Arizona republican., 1922-04-01
Official Washington
Convinced Immediate
Intervention is Futile
ERepublIcan A. P, Leased Wirol


WASHINGTON, March 31-Con-
vinced that every reasonable effort
has been made to prevent q national
coal strike in anthracite and bitum-
inous coal mines tomorrow, but be-
Heving that although these efforts
have been without avail, existing
conditions and surplus coal assure
price protection and current supply
for the general public, official Wash
ingtonians settled back tonight 10
await the event with considerable
calmness.
In a final White House discussion,
it was said, that the governments 8
long negotiation with the parties TO
the controversy and continuous study
of the industry's production volume
had convinced the administration
that immediate intervention. in legal
or extra legal ways would be futile
and unnecessary. and that while the
future might sharpen the breach be-
tween employer and employe in the
mining camps, for the present even
action looking to the preservation OF
peace was unnecessary.
President Harding was urged to-
day by a delega ton representing the
Protestant Federal Council of
Churches OF Christ and the National
Catholic Welfare Council to make a
further attempt to get operators and
miners together and to set UP a COM
mission to adjust their differences.
At the White House, it was sald
that no action was advisable at TINS
time.
A house committee also was told
by Edward G. Tryon, coal production
statistician for the geological sur
yey. that $4,000 tons of coal,
equivalent to 51-day supply Tor
every consumer. was in storage at
this time. These stocks. officials
estimate. will be supplemented IN
definitely by large outputs from non
union fields in West Virginia and
elsewhere. Operators asserted today
that miners would pay no attention
to the union attempts TO have them
cease work.
No White House Action
Labor department officials also
we're interested in reports from union
fields i'm western Kentucky, where, It
was estimated, that approximately
{. 900 miners were considering staying
on the job, under a local wage con-
tract, NOTWITHSTANDING the natlonai
| orders for walking out White House
views on the administration decision
to withhold present action, u WAS was
reiterated. have been formed py the
closest Of contact and study on the
part of the president and his aoVls-
which began long before general rec
! ognition of the strike danger. row
| ever. t.he churchmen, whose delega-
lion Included among others, Rev,
| Worth M Tippy, of the federal coun-
| ell and the Rev. Father John A.
| RYAN for the national Catholic coun~
/ cil said they had found President
! Harding sympathetic and CONSIDERED
| he would support any steps congress
might be induced to take to set up
machinery for settling the strike.
! Since last october, President Hard
ING personally as well as Secretaries
| Hoover, Davis and Mellon and other
! cabinet officers, have anticipated the
/ break and there have been 1ntermlt-
/ tent negotiations in the endeaVor TO
! bring the mine workers and the mine
operators. particularly in the bitum-
nous fields, into conference 70 uls-
| cuss wage agreements.
/ In October. operators in the central
competitive bituminous fields agreed
| after a meeting with President Hard
! ing to go into such a conference with
! the possibility of preventing a gen
! eral suspension of work.
Officers of the United Mine Work
ers, the union directly concerned,
were however, unable at the time to
agree to confer because a national
| convention of the union had to be as
senbIed to give them power to act.
Pennsylvania Blocks Conference
Later the convention was assem-
! bled, but thereafter. operators OF the
coal mines in Western Pennsylvania
particularly refused to go forward
| with the conference plan for reaching
a new semi national wage agreement
Although it is considered by the ad-
ministration that while the mining
| interests OF Illinois, Indiana and Ohio
the other states in the central fields
might have been induced to enter
another national wage agreement, tbs
refusal of the Pennsylvania contln-
fCortinued on Page TWO)