Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-02-15
SESSION IS ON Conference To-day By
 Coal Men. AWAITING OUTCOME Sliding Scale of Wages is One of the Conditions That Will
 Be Demanded of
 Operatorors.

i mission expires, will be held this af- ternoon. All the coal companies viii be represented and the interests of the employees will be looked after by the i special scale committee Of 36 which Is made up of the mine workers execri. tive board of three anthracite dis l tricts. President Mitchell is chairman of this committee. Among those who will attend the meeting are: Presi- dent George F. Baer, of the Philadel- phia X Reading Railroad Co: W. Il. | Truesdale, president of the Delaware, Lackawanna X Western Railroad Co; T. P. Fowler, president of the New | York, Ontario X Western railroad; +. D. Underwood, president of the Erie
 railroad E. E. Thomas, president of | the Lehigh Valley railroad; David Wilcox. president of the Delaware X. Hudson Co The independent opera | tors will be represented by Frank Pardee, of Hazleton. Pa and J. l.. I Cake of PittstOn, Pa. W. l.. Conneli, ! of Scranton, Pa, an independent oper-
 ator who is president of the anthra- cite board of conclliatioR, will also I be in attendance The Pennsylvania 1 railroad will not be directly repre- l sented, it not having been invited to l the conference. but will abide by any | action taken by the presidents or the
 other coal carrying railroads. In case l a technical discussion shall ensue af- I ter the miners have formally made
 known their grievances, the operators | will call in officials of the various co@i l companies who have practical know l ledge of the mining conditions. Among
 them are A. F. Law, manager of the Temple Iron Co: General Manager | Rryden. of the Scranton Coal Co; w.. | A. May. superintendent of the Erie railroad; Colonel k. A. Phillips, of the Delaware. Ontario X Western rail-
 road: c. c. Rose. of the Delaware x I Hudson railroad: $. B. Warriner, of | the Lehigh Valley, and w. !. Rich l ards. general mining superintendent of | the Philadelphia X Reading Coal X
 Iron Co. Messrs Warriner and Rich ards are members of the anthracite
 board of ,conciliation.
 A sliding scale giving all employees | an increase of one per cent. In com pensation for each increase of five
 cents in the average price of coal sold | in New York harbor above S4.5O a ton fob.
 Before they went into conference | to-day the operators and the repre- sentatives of the men were hopeful of | an amicable agreement. The costly I experience of both sids in the great | strike of 1902 has caused them to ap- | proach the present situation in a con | ciliatory mood. In order to avoid another contest and not disturb the | industry the operators are ready to make concessions in the way of cor rection of grievances that have arisen | during the life of the commissions
 award. This is indicated in the letter of President David Wilcox of the Delaware X Hudson company to Mr
 Mitchell.
 The attitude of the miners union | officials during the past week leads to ] the belief among those who have stud ied the situation that the men are so anxious to have an annua! agreement with the operators that they will not | insist upon all their demands being granted. While the union officials are 1 silent on the subject 1t is understood | that if the operators are reasonably liberal. from the miners point of view and an agreement is in sight the union | will not push the organization to the
 front and press for its recognition. The operators are unit against
 recognizing the miners association as at present constituted. They nave
 steadily refused to treat with NIT Mitchell as a representative or the organization. The strike commission, however, has been of the belief with
 suggestion of working agreement De- tween employers and employees em- bodying the doctrine of collective bay
 gaining contained many hopeful ele- ments for the adjustment of relations
 in the mining regions.
 The propositions to be presented to the coal mine operators by the union representatives today have not been made public but more or less accurate
 reports of their nature have leakei out. Iii has been learned from vari-
 ous sources that among the proposals to be submitted are those for an eight hour day without any reduction In
 wages for all employees paid by the hour. day or week; a uniform wage
 scale i'm the three anthracite districts
 for inc different classes Of employees: adeauate compensation for dead work performed by contract miners: | reconstruction of the board of concili- atiop: an increase in wages from 10
 to 20 per cent. for all company men;
 tbe adoption of system by which coal
 shall be paid for by weight wherever
 practicable. and the recognition of
 the union
 | The union mine workers in the an
 thracite region have never been en-
 tireiy satisfied with the award of the
 strike commission. The men gained
 considerable through the awari- but
 they feel that they dhi not rereive all
 they were justly entitled to. TBs
 principal awards made by the com.
 mission in 1sos briefly stated were:
 Ten per cent increase in wages foI
 all contract miners
 Esxht hour day without any resfuc
 tion in pay for engineers employed IF
 hoistinx water.
 Five per cent inrrease in wages fH-
 engineers and pumpmen othpr thar
 tbo~p engaged in tDi<ting water
 | Eight bour day for fremen without
 reduction fn wages.
 Nine hour day for aIl euPioyes paid