Gilpin observer., 1907-08-15
WYOMING MINERS WIN VICTORY.
HIoksr Wages and Better. Hours Bring
Dove Of Peace.

Dove OF Peace.
Cheyenne, Wyo.-Permanent peace
in Wyoming coal fields.
Eight-hour workday effective Sep
tember /, 1907.
Wage increase of approximately 20
per cent more for eight hours than
formerly paid for ten hours work.
Improvement in working conditions
all along the line.
Companies to furnish the check-off
men, insuring union control of mines.
Increase affects 10000 men.
Wyoming fields completely organ
lied. the southern fields always having
been non-union.
These, in brief, are the terms of set.
tlement agreed upon at the joint con.
vention of members of the United
Mine Workers of America and the op.
orators, representing every mine in the
Wyoming district. 1t is one of the
greatest victories ever achieved by or
ganized labor in the West and puts the
Wyoming miners on the same basis as
the well-paid fields of the middle and
central West and the organized fields
Of the far East.
It is also another tribute to the di.
plomacy of the president of the min.
,ers, John Mitchell, and their district
leader, Thomas Gibson, who, together
with ). j. Hart of the southern Wy
oming fields and James Gridley Of the
northern, composed the final sub-com-
mittee that brought about an agree
ment satisfactory to both sides. The
negotiations lasted four weeks, and at
no time has there been danger of
break.
]. ]. Hart, representing the Union
Pacific mines and employing about
5000 men, has done for the miners
of southern Wyoming what no other
mine manager has done for twenty
years in that field, and he has acquired
the reputation of the great compro-
miser."
The scale committee on both sides
was pared down several times in Or
der to expedite the work.
The miners of the northern fields
have been organized for some time, but
the agreement is the first that has
been entered into in the southern
camps for nearly quarter of CEN
tury. While the contract only runs for
a year, 1t has paved the way for per-
manent peace, as the demand for Wy
oming coal is so great that there is no
oou6Si VI SuutuOWuS Ut tuo HeCeSSlty
Of reducing the force or the mems
wages.
The increase applies to every man
who works around the mines, both as
to hours and wages, and the working
conditions are changed. so that the
men will have vastly improved condi-
tions.
Wages will be added to the rolls
that will amount to hundreds of thou
sands Of dollars each year, and it
means prosperity to Wyoming miners.
1t puts them on the same plane as the
Montana fields and leaves only Vir-
ginia and southern Colorado miners
working under conditions which in
some instances are considered by the
miners leaders fit for dark age days.
The 20 per cent is figured as an av-
erage, as the increase varies in the
different fields, and in different classes
OF work. In some instances demands
were made that represented an in
crease Of % per cent. and these were
granted. Other workers were in
creased 10 and Is per cent. and every
employe, from the smallest boy to the
hardest miner, comes In for some sort
of a raise.
The eight-hour day and the addition
OF the check-off men in the company
office are the two features that the
men fought the hardest for. They sue
ceeded in having the eight-hour passed
in Wyoming. but 1t was doctored so
thoroughly that the first time 1t was
put to test it was declared unconsti-
tutional.