for more time caused postponement of the meeting until tomorrow night.
 President Mitchell announced that the last of the bituminous coal operators in the Pittsburg district who had held out against the 1903 wage agreement, signed the scale today. This action, he said. clears up the western Pennsyl- vania territory and means that 40,000 men in that territory who produce from 25,OOO, 900 to 40,OOO000 tons of soft coal a year will receive an increase Of 5.55 ner cent in wages. This district which is known in tho miners union as No. E is the one of which Patrick Dollar who voted against the 1903 scale, was president.
 MT. Mitchell declined to discuss the situation in the other soft coal states where the miners are on strike.