The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-07-14
COAL SETTLEMENT
HINGES ON WAGES
Miners to Insist That Old Scale Stand
Pending Arbitration-Opera-
tors Oppose.

WASHINGTON, July 14-Requests
for many notifications of the admins
tration's proposal for arbitration of the
strike differences in the bituminous coal
fields will be made by operators and
miners in reply to President Harding.
The belief was expressed yesterday that
the miners would complete their replv on
Saturday, when the policy COMMITTEES
meets here, and that the reply of the
operators would be whipped into shane
at meeting scheduled for Sunday
night. If this program is carried out,
President Harding should have before
him on Monday the statements of both
sides
The reply of the anthracite operators
Is already in the Presidents hands, and
1t IS likely that q statement of the adj
mlnistrat1ons views Will be made Mon
day night or tuesday,
In the meantime, the coal situation is
daily becoming more complicated and the
strike of the shOpmeh mas made it more
serious. 1t was stated yesterday by an
official that production of bituminous
coal in the nOn-union fields would prob
ably drop to about 4 100000 tons the
present week, where a lew weeks ago it
reached 100000 tons. This reduction,
it was said was due largely to the CON
dition of the railways. There have
Deen udDy complaints OF u slowing
of the movement of coal trains.
The ma ior developments in the CON
troversy will come after the meeting of
the policy committee of the united mine
workers Saturday. when the miners will
determine upon the notifications to be
asked. One condition. it is understood,
will be that the committee shall be only
faet-finding commission to recommend
measures for reorganization of the in
duStry and that the old scale of wages
and working conditions shall be writ
ten into contract which shall remain
valid until the commission completes it's
work There are also reports that the
miners win ask to have the wage sched-
ules made applicable to all fields affected
by the strike, and possibly even to the
non-union field.
These reports have caused a stir
among operators of the non-union fields.
who assert that such a course would
increase the cost to the consumer by
S1.0G000 a day.
The operators are prepared to protest
against retention of the old wage scale
schedules for any considerable period,
even in the central competitive field
They viii ask that the arbitration pro-
posal be so framed as to assure adoption
of a temporary new wage schedule at
once. The wording of the proposal by
President Harding. which provided that
the commission to be appointed should
make a temporary wage scale to become
effective Aug. 10 and if possible the old
schedule should be continued after that
date if a decision could not be reached
by that time, is not acceptable to the
operators.
They contend that it would apparently
be impossible for the commission to reach
a conclusion by Aug. 10 and the upshot
of such an arrangement might be long
DELAY possibly until the commission
made it's reDort during which time the
old wages would remain effective. This
the operators claim would keep up pro-
duction costs and maintain high priced
coal.