The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-19
Anxiety Felt in Mineral
 District. IF THE WAGES ARE CUT
 WORKMEN MAY GO OUT New Schedules May Compel the
 Reductions. Union Men and Operators Prefer to Continue Peacefully, But Outside Influences are Felt-Labor-
 CTS are Buying Am-
 munition and Arms.
BY WILL T. STEPHAN.

Birmingham, March 18.-(Special)- Causes from without the Birmingham mineral district, and over which neith- CT the labor nor capital within the dis trict has control, threaten for the sum- mer one of the worst strikes in tbe life of the district. The mine operators do not want strike: the miners do not want a strike; Birmingham would look upon another strike as a dire mis- fortune. but If the tarin bill Is passed through Congress. as It will be. and if the proposed reductions are made in the steel and iron schedules, wages will be reduced and when wages are reduced the strike is regarded inevit- able.
 The mine operators are convinced that if the district is let alone, the strike can be avoided. But if wages are reduced by the steel and iron com panies. they are prepared for a walk out and another battle between labor and capital.
 "If the Alabama miners are let alone there will be no trouble" said George B. Mccormick. President of the Mine Operators Association. "But if wages are reduced the strike will come. The miners look upon a reduction in wages as the first blow of the fight. They will need nothing else to start the trouble, notwithstanding the fact that they are not well prepared for strike and notwithstanding the fact that they probably can not get aid from the na- tional organization as they did last year"
 "w1ll wages be reducedT Mir. Me- Cormick was asked.
 ] Not by the Alabama operators of fhefr own initiative. and not if they lcan help it," he replied.
 twill the steel and iron companies reduce wages as result of the tariff 3egislation?" / "I am afraid that 1t is certain that khey will, he said. \ If the steel aud iron companies re- ,iuce wages will the other operators do the same?'
 "They will be compelled to reduce" replied MT. Mccormack. "As you may Iknow the profit of a ton of coal only amounts to 10 or IS cents for the mine operator. The steel and iron com panies are interested almost as much in coal mining as they are in steel and iron making. If they reduce wages they can mine and sell coal cheaper than the other operators who of a ne- cessity must follow with a cut. to keep their business. If there Is no cut in wages there will be no strike, but If there is cut I am afraid that the strike is certain"
 Schwab Promises a Gut.
 This talk was with MT. Mccormick
 
 papers on the streets contained a state ment from Ctslrles M. Schwab of the United States Steel Corporation, in which he announced that there would be cut In the wages of the employees of the company if the tariff bill is passed. The cut will mean as much to Alabama as 1t does to Pennsylvania.
 A leading department store of Birm- ingham has sold over l,400 Springfield rifles. stock of these rifles are in the window and they are still selling them. Most of the rifles went to min- CTS, white and black. They were rifles discarded some years ago by the Unit ed States Army. but which are proba- bly the most powerful arm for short range fighting that any army in the world has used. The rifles were put on sale at $1 .9S each. They went rap idly. Out of an original shipment of 1.500 the store now only has few left. A new shipment has been or dered
 Of the 1.40o and odd rifles already sold 1t has been estimated that no less than thousand of them were sold to white and negro miners. On the face of 1t, this would appear an ominous sign for peace in the Birmingham dis trict. It would appear that the min CTS are preparing for desperate offense and defense. But was assured by a level headed mine operator that there was nothing sensationally dangerous in this fact of the wholesale sale of rifles.
 "Of course the mine operators have been aware of this sale of rifies," he said. But we do not regard 1t as es- pecially significant. The miners have the constitutional right to bear arms. We could not stop them If we wanted to. But you must remember that dur ing the strike of last year every miner had arms of some kind. There was not y,,ln ha nt with some kind of a weapon. The miners had all the weapons they need ed. Their wholesale possession of weapons neither increased nor dimin- ished the strike trouble. They had Winchesters last year. If they prefer Springfield. why that is matter of choice with them. It would be abso- lutely impossible in our country, un- der our laws and under our Govern ment, to keep the miners from arming themselves. The s2 springnelds will not cause any additional trouble"
 had some talk with the peace and police officials of Birmingham on the subject of these same Springfields. They frankly did not like the looks of the thing. The men were not only buying the rifles, but they were buy ing plenty of ammunition at the same place. It might be all right but still 1t looked bad.
 Union LabOr's Loss.
 Union labor has been steadily slip ping backward in the Birmingham District in the past ten years. The labor leaders will admit this patent fact. It is estimated that of all the miners employed In the Birmingham district, only 16 per cent of them be- long to the union. However, a mine owner said:
 You cannot tell W~>h any degree of certainty what miners do and what do not belong to the unions. The mine operators do not discharge men for belonging to the union. although they refuse to recognize the union in the dealings and relations to the min CTS. We hear that many of the min CTS who pretend to have repudiated +N4 union are nevertheless In secret
 Vins dues and supporting the unions,
 this we cannot tell"