Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-30
ANTHRACITE MINERS WIN
INCREASES AS PRESIDENT
SIGNS MAJORITY REPORT
NOTE ONAW4RD
GIVES APPROVAL
FROMPRESLDEINT
The White House. Washington.

August 80, 1920.
Gentlemen: / am in receipt of
the report. findings and award of
the United States anthracite coal
commission. and the minority re-
port thereon, and take this oppor-
tunity of thanking each of you for
your painstaking and Intelligent
application to a just solution OF
the difficult and delicate problems
You had TO deal with and the con-
SclentiouS manner in which you
have arrived at your conclusions.
While the adjudication of any dis
pute necessarily results in some
dlSappointmentS, / am sure that
the spirit with which you have
acted will receive the commenda-
tion of the great bulk of the Amer
lean people. l accept the conclu-
sions of the majority, within the
limits of it's jurisdiction under the
terms of the submission, as being
the award of the commission.
Protest has been entered on be-
half of the miners by Mr.. Thomas
Kennedy, chairman of the scale
committee of the miners. against
that portion of the award which
provides for the payment of back
money due in several payments.
That raises the question of wheth-
er or not the decision on that point
exceeds the terms of the submis-
sion. In a communication to the
operators and miners of the an
thracite wage scale committee
under date of May 21. 1890. I said:
Il shall insist that the matters in
dispute be submitted to the deter
minatlon of a commission to be
appointed by me. the award of the
commission to be retroactive to the
first of April in accordance with
the arrangement you have already
entered into" That was one of the
bases of submission and excludes
from the jurisdiction of the COM
mission the entire question of back
pay and it's manner of payment.
For this reason the last paragraph
of section G of the award on de-
mand No. 2 should be stricken out,
and the balance of the award ac-
cepted, printed and put into ef-
feet.
In the minority report Mr.. Ferry
states that he is submitting certain
documents and making them an in
tegral part of his report. If it is
the intent to have these documents
printed as an integral part of the
minority report, it would seem to
me to be manifestly beyond the
purview of the work of the COM
mission. These documents repre-
sent in part the miners side of the
controversy. So far as 1 am aware
there is only one reason for the
publication of them, and that is
to inform the public of the evil
dence that has guided the minority
in making it's report. am sure
that the minority member of the
commission does not desire to give
to the public the impression that
he had arrived at his conclusions
solely upon the evidence presented
by the United Mine Workers and
without giving consideration to the
evidence presented by the other
side. The publication of the docu-
ments referred to without at the
same time publishing the balance
of the evidence and arguments
would undoubtedly create that i'm
preston. If any of the arguments
and evidence is to be printed at
public expense, it should all be
printed. That would require sew
eral thousand pages of solid printed
matter and great number of pages
of tabulations. The cost of print
ing would be many thousands Of
dollars, for which no appropriation
is available. No one ever thinks Of
asking court to print the evidence
and argument on which it arrives
at its conclusions, but each side is
at liberty to print any or all of the
evidence and argument that it be-
HeveS to be to its interest to pub
lish. I can see no reason why that
course should not be pursued in
the case of a wage commission,
which is judicial body. If either
side desires the publication by the
government of the matter pre-
sented to the commission, it should
appeal to Congress for an appro-
priation for that purpose.
In directing these changes, which.
after all, are but minor matters. I
want to be understood as having a
high appreciation of the great task
you have performed and the splen-
did services you have rendered to
the country.
Sincerely yours,
WOODROW WILSON.
Messrs. W. o. Thompson, chairman;
w. L. Connell, Neal ]. Ferry,
Members, Anthracite Coal Com
mission.