Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-01-20
Miners PRESIDENT
ANSWERS HOOVER
Says Any Industrial Conflict
Which Comes viii Be Due
to Operators
"WlLL DEFEND OURSELVES"
BY the Associated Press

ShamOSIn, Pa, Jan. Cove are
not staging any situation" said John
j. Lewis. international president Of the
United Mine Workers last night when
shown dispatches from Washington that
Secretary Hoover had issued a warn
ing Of an impending soft coal strike.
I'VE have NO desire nor inclination
to provoke an industrial conflict" said
Mr. Lewis. "If an? conflict comes
the responsibility will be upon the
operators who already have taken an
arbitrary position and are insisting on
a reduction in wages Immediately
without giving any consideration TO the
fair contentious of the miners.
eve propose TO defend ourselves
against this arbitrary attitude. We
have proposed the usual conferences
following the expiration Of the wage
scale"
The anthracite wage scale, which
probably will come before the conven-
tion today, Is being worked out by the
sub committee of the Wage Scale Com
mittee. Delegates expect il will carry
a demand for Is to 20 per cent in
crease in wages, uniform wage rates,
shorter hours for those men working
more than eight hours a day and the
check off
The convention acted on a number Of
resolutions reported from the Resolu-
tions Committee.
The only one that caused a division
provided that Congress be urged to
modify the Nolstfad act so as to per-
NIT the manufacture Of beer.
On vote Mr.. Lewis, who is presid-
ing. was unable to decide whether
motion to table the resolution had car
ried. A raising Of hands also looked
doubtful to Mr.. Lewis, and when a
division was called for by standing
vote and the motion was tabled and
the resolution adopted.
The convention went on record in
opposition to the Kenyon bill in Con-
gress.
Washington, Jan. CA nation
wide strike of bituminous coal miners
on April l now appears to be inevitable.
for Government agencies see little hope
of obtaining an advance settlement of
the difficulties between the coal opera.
tors and the miners.
Secretary of Commerce Hoover, who
has had several conferences with mine
union leaders, said yesterday ''the stage
is being set for n strike
Deplorable conditions in the soft coal
industry Brought about by the business
depression, increased transportation
costs and the over expansion of the in
dustrv in war time, Mr. Hoover in
dcated. were responsible for the sItua-
ton, which seems almost certain to force
ODprntOrS nnl miners 70 n hrpak NOT .
dissimilar to the one which caused the
bituminOus strike of 1919.
Government officials thus far, Secrs.
tary Hoover said, have taken no def
mite steps to meet the threatened con-
tingcncy beyond desultory conferences
with detached groups OF miners and
operators which have been in and out of
Washington recently. |
The twO-ycar wage contracts in the
bitumiLous coal fields. based upon the
award of the Bituminous Coal Com .
mission, appointed by President Wilson .
to settle the 1919 strike. will expire
IN March 81. and operators and miners
have served notice they will not be re-
lewed on their present terms. Decreased
production has cut into the operators
business TO such an extent that. despite .
high prices, they feel they cannot 60 on
ut the present wage scale, with the evi- .
lcnce before them that their industry .
vas over developed during the war.
Miners in the unIonIzed fields, which .
include the great central competitive .
ield Of Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, In .
ltana and Illinois, on the other hand,
nave suffered intensely from intermit-
tent employment, due to failure of the
mines TO operate i'll the face of no de-
mand.