The Washington herald., 1919-11-15
DECISION IN COAL
CONFERENCE MUST
BE MADE PROMPTLY
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ries and the sources of the attacks
should be assumed to have been
exhausted.
Hints ut Higher PRICE.
Then Secretary Wilson made a
statement which foreshadows a pos
sible raise in the price of coal by
sufferance Of the government as one
of the logical and inevitable results
OF the conference. After stating that
The people of the United States are
not "shylocks" and pointing out that
r,ineTs' wages have increased from "a
to 50 per cent as compared to a gen.
eral increase In the high cost of liv-
ing Of 70 to 70 per cent, Secretary
Wilson said:
The United States government, as
a means of protecting its people
against profteering. has imposed a
maximum selling price of coal. 1t has
no desire to retain that maximum
ice at the figures set. IL retaining
that maximum price at those figures.
does an injustice to The miners or to
anybody else; but it will not consent
to an increase OF the selling price of
justice to the consuming public"
Secretary Wilson's recommendations
for procedure were set forth by him
as follows:
Three Courses Open.
There are three ways by which
a mutual arrangement can be arrived
at. The first is the selection OF a wage
scale committee OF operators and
miners representing each of the fields
who would proceed to agree upon the
basic rates within their respective dis
tricts. allowing the matter of detail
to be worked out by the districts
themselves.
The second method would be by
each of the districts going into con-
current conference with equal powers
to arrive at adjustments: and the
third would be to follow the old pro-
cedure of having the Central Compe-
titive Coal Field work out its ad-
justmnt and take that as a basis
upon which the other fields would
proceed.
ITO have a concurrent system of
adjustment would mean that in each
of those conferences the operators
and miners, not knowing what the
other districts were going to do.
would have difficulty in arriving at
conclusions.
by the old method the ADJUST
'rent in the Central Competitive
Coal Field would not. under the eX-
t-tinG circumstances. carry an nd
Iustmcnt in the outlying fields and
he same spirit of unrest would
'"ntinue in those fields after the
,-rtral Field had arrived at an
understanding.
Consequently. l desire to recon-
end to this conference that wage
ale committees. representative of
rll of the fields. proceed to neGO-
tiate an adjustment. and, in doing
that. l want to say that prompt
action is necessary. As long as
your troubles are local in their char
scter, as long as your disputes only
affect a small part of the commu-
nifty. there would be no general dis
position to hurry you in the consid-
Grafton of the questions involved.
But when your dispute takes on the
magnitude that affects the very So
cial and Industrial life of the entire
r. country then the people at large are
justified, as a matter of self-protec-
tion and self preservation, in insist
ing that you shall come to a speedy
determination of the difficulties that
you have had" '''-'--'
Operators Confer.
The operators held a two-hour ses-
sion without coming to an agree
ment to accept Secretary Wilson's
recommendation that the conference
proceed through a Joint wage scale
committee representing all of the
fields. A number of operators are
opposed to this plan. and would prefer
to negotiate on a smaller field. leav-
ing the decisions of the conference
to be followed in tine outlying fields.
with such local notifications as
would be justified. The operators will
try to reach an agreement on the
secretary's recommendation before
tomorrow mornings session
The miners said tonight that they
would present their views on the
recommendation to Secretary Wilson
before making a public announcement.
The miners, in general, are not op-
posed to entering into negotiations on
the basis of all the territory involved
in the different coal fields.
There is some question as to whether
the conference will take In represen-
tatives OF operators in the non-union
coal fields. A number of these So
called nOn-union operators are now
here. This matter will come up at
on early point in the conference