The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1920-01-16
What We Know About Miners and
: Don't Know About Operators.

] am enclosing herewith one of
your editorials in Saturdays paper
and desire to~call your attention to
the second paragraph. / don't agree
with you at all. / am a constant
reader of your paper and other daily
papers. | have never seen published
what you say every in the
country has printed-full particulars.
etc.
| have made diligent inquiry to
ind what the miners have been max
ing and no n knows. | fully un-
derstand the raise thew want, but
cannot find out what they are get
ting now, how many hours they work
per dav. how many days per week,
or whether they dig coal by the ton
or whether they work by the day or
hour. | would like to have this in
formation and am positive IS per
cent of your readers are as much
In the dark on this proposition as l
am. Will you tell us?
The above letter was written by one
of the best citizens in Mississippi,
a planter and merchant at Merigold.
That he does not agree with US
lessons not u esteem for him in
the least. The tolerance of The
News Scimitar for the opinions of
others extends further than to those
who subscribe to its views.
In order to make clear the VA
tention of the miners We shall go
back to 1916. In the 1916 o n
tract the miners were given ga cents
for pick mining; So tents for ma
chine mining, and $2.9S per day for
day labor. The average selling price
of coal at the mine was S1.25 per
ton.
BY mutual agreement a raise was
had in August. 1917. On Oct. oth'
1917, the so-called Washington agree
nent was effected. Including the
voluntary increase in August this
agreement brought the 64-cent rate
uE TO "a cents, the 52-cent rate up
to ~ cents, and the S2.9S rate up to
IS.
The pick men represent 80 per
cent of all men engaged in mine
work. Their wage increase was ~
Der cent. Machine men compromise
40 per cent of the total force, and
their wage increase was 80 per cent.
Day labor constitutes 27 per cent
of the total number of men, n their
wage increase was 68 per cent. Fort
yfour per cent was the average In
crease.
The same agreement fixed the av-
eraee selling price of coal at $40
II A. -~a- M lnnrnoSQ or Almost
100 per cent. In February, 1919,
the fuel administration lifted the
price restrictions. and since then the
price has gone to $500 a ton, MAX
ing the increase in price for the OPP
orators in the neighborhood of l30
per cent over the 1916 price. They
have absorbed the difference between
A per cent enhanced cost of labor
and the $50 per cent enhanced sell
ing price of coal.
Certain large operators in the un-
ion fields, where the mines are idle,
are said to be large operators IN the
nonunion fields. 1t is charged by the
miners that they are largely RESPONSE
BILE for precipitating the strike IN
order to reap enormous profits from
their nonunion properties during the
strike.
Figures for 1919 are not complete,
but those compiled by the Iowa State
officials indicate that the pay of the
Iowa miners from Sept 80, 1918, to
Sept. 80. 1919, was $3.50 a year.
Top wages for miners during the
peak production year of wartime were
$500 a year. This is the average
wage Of the Illinois miners during the
time when production was stimulat-
ed oy wal demands. Since the armis- |
tice the average working time of the
miners has fallen, they claim, to be-
low SO per cent of the possible work
ing time. This reduction of working
time is due to causes over which the
miners has no control. Lack of cars,
is but one of the number of causes.
The miners clothing and bread bill
is subject to no such period of lapse.
In the peak year, due to break
downs, and other emergencies, the
miners were able to work only 22S
DAYS. In normal times the average
number of days worked per year goes
down to $50 or 100. But in the
22S-day year the miners were able
to produce all the coal demanded by
industries running under wartime
pressure, and fill all demands for
bunker coal and pile up a surplus Of
$50. 900, 900 tons 4 great part of
the surplus has been sold. None of
it was sold for less than the control
price Of S2.45, and much of it was,
it is claimed, sold at So at the mine.
The miners claim to know that most
of the surplus was sold after the con-
troll price was removed.
Upon the unemployment shown by
the statistics the miners base their
claim for a shorter workday, in or
der that the possible amount of work
ing time may be divided evenly
throughout all the districts and the
mines.