Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-18
Absorbing Theme of Conversation.

ADSOT DluS 1uene OIL OOuVcIsdIAou'
Everybody here thinks of nothing else,
talks of nothing else. but the possibility
Of a great strike. I have talked during
the week with miners, business men, la
borers, bankers. I have talked with that
half of Scranton which works in its silk
mills, it's button factories and it's hun
dred odd diverse industries. For. con-
trary to a popular notion, Scranton does
not depend altogether on its mines of
anthracite, although they are its great
est asset and source of income.
And l have not found one individual
who will say he believes a strike will be
averted All say they hope that April l
and the threatened suspension will be
to man If they think strike will be de-
clared, with equal unanimity they SOL
EMMY say yes, they do.
1t is q wonderful industry, this digging
of anthracite. The figures are appalling.
Just look at them. In that strip of an
thracite deposits, which ranges from one
to four miles in width, never more, and
which runs from a point eight miles
south of the city of Scranton to point
sixteen miles north. 10000, 600 tons of this
it brings at the mouth of the mine the
enormous total of $46,O00,0OO.
The mine owners of the city of Scran-
ton pay $1,OOO,OOO month in wages and
a month.
From Vein to Breaker.
1t costs from s1.45 to $2.45 per ton to
get the coal from the vein away down
under the earth to the breaker and in
marketable sizes ready for shipment, or
about an average of 81 per ton.
There is invested in machinery and
equipment, breakers, cars, etc, about
$12,OOO,OOO in the city of Scranton and
$37, 100000 in the valley.
1t is estimated that since the first mine
was opened in 1914, 1871 100000 tons have
been taken from under the city and not
less than 6OO.OOO,OOO out Of the valley
mines.
|. The deposits Of anthracite are three in
| number. There is a strip from Forest
City on the north down through Scranton
and Wilkesbarre to Shickshinney, dis
lance of about forty-six miles. This runs
from a mile to four in width. This is by
far the largest deposit, being about half
of all the anthracite there is in the state
and nation.
The second deposit lies in strip run
ming through Schuylkill, Columbia and
Northumberland counties, while smaller
deposit lies near Mauch Chunk.
The total area of the three strips II
placed together Is but 400 square miles.
mere speck,. relatively speaking, in
comparison with the rest of the country
which now in panic watches and waits
for the result Of the negotiations in New
York between the mine owners and the
officials of the United Mine Workers.
While nominally city of but $4,000
people, there are within ten miles OF the
Scranton City Hall 81, JSS men, women
and children. And If one takes the total
of S37 534, OG5.23 on deposit in the seven
teen banks of Scranton there is the tidy
per capita Of 81, 1880 for this large
population.
Miners Want a Rest.
And there is probably the secret of the
feeling that there must be suspension.
For ten years now these miners have
toiled. They want rest. From breaker
boys high up in their clouds Of choking
dust in the tops of the roaring breakers
down to the miners and their laborers in
the lowest levels, 1t has been year in
and year out Of this killing labor. Men
who were in their prime when the ia
nous Roosevelt peace commission made
its award and promulgated the agreement
which expires on April 1, after having
been twice renewed by mutual consent,
are now many of them bent and old,
now, many of them, certified miners
making from SIS to as high as $40 a
week in some cases-rare instances for
the higher figures.
Nevertheless, Sucn wages are some
times made. 1t all depends on the run
| of the mine With a vein of from four
| to six feet, and while such get scarcer
and scarcer, a miner can go to work at
Z am, and with any sort of luck get out
| enough coal by noon to net him clear
| from SIS to Sc for that days work. And
| a short distance away another miner
may drill and blast and pick from am.
| to 5 pm. and consider himself lucky ii
he gets half of that.
Duration of Daily Labor.
The miners frankly admit that they do
not average more than from five to seven
| hours in the mines the year around, one
Of the points raised by the operators In
the refusal to consider the demand for
fewer hours. They say that no human
being can stand it in the lower levels,
| with the deadly. foul air and working in
wet and cramped chambers, for longer
than that. They claim, too, that the de-
mand for an eight-hour day is for the
benefit Of what are known as company
men," which seems to mean everybody
other than the certified miner.
A miner is q sort OF little contractor
who, under the supervision of a mine
| boss, undertakes to mine a certain cham
Der. He does all the head" work. It is
up to the miner to look out for gas, to
precautions. He buys his own powder.
The laborer is nominally in his employ,
and, as a matter of fact, takes orders
from the miner. But since the strike
commission sat in 1902 the laborer no
Inn rrer gets his wra1ea from tho yniner