Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1922-03-31

Es&B4 49, ~ RaH&&x ilIHuGI II.
I MM q Three main facts
o RsSAaaSasssszs are involved:
MORROW FIRST. The rate
Of pay and the hours of labor.
SECOND. The manner in which
wage scale agreements shall be made.
THIRD. The check-off.
Must Reduce Scale
On those issues the strike has been
called. The miners are demanding
six-hour day and a fve-day week,
which would give employment arbi-
trarily to an excessive number of
miners, and the maintenance of a
postwar wage scale fixed on a basic
rate of $3.50 a day, as opposed to
the eight-hour day and six-day week,
with supply and demand fixing the
number of employees.
Operators insist that the present
scale must be materially reduced
and the present hours of work main
tanned to put organized mines on a
parity with the wage levels pre-
vailing in the non-union fields aHd
in other industries.
The six-hour day and fve-day
week is demanded to enable the men
in the industry to work more nearly
full time.
The fact is there are more men
employed in the industry than are
needed, just as there are more mines
than are needed. The operators
would let supply and demand for
coal automatically reduce excess
employees.
All Willing To Meet
While a number of operators have
decided to go into four-state joint
conference, all have been willing to
meet the miners in state conferences.
Generally, operators in Illinois and
Indiana have been willing to partici-
pate in four-state agreement,
while those of western Pennsylvania
and southern Ohio have refused.
Why?
When the central competitive field
arrangement was first established,
there was active competition be-
tween western Pennsylvania and
southern Ohio operators on one
hand and Illinois and Indiana on the
other.
Conditions Changed
Changing freight differentials,
however, have steadily decreased that
competition. Ohio coal, formerly a
popular fuel in Chicago, is no longer
quoted in the Chicago market. Pitts
burg coal has vanished from the
lower peninsula of Michigan.
There is no longer any economic
reason for the continuation of the
old fo6~-state arrangement. AS a re-
suit, operators wish to deal with the
miners of their own particular dis
trlcts, whether union or non-union,
and work out wage scales which
will accord with the competitive
conditions in those respective fields
AS to the check-off, under which
operators are required to collect the
dues, assessments, and fines of the
men and hand them over to the
I'union officials, that was one of the
practices cited in the indictment
under the Sherman law at Indianapo-
list as evidence of conspiracy between
miners and operators. Naturally,
the operators are reluctant to renew
an agreement SO full of possible dan
ger.
No Danger for Public
Out of the strike must come a re-
adjustment to meet postwar condi-
tlons of competition and prices. At
present it seems safe to say that a
60-day srike would entail no par
ticular hardship ON business and in
dustry generally and would not ex-
haust stocks to the point where an
increase in prices would occur. The
consumer, therefore, may look with
fair degree of equaninlity upon
the approach of this struggle.
Our industrial fabric has been
erected upon a foundation of low
cost Of coal. This strike is simply
one of the inevitable steps that must
come if our industrial activity is to
be restored to a sound and enduring
activity. In this the householder
the small consumers vitally con-
cerned. 1t means for him lower
! ing Of prices not alone for the coal
he buys himself, but of all commodi-
ties into which the use of coal enters.