The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1914-04-23
FILE SUIT TO TEST
THE M|NE-RUN ACT
Ohio Coal Operators Take
COnstitutiOnaIity of Green
Law to Federal Court.
ONE OF THEIR CONVENTIONS
Hold Statute Is Stumbling Block In
the Way of Breaking Deadlocks
Between Miners and En-
pIoyers on Settlement
of Wages.

Cleveland. - Suit to enjoin the
state industrial commission from max.
ing an investigation of coal mines
| as provided for in the Green anti
screen law was filed in the federal
courts here today by Ohio coal oper-
ators. Walter R. Woodford, president
Of the Eastern Ohio Coal Operators
association, said Wednesday it will re-
suit in a court test of the constitute n
ality of the Green act. The law sub
stitutes the run-of-mine system for the
screen system of paying miners. 1t
has been, operators say, stumbling
block in the way of breaking the dead
lock between miners and operators on
a wage settlement.
After an all-day meeting Wednesday
IL operators. members of the commit
tee appointed recently to take charge
of the suit, unanimously approved the
move, employed counsel and ordered
the suit filed at once. Wallace D.
Yaple, Mathew B. Hammond and
Thomas J. Hammond, members of the
state industrial commission, are
named defendants in the action, with
the Rail & River Coal Co. representing
the operators as plaintiff. Counsel for
the operators declared the attorney
generals Office at Columbus has agreed
to cooperate.
Granting of the injunction by the
court would prohibit the industrial
commission from making an investi-
cation, and thus prevent it from max
ing any report in accordance with the
mine-run law provision Attorney Dus-
tin of operators counsel practically
declaring the unconstitutionality Of
the Green law. A permanent injunc-
tion suit would then be fled he added.
Two federal district judges and a
judge of the supreme court of the
United States or a circuit court judge
ings of this kind Mr.. Dustin said that
the retirement of Judge Day May
possibly will delay hearings of tho
preliminary suit for a short time, but
an early decision is expected owing to
existing conditions in the coal mining
industry.
In the petition the Rail & River Co.
charges that the Green anti-screen
law is unconstitutional, violating the
fourteenth amendment of the federal
constitution, in comforting power on
the industrial commission to prescribe
the percentage of fine coal and inter
fering with the personal rights in con-
tracts between the miners and oper-
ators; that the act is not within the
police powers of the state and that the
plan providing for fixing the quality
of the coal is wholly impracticable.
The Ohio constitution, as amended
in 1912, attorneys say, expressly au-
thorizes legislation providing for the
payment of miners on the mine-run
basis, this necessitating filing of the
suit in the United States court.
1t is also charged that, by reason
OF the severe penalties imposed for
violation of the Green law, it denies
equal protection to the operators, as
insured by the fourteenth amendment.
Three hundred to six hundred dollars
is the fine imposed for each offense ia
violation of the law.
The plaintiffs ask that members of
the industrial commission be enjoined
from trespassing upon the grounds or
premises of the coal company in COM
pliance with the law creating the COM
mission and giving it jurisdiction over
all mines in the state.