Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-20
REPORT ON
WAGE SCALE
is FAVORED
RATIFICATION Is URGED BY
JOHN MITCHELL
IMPORTANT SECTIONS ADOPTED
BY MINE WORKERS
-
Signing Of Wage Scale by Districts Is
Approved-RetirIng President
Makes an Appeal His
Vaiedictory
BY Associated Press.

by Associated Press.
| INDIANAPOLIS, March 19.-The ma.
tional convention of the United Mine
| Workers of America spent the entire
day discussing the report of the scale
committee, adopting all the sections
considered with amendments, All prop
osttions to change the report were de-
feated by decisive votes. The last
seven sections will be discussed to.
morrow morning. when the convention
will adjourn. They are of minor inn
portance.
The scale committees report. which
was submitted yesterday afternoon,
recommended that the miners be al
lowed to sign a new wage scale with
the operators by districts, the mini
mum demand to be the present wage
scale and conditions and local differ
ences to be adjusted by the district
conventions. The adoption of the re-
port will practically continue for an
other year beginning April 1 the same
conditions that have prevailed during
the past two years with the exception
that the operators must sign by dis
tricts and not individually.
The first question raised in the dis
cussion of the committee report today
was whether districts would be per-
mitted to sign a scale with the oper-
ators prior to April 1, when the pres
ent scale expires.
1t was stated by members of the COM
mittee that such was intended to be the
tenor of the report. Amendments were
offered to make the minimum price OF
inside day labor S2.56 and outside day
labor 1886 Secretary Wilson opposed
the amendments. He said if districts
No. 2, IL and sc Central Pennsylvania
West Virginia and Southwest Ken
tucky) wanted a strike they might as
well say so at once rather than to do
the same thing in an indirect way by
adopting the amendments.
Vice President Harrington of the
Illinois and Vice President Clark of the
Pittsburg miners favored the commit
tee report and opposed the amend
ments. The amendments were lost by
a decisive vote.
The argument over the relative
merits of the policies of signing by
districts or rehabilitating the inter-
state agreement brought to the sur
face the differences between President
Mitchell and the vice president, and
president-elect, Lewis. Secretary Will
son said the interstate agreement had
ended when Operator II. II. Winder
had moved to adjourn the interstate
wage conference sine die two years ago.
The report favored the next best course
TO pursue. Mr. Lewis retorted by say
ing the miners had taken part in dis
integrating the interstate agreements.
This indirect reference to the policy OF
President Mitchell in joining with the
Western Pennsylvania operators IN
signing scale two years ago brought
Mr.. Mitchell to the floor i'm support OF
the committee report. He said few
delegates had expected a unanimous
4 q 1aH xsfa c
true there We're differences OF opinion
as to the policy in the committee. The
result was a compromise. He said the
report did not reflect the exact views
of President Lewis. who reported diff
ferent opinions. But the decision was
a course that it was thought was for
the best interest for the greatest num-
ber so far as it was deemed possible to
attain.
"In this. my valedictory," said Mr.
Mitchell 81 want to say there are no
serious differences in this. organiza-
ton. 1 urgently ask you to ratify this
report We may have to fight, but we
have fought before. / ask you to adopt
this policy and ratify the report. II
may not be satisfactory to you all or
to the miners at home. We believe 1t is
for the best interest of this organiza-
tion. In closing l ask you not to defeat
any part of this report"
President Green of the Ohio miners
favored national suspension when cir
cumstances justified and when there
was reasonable hope for success. He
believed the unorganized miners of the
country would never be brought into
the union except by successful ma
tional strike.
The report of the committee author
izing signing a wage scale by districts
in the central competitive field, which
had caused the most discussion at the
morning session, was adopted after re-
cess by almost a unanimous vote.