The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1910-04-14
THE COMMITTEE
GOESfIO WORK
New Wage Scale Now Being Form
ulated for the Miners.
HOUSE RENT WILL CUT FIGURE
Settlement Of Contract May Take
Three Weeks and Possibly Long
er-No Coal viii Be Mined
In the Meantime.

lied by electing w. H. Rogers of OF
tumwa member OF the national board
chairman, Lawrence Love of Des
Moines, OF the operators, secretary
and Frank Cameron of Oskaloosa, OF
the miners, assistant secretary. A
motion was passed to take up the
scale question and change the date
from April l to April 10, when it goes
into effect for period OF two years.
In the luture hand picked coal is to
be placed on the same basis as screen.
ed coal in sub-District No. I. At the
noon adjournment this was being dis.
cussed.
The joint wage scale committee of the
operators and miners held their first
session today, following the adjourn
ment of the convention of miners and
operators yesterday. The work of the
committee will occupy a number of
days, after which their finding must
be reported back to the joint conven-
ton for ratification.
The Committee.
The members of the joint scale com.
mittee, with which the fate of the
coal industry OF Iowa for the next two
years rests, are:
For the Operators-John p. Reese
of Des Moines, David Denning of Gin
cinnati, E. NJ. Gray of Des Moines, l..
P. Love of Des Moines. l.. l.. Lodwick
Of Mystic, H. L.. Waterman of Ottum-
wa H. NJ. Shuler of Des Moines, H. H.
Garfield of Boone, A. G. Wfdmer of
Centerville, Elmer Baysoar of Bux.
ton, ]. B. Ryan of Colfax, Homer Zook
of Madrid and e. C. Smith of Des
Moines.
For the Miners--John P. White of
oskaloosa, William Baxter of Beacon.
Frank Cameron OF Hiteman. John
Cochrane Samuel Ballantine. James
Moran, w. t. Dodd Jacob Ritter. John
Gay, A. Swanson A. B. McGarry, H.
G. Street and w. Fl. Brown.
The way is now clear for opening
active negotiations for a new wage
contract. The old contract expired
on April 1 and every coal mine in the
state has been idle since that time.
Work will not begin until the new
contract is perfected and ratified by
the joint convention.
Must concede Advance.
First of all the committee will have
to conce4 the wage advance demand
ed by the miners before any other ne
gotiatons are entered into. II grant.
ed, the advance scale will be the ba-
sis upon which the other points of the
contract are to be worked out. There
is little doubt in the minds of the min
crs that the operators will concede the
advance and the committees time will
be given over to the settlement of the
other questions.
Foremost in the demands of the op.
orators which will be presented before
the committee is the mOoted question
Of the enforcement of the new con
tract on the part of the miners. The
retractiOn of their demand yesterday
was merely the transferring of the
fight on the enforcement provision
from the convention to the scale COM
mittee.
The question of house rent. that of
pay for deficient work and other i'm.
pOrtant issues will be threshed out in
the committee and will call forth tong
arguments from both parties.
No Binding Promise.
Victory for the coal miners was the
result Of the first skirmish. concluded
yesterday afternoon, in the fight with
the coal operators of Iowa for an In
crease Of wages and better working
conditions. The making of the new
contract which shall be in force for
the next two years is now in the hands
of the joint scale committee and no
binding promises have been exacted
from either side.
Continuing their demand that the
miners agree to make a provision for
the enforcement Of the contract be-
fore the scale committee should start
to work, the operators yesterday again
encountered unyielding opposi l o n
which brought about a deadlock, The
joint convention was adjourned al
1890 O'Clock and the, operators held
Il caucus and decided to, retrsct their
demand. At the afternoon session II
vas voted TO refer the enforcement
provision to the wage scale committee.
After the adjournment of the con,
7ention yesterday practically all OF
The delegates returned to their homes.
They will return to Des Moines at the
'all of the scale committee.
A settlement of the contract is not
expected for two or three weeks and
nay take month or more. In the
meantime the mine properties in the
tate are being cared for by the min
srs but not ton of coal is being
mined.