The New York herald., 1922-04-24

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1919 consumed their savings.
The business depression OF last year.
reducing them TO we'll under zoo working
days--the union says that the union men
OF 364 central Pennsylvania mines in
1921 averaged only 12e days. or two and
one-third days work a week--made saw
ing impossible except in exceptional
cases Town industries, to which many
miners have fiocked during other strike
periods. cannot accommodate them under
present business conditions.
Local union treasures are low. This
being the case. union leaders admit that
in the second month this will become
"a strike OF desperation
Offers OF operators. now falling on
deaf ears. will at least find lodgment Ia
the minds Of the miners. ..
Hunger to he Felt.
Here and there actual hunger win
begin TO be felt. Here and there miners
families will have to shift for them
selves. communal funds having been
exhausted. Here and there crowd of
miners will cave in and go back to work.
The real test OF the mine workers
organization then will begin. Hold out
for good wages or 60 back to work at
starvation wages" is the traditional plea
hammered home In every union mining
town. How effective IL will be in the
face or actual poverty in the homes and
or the attractive Offers the operators will
be making remains to be seen. The test
has not arrived. The strike Is only In
It's first stage. At present the striking
miners are temporarily flush, for only
last week. on April Is, they were paid
or Tor their last two weeks of work. the
last half OF March. In one small town
ithrenfeldt, Cambria county, $50
thus was distributed by the PennsyI-
vania Coal and Coke Company. Ehren-
feldt Is q good sample OF mining towns
OF the better class among those built
many years ago, but does not compare
Win some OF the newer places as to
iiving conditions. 1t does boast of a
large clubhouse. operated by the miners
under the name OF the Ehrenfeht Civic
Association. When we visited Il not
more than dozen persons were making
use or Its bowling alleys and pool tables
and attractive ice cream lunch room
was given.
Prosperous Youths.
In the clubhouse were four youths
about 20 years old. Each of them.
\ f.0U
as the operator of a motor used in
hauling cars through the mine and out
10 the tipple. They start as .'brakies"
on these motors and can work up to
motormen in a short time. Like most
classes OF coal mine wage, this seems
a huge sum, especially for a boy, with
out anything like the experience of. say.
a steam locomotive engineer, and away
on. OF proportion to wages generally
| outside the mine fields 1t should be
noted. however, that the average num-
Der OF working days for the employees
OF the Pennsylvania Coal and Coke Com
pany last year was only 1853.
Half a mile below the comparatively
attractive Ehrenfeldt are a series
OF mining villages which represent
the extreme of squalor. These are
grouped as the town of South Fork.
which Is on branch of the ConemauRh
and only two miles from ST Michaeps.
where broke the dam that released the
Johnstown flood. Dirt and desolation
Is the portion of South Fork The streets
or one OF the villages, Glestown, could
be identified as such only by the wan
derings of famished nag hunting for
grass in waste of cinders. Up on the
steep hillside behind one of the dreary
company houses, two Polish women were
grubbing In the ashes OF forgotten coke
fires. trying to level off place for
garden.
Historic Strike Field.
This District No. 2. central Pennsyl-
vania, Is the one in which the miners
broke their contract by striking. The
miners deny it, but to any one who can
read the fact is, against them. The two.
years. scale ngreenient signed on April
26, 1920. signed by the executive COM
mittee OF the Bituminous Coal Operators
OF Central Pennsylvania and by John
Brophy and the other heads of District
No. 2, United Mine Workers, explicitly
provided. in Rule 25. that if a new
agreement was not signed by March 81,
1872, the mine workers would keep ali
men at work under the old wage con-
ditions for an additional thirty days
after the first meeting of the operators
and miners, so as to negotiate a new
agreement. In March of this year the
operators sent word they were ready to
negotiate a new agreement. but the
union refused to do II. asserting II could
not act until a basic wage had been
established in the central competitive
field. Ohio, Indiana. Illinois and west
ern Pennsylvania. This condition was
not mentioned In the contract. AS the
operations of the central competitive
field declined to meet the miners to
negotiate. the new basic scale, Brophy
and his associates of central Pennsyl-
vania contended they could not meet
the operators because there was no basis
upon which to proceed. This contention
was set UP, despite the fact the agree
ment which Brophy had signed not only
provided for a meeting and for thirty
days extension, but also said:
The fulflllment of this agreement
is guaranteed by the International
Union OF the United Mine Workers
OF America and by the United Mine
Workers of America OF District No.
2, as we'll as by officers of the inter-
national organization and OF the dis
trict.
Question of Agreement.
II this agreement had been kept union
miners of central Pennsylvania would not
now be on strike. It was a case with
them of violating the agreement or dis
regarding the general strike. and they
chose to do the former. Brophy denies