The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-04
Rid The District Of Men
 Who I1lt7an1e Passions
Many Good Men in Union Do Not Counenance Lawlessness and Do Not Even Know Those Who Are
 Guilty of Constant Offences.
BY FRANK V. EVANS.

, up, not until the smoke of every mine stack shall have died away, not until the destroying waters shall have filled every slope and every shaft will the mine own CTS of Alabama yield one iota from the position they have taken upon the ques- tion "Who shall master the mines?"
 This strike carries suffering in it's wake not so manifest now as 1t will be when the breath of old winter blows at cottage and cabin door. Already there Is a de- mand for fuel in excess of the supply. Even the locomotives with their confisca- tory rights calling for a rush of sup ply; already contracts for future delivery are being denied by operators. And the question arises: What of the winter months?
 This correspondent was asked the other day to ascertain from operators why the price of coal to consumers was not re- duced according to reduced cost of pro- duction. The answer comes that the present cost of production Is greater by far today than it has been in years; and that the rule of demand and supply must be applied always.
 I was talking today to an operator on this subject, and he said to me:
 q am offered every day 90 per cent in- crease on the price l am receiving for contract delivery; and If this strike con- tinues you are going to see the price of steam and domestic coal double as the fall and winter approaches"
 If this be so, it Is plain indeed that not only the idle miner but the public at large is to bear the brunt of this strike in more ways than one.
 Wage Scale. e9 The question of wage scale sinks into such utter inslgnifcance as compared with the demand for union recognition that q presentation of figures on this point are lacking in interest; but 1t may not be out of place to state here that a mine owner of Kentucky now on a visit to this, his former home. today made the following statement to me. Said he: Tn Western Kentucky we pay S5 cents per car containing SO cubic feet of coal, for mining. This is about 11s tons. The proposition is about the same as at Horse Creek, where they are paying 40 cents per ton On 26 to 3O-nch seam in East ern Kentucky they pay 561s cents. On the same size seam at Nawvoo, in Walker county, they pay 70c to 75 cents per ton. While one of the Kentucky mines to which I refer Is an open shop the other is union mine; and the scale is fixed by the miners union.
 Question of Safety
 Sp6dhltB OI lHlS COnteHLlOH you are having in this district' continued this gentleman, 'it Is fact worthy of note that before the United Mine Workers of l America were organized in 1894 the death 1 rate in coal mines in Alabama was one to about 300 900 tons of coal mined. After l the organization took hold 1t was one to about 5000 tons mined, and since they | lost control it has been one to about 150,- l GOO tons mined. Thus you will see that l in the matter of protection to life the | miners record is not par excellence" l The accuracy of the figures thus given are not vouched for by this writer but statistics are available, and would no doubt. bear my informant out in his ref erence.
 Certain it is that, in view of the em- ployers' liability laws of this state, 1t Is the policy of the mine operators to guard carefully the lives of miners, and by their own rules and control they would not hesitate to safeguard every em- | ploye