Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1922-07-24
Country Looks to
Government to
Terminate Strike
Railroads and Coal Mines Expected to Perfect Distrbu-
tiOn Plss Today-COnferences Held Between
President Harding, Chairman Hooper
and l. G. C..

Washingtcl, July Z4.-Ihe country
enters the seventeenth week of the
coal strike md the fourth of the walk
out of railway shopmen looking L
the Government for the next move
toward settlement of each.
The next day or two, it is expect
ed viii bring from the White House
some indication of procedure for get
ting the railroad strikers back t
work, following the protracted con
ference Saturday between the Presi
dent, Chairman Ben w. Hooper, OF
the Railroad Labor Board, and Re
publican and Democratic members OF
the Senate Interstate Commerce Com
mittee.
Secretary of Commerce Hoover met
this morning with the coal operators
from the producing non-union dis
tricts ut the Department of Com
merce, to insist that those operators
who have disregarded the agreement
for keeping the mine price down to
the old Garfield figure, $3.50 ton,
shall observe it, and to consider fur
ther a program of pooling coal to as
sure a supply to the railroads, in
dustrieS producing necessities, pub
lie utilities and public institutions.
A plan for preferential distribu-
ton of coal and Government super
vision over car distribution to keep
railway equipment moving into the
producing mining districts has been
tentatively completed by Mr.. Hoover
and submitted TO the Department of
Justice.
This plan is expected to be perfect
ed today, the question of coal dis
tribution being taken up with the pro
ducing operators and the question Of
car supply being settled with the In
terstate Commerce Commission. The
car distribution plan embOdies pro-
parations to name committees at I'M
portant centerS to direct car move
ment. under supervision of the gov
ernment.
II the White House has a concrete
plan for settling the railroad strike,
or attempting to settle it, there has
as yet been no Indication of its char
acter. 1t has seemed since Saturday
that the President is going carefully
over all phases of the transportation
crisis with a view to determining pol
icy, rather than that he had even ten
tatively in mind specific course to
suggest prior to the survey he is con-
Quoting. r'...
With John l.. Lewis, president of
the United Mine Workers of Ameri-
ca, i'm New York, Washington has had
no further direct word of the efforts
that operators who want to settle,
including leaders in the Eastern Ohio
field, have been making to bring to-
gether the representatives Of Sutfl-
cient tonnage 20 enter new basic
point conference with the miners,
succeeding the old central competi-
tive field conference.
The five Mayors of Pennsylvania
towns in the anthracite territory have
taken back to the hard coal fields
their commission plan for terminal
ing that strike, for further reference
to Mr.. Lewis and for consultation with
anthracite operators.
That the railroad Shopmen have
been preparing for the strike now in
progress since April, 1921, and wait
ed l5 months because of desire 10
accumulate enough grievance to sup
port a demand for a nationwide
strike" were statements made yeSter-
dav by p. j. COnlon, vice-preSident
of the International Association of
MachniStS, at public mass meeting
here.
Union officials learned April 8, 1921,
Mr.. Conlon said, that the national
agreement with the railroads was to
be abolished. although the Railroad
Labor Board did not act until April
II. When Individual agreements were
sought, he declared, the unions ran
into identical demands from every
road we approached. which indicated
TO us there was some central agency
or authority directing the fight
against us"
Then we realized" Vice President
ConlOn continued, that we would
have to sit tight and suffer in silence
until enough grievances had been ac-
cumulated to support 4 demand for
a nationwide strike"
OF the l,l00 decisions handed down
by the Labor Board, the speaker list
cd 200 as favorable to the railroads
and zoo as "nominally in favor of our
side, but Of the latter, he said, at
least 800 were not put into effect by
the railroads and, therefore, did not
mean anything"
Asserting that the strike leaders
were well satisfied with the situa-
tion, MIR. Conlon said: 1T generally
takes from 80 to 90 days to make a
shop strike effective, but tbefore this
one had been on 10 days more than $50
trains had been cancelled out of Chi
cago, the West Virginia non-union
coal mines were bottled up and the
iron and steel industries were crying
for help, and we had hardly started
vet"