Evening journal., 1916-01-27

ran their factories. upon the labor Of
these men; and as winter was ap-
preaching, you recollect how the
peace OF some OF the great centers Of
population in this country was dis
turbed and how it was threatened by
this coal famine. IL was at the in
stance OF the wise men who conf
trolled the situation at that time-I
mean the wise men in the labor or
ganizations-whO took the lead and
with the assistance OF President
Roosevelt brought about an agree
ment to submit to arbitration the
points Of difference between the min
ers and those who operated the mines
or owned those great coal deposits; /;
and Mr. Gompers and Mr.. John Nit
chell were foremost in bringing about
that arbitration.
Notwithstanding all the bitterness
that was evolved necessarily in a
strife OF that kind-the bad blood that
was created naturally where contro-
versies between men occur Of such
magnitude as that. the moment that
arbitration was constituted and made
certain, the whole anthracite field be-
came as quiet and orderly as a Sunday
school picnic. You could have gone
from one end OF that to the other and
would never have heard a loud or
angry word. Work was resumed as
soon as the arbitration committee OF
seven men took their seats and COM
menced to give a hearing to both sides
OF the conflict.
'Let me toll you something. II is
not personal. because there is nothing
personal in the matter as I look back
upon il, but I do look back with pleas
ure upon the development of one feat
ure Of the hearing. and that is the
fact that there is I'm human nature
whether i'm coal miner or coal operator
whether employer or employe-the
same great common instincts Of our
nature When the kind, peaceful
word is spoken there is a response in
the hearts Of those who we're a short
time before combatants to the death.
CApplause) II you will bear with me
moment, I think the retrospect is
worth having Just now, as the toast
to which I have been assigned is
Arbitration il 7 tell you Of my ex-
perienoe In our first hearings IN the
city OF Scranton.
"The labor side of that controversy
was represented by a staff of able
men. John Mitchell was their head
Capplause) and there was no abler
man in that great room on either
side among all the 20 or 80 lawyers
that represented the coal miners. Cap
plause.) When we first met, they
separated on different sides of the
room and looked askance at each
other-taking the measure of their
opponents. And so il was for a day
or two. but as the nearing I'm Scran.
ton went on for six weeks. towards
the latter part of the time, insensibly
! hardly knew how, i'm the mornings
when we would come in to take our
seats behind the desks, Mitchell and
his lawyers and the heads of his
union were standing around him like
the STAFF around a general on the bat
tleheld. looked over TO the other side
and said Good morning Then the
other side came over and shook
hands, and the glad hand was given
on both sides every morning after
that
/ "They believed at last that they
were going to have a fair hearing
that each side TO that controversy
would be heard 10 it's uttermost zap
plause) that no argument and nc
Facts that bore on the merits of the
case would be suppressed or turned
out of court.
1--WE did not apply the rules Of evi
dence that exclude immaterial testi
mony We gave full swing 10 al
that the miners had TO say and al
I that the operators had to say; anC
they wanted TO say. and did say, g
great deal. There was a good dea
{ that was very interesting, great
many things that were very tragic in
/ the hardships that were endured by
men who were deprived of work, who
had families to support. and for 81,
months were in that region, not know
n ing exactly what the immediate fu
! ture before them was. But there
were some humorous things about it
| There were some lives lost. There
was a little dynamiting. But as ] sa
\ here a while ago I recalled when Johi
Y Mitchell was on the stand-and h'
was on the stand for two or three
i days-and he was turned over TO
i cross-examination to one of the ables
lawyers I'm the country, the Hon
4 Wayne MacVeigh. of Pennsylvania.
u After cross-examining him all on
morning he never got fall out o
z Mitchell. He was very deliberate
e and finally he said to Mitchell. afte
reciting some of those charges of un
! pleasant things such as houses o
, non-union men had been dynamited-
o he said: Mr.. Mitchell. what do yo
7 say for a movement or for an orgar
ization that can be responsible 70
|, outrages like that He paused befor
u he replied. Mr.. Mitchell waited 70
q a moment or two and then said: M
y MacVeigh. don't you suppose that
/ $4,000 lawyers were confined With
IT a space no larger than the anthr,
h cite region for six months. with notl