The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1917-07-21
HERE IS FIRST
STATE mENT OF
! N. WIS SIDE

started the Bisbee trouble:
Abolition of physical exam
nation.
Two men to work a drill
ing machine.
Discontinue all blasting
during shift.
Abolition of all bonus and
contract work.
To abolish sliding wage
scale. All men underground
to receive a minimum flat
rate of SO shift; top men
$3.50 shift.
No discrimination to be
shown against members OF
any organization.
The strikers maintain that the
physical examination, which they
wished to eliminate, is merely {
form of black list.
Mine owners declare, however
that this examination is necessary
because of the workmen's com
pensation act and on account OF
the hospital fee arrangement.
Smoke Stirling.
The striking workers declar,
that if mine officials consider s
man an undesirable" they tele.
phone the examining doctor, and
the applicant for work fails ID
pass, regardless of physical fit.
ness.
The exiled miners here say the
smoke from blasting while a shift
is at work is so dense the men can
scarcely breathe; that they come
to the surface with bursting head
aches and that in time their health
is ruined. They also claim 1t ID
a two-man job to run drill, but
the company has been forcing one
man at the job.
The bonus and contract work.
which the Bisbee companies estab-
lished as an urge to speed up pro-
duction of ore, is unfair to the
miners as a whole, the exiles con-
tend.
Sliding Scale.
Under the present arrange
ments, Bisbee miners are paid by
a sliding scale which fluctuates
with the price of copper. Just
now, with copper lowering around
80 cents a pound, the pay of the
miners is high. The strikers want
this sliding scale eliminated to
protect themselves agains' the
stump in prics expected IA case
the government takes over the
mines as military necessity.
They are holding out for a flat
wage of Sc for an eight hour shift.
The exiles declare that Bisbee
was entirely orderly at the begin
ming of the strike; that bootleg
ging had been stamped out and
no violence of any kind attempted.
Until Sheriff Wheeler inter-
fered and deported us, the Bisbee
strike was the most peaceful ever
said Chairman Webb.
Walter Douglas, head of the
Phelps-Dodge properties, one OF
the biggest companies operating
at Bisbee, claims that, altho q
shift is eight hours long, none of
the men works more than six
hours. They gain two hours a
day, he says, in being lowered and
lifted to and from work, at lunch
and rests during the shift.
Ultimate Program.
Douglas also declares that II
was not the purpose of the strik-
ers to abide by their present terms
in case they won their demands.
Had they been successful, he says,
they would have tried for a six
hour day and would eventually
demand practically partnership
basis with the operators.
The /. w. w. leaders here assert
their ultimate program is: The
of workers not by
crafts but by industries. An in
democracy in which en-
ployer and employed meet on an
equal basis in the division OF pro-
fits and the sharing Of labor. The
abolition of wages, assuring an
between hired man and
boss, a partnership between en-
ployer and employed.
Every /. w. w. is pledged to
support this program until its
success is achieved.
Sabotage, they claim, is merely
means to an end-a way of fore
ing employers to recognize the I.
w. w. as labor force.
The time will come, they de-
clare, when sabotage will have
served its purpose and will then
be eliminated from the l. w. w.
program.