The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1911-06-28
LIFE AND MILLIONS
LONGEST STRIKE
Miners and Operatives at
Loggerheads For Four
teen Months
NHE strike Of the Westmoreland
county (Pa.) coal miners, which
remains unbrOken after four

county \fa.) coal mlueTS, Which
remains unbroken after four
teen months, has lasted longer
than any other strike in the history
of labor unionism in this country.
Over 10000 miners, living on an al
lowance Of $3.50 a week collected
through fifty cent assessments from
every union miner in this country and
forwarded from the headquarters of
the United Mine Workers of America
in Indianapolis, have been eking out
an existence amid the greatest vicissi-
tudes within a stones throw Of twen-
ty-eight of the richest coal mines in
this country without having swung a
pickax or lifted q shovel for over q
year.
AS for the n of the twenty
eight mines. they publicly made the
statement not long ago:
"We pay the state Of Pennsylvania
100000 a year in taxes, yet we
haven't mined a ton of coal for over a
year."
The mine owners in explaining their
refusal to arbitrate the strike or to
consent to the strikers terms say that
they are merely trying to manage our
own business in our own way without
Interference from the labor unions"
The Miners Side.
The striking miners, on the other
hand, say that for many years every
wagon of coal they have filled has
been unfairly measured by the COM
pany officials and that they have had
to work twelve hours a day instead of
the desired eight hours. They say they
have been obliged to patronize the
companies high priced stores and that
they have been discharged by mine
foremen because they refused to vote
a certain political ticket.
They say they were forced to bear
the cost Of the new explosives and of
the safety lamps which the companies
have prescribed in the mines during
the last two years. They say that they
held a grievance meeting in Green's
burg fourteen months ago to protest
against these costly prescriptions and
that a score Of the men who had par
ticipated in this meeting were dis
charged by the coal companies. They
say that they felt that the only way
to protect themselves from continued
oppression from the companies was to
insist On the companies recognizing
their newly organized union.
The companies, on their side, retort
that the miners objections to the new
explosive and safety lamps are mere
pretenses and that the miners We're
all perfectly contented until delegates
Of the United Mine Workers Of Amer
lea came from the indianapolis head
quarters and began to talk unionism
in the region.
Since the $4,000 miners formally
struck in March, 1910, and marched
from n mine to another in the dis
trict calling to their fellows to strike,
too, there have been bloodshed and
misery a-plenty throughout the Greens.
burg district.
100 Babies Die.
Scores Of strikers, deputy sheriffs
and strike breakers have been beaten,
stoned and shot. Out Of the $40 ba.
bies that have been born in the EN-.
porary homes Of the miners since the
strike began 12O have died. The min.
ers themselves, having been dispos
sessed from the drab colored rows OF
wooden houses rented to them by the
coal companies near the mines before
the beginning Of the strike, have built
a colony of wooden shacks.
These shacks, according to persons
who recently visited them, are no
ever weather proof. They are bull
from whatever loose lumber the min
ers were able to pick up through the
district. Throughout the bitteres1
days Of the past winter they were