Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-05-14
M 'CORM|CK LABOR
RECORD AssA|LED
Michael J. Ryan Says Things About
Coal Mine in Which He
Was Interested
DAMAGE SUIT INVOLVED
Says That Harrisburger Is Not One
to Trust With Workmen's
Compensation Law
DAMAGE SUIT INVOLVED

Serious charges against Vance c.
Mccormick, candidate for the Demo-
cratic nomination for governor, in con-
nection with mining operations were
made last night at Uniontown by
Michael j. Ryan, rival of the Harris
burg man for the nomination. They
were declared by Mr. Ryan to relate
TO coal company in which McCor-
mick was an active spirit.
In his speech at Uniontown Mr..
Ryan said in part, according to the
Philadelphia Record
Mr.. Mccormick was the general
manager, director and organizer with
Senator Cameron, of the Sonman
smart Coal Company with their mines
IN Cambria county. He was in close
touch with the operation and familiar
with the conditions at the mines The
hoisting cage that carried the miners
from the pit to the mouth of the mine
was negligently defective. In 1909
this defective cage fell and five min
ers were killed-Adam Konko, Ralph
Rttchie, James \McAIlister, Edward
Holleran and Oscar Krokel. Three of
the men were fathers of families, and
two of them helped to support their
aged parents. Notwithstanding re-
Mccormick refused to make any set
tlement with the widows, the orphans
or the surviving parents. The United
Mine Workers finally took the matter
up in behalf of the widows and or
phans and had actions brought in the
Cambria County Court
The case came on to trial and it
then developed that the lease which
Mr.. Mccormick, as general manager,
IN sol f,p III
der which the Sonman Shaft Coal
Company operated the mines and
was supposed to own them-contained
a clause setting forth that, should any
Judgment be procured against the
company and an execution be issued
against it, the lease hold would be
void, and there would be nothing left
to levy upon. BY this legal trick
recovery against the company would
be of no practical value, for 1t was II
corporation and there was no per-
sonal liability.
In addition it developed that there
had been created by the company
first mortgage, which was a prior lien
upon all the assets of the company
and which, If foreclosed, would wipe
everything away.
The disclosure at the trial of these
facts caused intense dissatisfaction
ana aroused intense resentment, but
the poor plaintiffs were powerless.
Finally, and as a last resort, the at
torneys for the three widows, the f1f-
teen little orphans, and the parents of
the single men, were compelled to ac-
cept the miserable sum of $4,000, to
be divided among them all in full set
tlement.
NO wonder with this example of
Mccormick generosity and justice to
his own stricken employees, the miners
of Pennsylvania cry out, We will not
trust Mccormick with a workingmen's
compensation BILL"
While Ryan was speaking in the
coke country other candidates on the
anti-machine ticket were speaking in
Bradford and Judge Eugene c. Bonni-
well delivered these remarks on the
question of Mccormick and labor:
There are in Pennsylvania 100000
workmen, comprising one-third of the
voting population of this Common
wealth. This host of men, alive to the
rights of labor, mindful of McCor-
mick's hostility to the union label,
which he contemptuously struck off
the Harrisburg Patriot the day upon
which he purchased it, his veto and
mayors message that 10 cents per
hour was enough for a laboring man
to earn, are sufficient to destroy the
remotest possibility of his election"
Speeches attacking Mccormick We're
also made at four Ryan rallies in
Philadelphia.