The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-10-27
MINERS AT ACMAR
HAVE NO IDEA Of
/. GOING ON STRIKE
AT CALL OF OTHERS
Some Interviews With the
Men Telling of Their Con-
tented Condition-Will
Break Record On
November |
By ED d. ToRGERSON

BY ED d. ToRGERSON
Why should the miners strike in No
vember?
] The writer sought the answer to that
question among the men who toll in the
earth in st. Clair county.
Acton, Acmar and Margaret were the
camps selected, mainly because they are
camps where there isn't going to be
a strike next month
"On November L. said r. w. Hartley,
foreman of mine No. at Acmar, I'VE are
going to break the record for produc-
rtion that We set last Fourth of july.
Ihe boss told US then that Uncle Sam
/ reeded coal especially bad and asked
, us to dig our darndest. We did and the
4 output that day was bigger than it has
ever been on any day before at Acmar.
J were going to repeat that performance
| on November L."
But Foreman Hartley isn't telling this
| story.
| 1t was from the men themselves. the
grimy men who wiring their sustenance
from the coal banks down below, that
4 information was sought
I HAVE COMFORTABLE HOMES
For IA years coal has been mined at
Acmar, the little camp perched among
the st. Clair hills. This operation, as
well as that at Margaret mines and
that at Acton mines, is the property
| OF the Alabama Fuel and Iron company.
| with four slopes operated at Acmar
there are 700 men employed. 4, The com.
pany furnishes comfortable houses, well
| constructed and excellent in appearance,
| at a rent of IS month, whereas the
average house of this character rents for
Sl5 or $50 a Month in the suburbs of
Birmingham.
! An auditorium, with accommodations
| both for white and colored miners, is
provided by the company, and motion
picture entertainments are given three
times week
! Acmar has the proud record of having
gone over the top" in every Liberty
Bond drive Red Cross campaign or other
war fund solicitation
| Every employee gave a full days pay.
! regardless of his salary, for the Red
Cross, apd the sale of Thrift Stamps in
| this community of not more than 1000
| souls was $4,000.
So much tor Acmar's thrift and 10y
| atty.
AUTOMOBILES IN ACMAR
By actual count. there are IS automo-
| biles in Acmar. which should seem to in
| dtcate that in per capita wealth the lit
! tie town is seeking to rival the Pasa-
dena colony
John Jones, colored, who has mined coal
| at Acmar for nine years. recently owned
a twin-sx touring car, but he tired of
/ it and sold it. He hasn't figured just
What kind of car he will buy next
You never heard such whirring of
Fords as we have here on a Sunday
morning at Acmar, said +. NJ. House,
Who'll is superintendent of the four mines
there> %fts hard to get the boys to go
to preaching, for most of them are ST.
Clair county fellows, and they crank up
their Fords on Sunday morning and go
whizzing over the county somewhere to
! see the old folks"
| One wouldn't say that Acmar suffered
| the pangs of poverty.
| r. w. Hartley, who has a comforta BILE
income of $500 a month from his coal
mining activities in No slope at Acmar,
explained the philosophy of the miners
there.
| I'VE don't want to strike" said Hart
/ ley. because we couldn't be any better
| off any other way than like are now.
Miners around here have discussed it a
| lot. If we got a six-hour day <and a
| five-day week, even so per cent in
crease in pay wouldn't make up for the
reduction in working time. Practical
miners know that any such increase in
wages would mean the cost of production
| of coal would be doubled, here at the
mines And we've also got sense enough
ito know that if coal goes up 81 so or 81
ton. were going to pay part of that
/ increase ourselves. because every rag
we wear is manufactured with the power
that's made from the steam that's made
| from the coal we dig.
SOME UNION RULES
Were not union men out here We
used to be union men. pretty near all of
7 hot ;c
under union rules. If handful of rock
| fell on the track in front of US it was
against the union rules for us to sweep
| it off. We'd have to wait for another
mani to be sent to do that even if we
lost days work waiting The union
draws no color line. The vice president
of every local must be a negro. and there
are two negroes on every bank commit
tee that takes up grievances. Not that
we can't get along peaceably. with ne
groes-it isn't that for we do it very sue
cessfully here at Aemar-but nothing
| good ever came out of this union ar
rangement. If we, have grievances here
the company takes them up with us at
our regular welfare meetings.
| Another thing, the union doesn't rec
| ognize the years of service a man has
given to coal mining. I'm a man of IS
years experience, for instance II a
| green man comes along, just so he's a
member of the union, they send him
down along with me, and tell me he's my
'buddy'-that is. I've got to go fifty fifty
with him on all the coal I dig. You can
see how much good it does miner to
have experience, and to know how to dis
coal"
+ H. NJ Parsons was another who came
out with his lantern still lighted and
the dust of carboniferous ages smeared
over his face.
Lord. this is the first time | ever saw
a newspaper man out here. he mar
veled But you ask the questions and I'll
do my best to tell you what you want to
know
NEVER BEEN ON STRIKE
THE main thing is this-are you salts
! fed? Is there any grievance that. In
your opinion. is worth a striker"
Parsons teeth looked very pale when
his smile broke through the CRIME.
1T happens I've never been out on
strike.v he said. but l know of them
as has come out. Because weighman
and a check weighman had some warm
words one mine l know of shut down alb
solutely> once. Then, I've known fellows
to grumble about having to pay part OF
l their wages for the support of some min
ers in the next county who had struck for
l.