The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1912-02-27
OPERATORS AND
Miners CONFER
Unsuccessful Outcome Meeting
Begun Today May Precipi-
tate Great Strike
10000 MEN AWAIT VERDICT
More Wages and Better Working
Conditions Sought
Mine Owners Assert They Will Grant
No Concession and Walk-Out
May Come April I.

New York, Feb. 27.-Whether the
10000 mine workers employed In the
hard coal region will lay down their
picks and walk out on strike on the
| last day of next month, and by their
action inaugurating one of the great
est industrial struggles the .Cnited
States has ever known depends in a
great measure upon the results OF the
conference between the miners and
| operators begun today at the offices of
the New Jersey Central Railroad In
this city George +. Baer. president
of the philadelphia and Reading Coal
company, appeared at the conference
as the chief representative of the op-
orators. The committee to present the
demands of the miners consisted Of
John ID. White president Of the United
Mine Workers, and several OF tho 9TH
er national officers and district presi-
dents.
There has Deen peace in the an
.hracite coal field for nine years. The
present agreement, which has been in
force since the Strike Commission. APP
pointed by President Roosevelt in 1902
made it's report, will expire at mid
night on March 81 next.
Demands of the Men.
The miners have formulated demands
and declare they will strike unless
the demands are granted. AS the OPP
orators say with equal positiveness
they will grant the miners no conees-
sions. the outlook certainly points To
p,ncral strike on April /.
There are unique temptations to
trouble at the present time In the
FIRST place an unusual situation pre-
walls i'm that the wage agreements
in both the soft and hard coal fields
ixpire at the same time-then, too, il
is a presidential year. This gives the
mine workers organization strong
weapon. because by simultaneous ac-
ton i'm several mining regions the
leaders could create condition ap-
preaching a fuel famine.
The anthracite miners demand
wage Increase averaging 20 per cent.
an eight-hour day, recognition of the
union and incidentally collection by
the coal companies of the union dues
from the mine workers. abolition Of
the concilation board, payment for
mined coal by weight instead of by
the carload. one-year agreement and
minor concessions.
Operators Contentious.
The operators have not given any
official notice of their intentions, but
IL is well known that they haye no
intention of granting these demands.
While the mine workers argue that the
increased cost OF living has made nee
essary a wage increase, the operators
hold that the sliding scale created
by the Strike Commission I'm 1902 has
given the miners advantage of every
advance in the price of coal. and that
no fiat advance in wages is possible
under present conditions. The opera
tors admit that there has been an in
crease I'm the cost of living, but point
out that the mine workers are making
much better wages now because work
is more steady. They declare that
since the present agreement was first
made nine years ago there has been
no change in mining conditions; that
the demands, with the exception of
the one for an increase in wages, are
the same as those which the Strike
Commission considered and settled,
and that It is useless to go over them
again.
Political Influence.
The connection between the presi-
tial campaign and the threatened strike
is one of the most interesting phases
of the situation. The experience eleven
years ago shows that the connection
between the two is not an Imaginary
enc. IL has been well established by
testimony in open court that the dan
ger To the Mckinley Roosevelt ticket
in 1900 forced the operators hands
i'm that year. There was a strike on
then. and the mine owners were hold
ing their own, but the strike was
brought TO an end by a grant OF
10 per cent Increase i'm wages. II
was known soon after that the conser-
vative business interests OF the coun-
try, alarmed lest Bryan and free sill
yer should succeed, represented TO the
mine owners that a continuance of the
strike would endanger the Republican
-. "a.