The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-28
SOFT COAL STRIKE is LIKELY.
JOINT COMMITTEE AT INDIAN
.APOLIS FAILS TO AGREE.

NtNNIN NNhVit - NhaN ~ . ~ 'hf
VIII BE Idle After Saturday Mitchell
says Miners Made Every Possible COn-
ceSslon in an Effort to Gain Peace.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind, March 27-By nov
ing that the joint scale committee report
to a joint conference of all the operators
that it had failed to agree, President Mitchell
took the step to-day for which the opera
tors have been waiting for a week past
and with the motion apparently passed
al hope Of an agreement. The motion
was promptly seconded by Chairman Win
der of the operators, and when the joint
conference met this afternoon 1t was the
general impression that the beginning of
the end had been reached and that all the
mines in the bituminous fields would be
idle after the close Of work on Saturday
afternoon.
This belief was strengthened in the joint
conference when the speakers began to
thresh over the old straw without finding
anything new to say on the subject AS
soon as the conference was organized
President Mitchell moved that the scale
of 1853 be adopted. President Robbins of
the Pittsburg Coal Company voted with
the miners, but the operators OF Indiana,
Illinois and Ohio voted against il and the
motion was lost. The ~"standpat" opera
tors then moved that the scale now in force
be adopted and remain in force two years.
Robbins now voted with the other opera
tors but the miners voted solidly against
the motion and it, too, was lost.
President Mitchell had prefaced his
motion with a statement to the effect that
the miners had made every possible CON
cession to secure peace, that they were
cognizant of the great responsibility that
rests upon them and he hoped that the
operators had agreed among themselves
and were ready to second the efforts OF
the miners organization to maintain the
relations so long existing between the two.
Mr.. Winder declared that the offer OF the
present scale was all that the operators
could do and even that was too much, con-
sidering the present condition of the trade.
Vice President Lewis referred to the
report that the miners might make a scale
with Robbins. who offers to sign the 1903
scale, and conduct a strike against the other
operators. Lewis declared emphatically
that the non-union men employed by the
Pittsburg Coal Company would not be
permitted to work on any scale that was not
agreed to by all the operators. This state
ment was taken as authoritative, coming
from the source it did, and there is no prob
ability that the bituminous mines OF Penn
~sylvania will he worked with the consent
of the United Mine Workers or as a result
Of any negotiations between Robbins and
Mitchell.
This statement was regarded as being
made to allay the opposition among tho
miners delegates to what they had been
told is a compact between Mitchell and
Robbins, and it is now certain that no
proposition for a separate scale with the
Pittsburg Coal Company will he proposed
from the miners side of the hall. Robbins
has not given up his fight by any means,
but reiterated this afternoon that the miners
would remain at work regardless of the
action of the convention. Il shall go before
the miners" said he, "and again offer the
1903 scale. shall demand that they operate
my mines. | have met their demands and
they will not dare to decline because some
Of the miners out in Indiana, Illinois and the
West say no.
THE mines of the Pittsburg Coal Com
pany and its allied companies in western
Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois will be put
in operation. The men will work. even if
l1DSt III llltSt lLt plaAt0 " w IpIh Niitlil
out"
There was talk to-day Of submitting the
differences over the scale to arbitration
the operators and miners each TO appoint W
men and President Roosevelt a fifth, but
no operator could he found who would
father the plan. President Mitchell is
said TO he expecting some wore from Presl-
dent Roosevelt some suggestion upon
which peace may be made-brt neither
he nor any operator so far had heard any
thing that will justify the belief that the
President will interfere. Tho operators
say that they are able to cope with the
situation and hope that the President will
not feel called upon to mix in a controversy
that will adjust itself if left to itself and
may grow worse under injudicious handling
by outsiders.
Leading operators predict tonight that
the miners will either accept the present
scale or finally reject it and declare the
conference dissolved tomorrow. This view
is based on the restlessness among the
delegates who want to get home, and upon
the great cost to the miners organization,
which can i'll afford the expense in the pre-
sent depleted condition of its treasury.