Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-02-27
UNREST IN THE COAL FIELDS


 MT. Taft may well pray to be deliv- cred from such a labor question as con fronted President Roosevelt, near the beginning of his administration, in the anthracite coal strike. Yet events are shaping themselves for renewable of that memorable controversy on some what different lines. The agreement that was reached between the miners and their employees, through the media. ton of the board appointed by Presi- dent Roosevelt, has been in force for six years, and terminates on April 1. Under it the miners have enjoyed ad, vanced wages, adjusted to the price Of coal by sliding scale, and their greiv- ances have been settled by a board of conciiation, which now has a clear docket. For the last six years there has been peace ill the mining regiors, where before there was constant agita- ticn and discomfort. It has been good arrangement for the public, and evident ly for the miners, but not for the min CTS union, the membership of which has steadily declined until it Is now but eighteen per cent of the total anthra- cite workers. In other words, the min CTS being protected by an agreement with their employers having almost the force of law have not felt tho necessity of organization. This agreement the mine operators are willing to renew on the old terms, but the miners union has a number of new propositions which will be urged upon employers, and which the latter now say they are unwilling to accept.
 Foremost among these propositions is demand for the complete recogni- ton of the union as the sole representa- tive of the workers in their relations with their employers. Accompanying this is a demand that the dues of the members of the union shall be collected by employers from the wages of the men, and paid into the union treasury. In addition it is asked that the griev- ances of workers be settled by confer ences between union committees and operators. thus abolishing the concili- ation board. The net result of all these demands, if they were granted, would be to unionise the entire force of ar- thracite workers, to vastly increase the prestige of the union, and to make it practically the controlling force in the mining regions. Instead of 3l, 900 mem bers, the present number, t would even- tually have 17o,0o0 members, whose dues to the union would be compulsorily paid and forcibly collected Of course, there are demands for increase of pay, for an eighthour day, and for other con- sessions of a technical nature, but the main point is the recognition of the union. Thus the contest which impends is really one for the aggrandizement of the union and for the establishment of its supremacy as bargaining authority in behalf of the miners. The recogni- tion now insisted upon was refused six years ago by the anthracite strike con- mission, that body deaiing with the workers as whole, irrespective of their afiliation With labor organizations. Since then the mines have been run on the "open shop' principle.
 The singular feature of the situation in the mining regions is that govern ment intervention should have. had tlie effect of greatly reducing the numbers and influence of the labor organization that was instrumental in bringing about the original controversy, but was not recognized as the sole party concerned | on the workers side, in the final settle | mert, and that the union officers should ! now be satisfied with nothing less than the total abolition of the agreement af- fected through government agency, and the substitution therefor of an agree | nent reached only by the parties direct y in interest represented on the one hand by the mine operators and on the other hand by the union. It is a most suggestive commentary on government mediation in labor disputes.
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