Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-04-07
POLICE PREVENT
v. VA. MINE CLASH
Union Leader Urges Federal
Commission - Bituminous
Coal Famine Predicted
LEWIS ANSWERS WATKINS
BY the Associated Press

by the Associated Press
Charleston. w. Va. April State
police yesterday prevented a clash be.
tween mine strike sympnthizers and
non union miners in Wheeling. on the
line between Marshall and Ohio Coun-
ties. when sixty or more men on their
way to work were intercepted by strike
sympathizers. The non union men are
employed at the Benwood Mine Of the
Ilitchman Coal and Coke Comnany.
Arguments arose and were followed
by Kissing and angry words. but the
arrival Of Sergeant Hays with q de-
tachmcnt OF police stopped the outbreak
and the non union men were enabled to
go to work.
Clsrissburg. w. Va. April Try
! A. P.)--After receiving a false report
that an attempt was being made to op-
crate three mines in the Wyatt section.
100 miners congregated near the Pine
Bluff schoolhousc this morning and
marched to the holdings of the Kelly,
Clearwater and Dixie coal companies,
but found that operations were not in
progress.
Washington, April 7.--CBy a. P.)--
Miners union representatives. now on
strike in Central Pennsylvania, backed
up their national officers today In an
pcaring before the House Labor Com
! mittee to urge Federal attention to the
industry.
Our belief is that an industry which
gives only 100 days work n year needs
| a reorganization. John Brophy. presi-
dent Of Di%(c It No. 9. United Mine
",,l,. G.,l -.
must have the facts asccrtained by an
impartial Federal commission, which
will sit in the case of coal"
Restriction Of such bad practices rs
the opening of new mines by shocstring
Spectators. was said by Mr.. Brophy
to be desirable because there are now
too many mines and too many miners.
Mr.. BrOphy took issue with Il. II.
watkins. Pennsylvania operator, who
testified before the committee yesterday
as to wages.
approximately 81 900 miners in
Central Pennsylvania last year earned
S14.G1 a week or S2.OS per day for the
year. because there was hardly two
! days Of work week for them" Mr..
Brophy asserted.
Positive statement was made today
by the War Department that no army
airplanes had been ordered to patrol
sections in which the coal strike exists.
Pittsburgh. April 7.--(By A. PD-
Union organization work is spreading
in District ). United Mine Workers,
operators and union leaders are agreed,
though claims differ as to actual gains.
The union plans to invade more
strongly the coke fields of Fayette
County. it was stated, where the II.
&. Frick Coke Company. subsidiary of
the United States Steel Corporation,
has sixty plants.
New York. April 7.-(By A. PD-
Predicting that the Nation will be in
the midst Of bituminous coal famine
! in six weeks unless the present strike
is sett' ed, Philip Murray. vice presi.
dent Of the United Mine Workers of
must be blind not to see what the coun-
try is up against"
Statements defending operators in
, refusing to negotiate a central agree
ment with the miners union, made by
T. ii. Watkins. n bituminous mine
operator of Pennsylvania. before the
House Labor Committee at Washington
yesterday. We're attacked here today by
John l.. Lewis, president Of the mine
workers union.
Mr.. Lewis said Mr.. Watkins dec.
laratiOns SERVED merely to intensity
the confusion and bitterness now ex.
isting.'
Mr.. Watkins was quoted rs having
said that it would be financial sui
eide" for operators to enter any agree
ment with the miners net based on con-
ditions in each district; that econ
sumers have grown disgusted with the
constant failure to get deliveries from
unionized mines and that Mr.. Lewis
testimony before the House body had
! been very misleading.'
Mr.. Lewis replied TO Mr.. Watkins
| plea for negotiation of separate wage
contracts by districts when he said last
night, before the Central Trades and
Labor Council of Greater New York:
1T is not a far cry from separate
agreements between groups Of operators
and district unions to the Federal sys-
! TEN of individual contracts between op-
orator and worker. Organized labor
would then become helpless, he said,
! for it would have relinquished the prin-
cipc upon which it was founded, that
in union there is strength.
Cumberland. Nd. April Thy A.
PD-Operators in the Upper Potomac
region of West Virginia deny the claims
of United Mine Workers officials that
the strike Is effective in that territory
1t is announced that the miners In the
employ Of the Emmons Coal Mining
Company Mt Bayard, about 2jO in mum :
Der, decided by vote of to l to quit
the union and had returned to work at
the eighty cent rate. 1t was also report
ed at offices Of the Western Maryland
Railway that the mines had resumed at
OakmOnt. near piedmont.