The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-04-01
Of Miners Drop
 Their Tools
Government Fails To In- tervene To Avert Great Walkout Of C~a ~ M i n e rs Operators Still Refuse To Meet The Miners.

| Thousands of miners drop ped their tools when the day shift went off duty last even 1 ing and more thousands aban-
 doned work at the zero hour
 12:0 this morning. The miners fighting wage slashes and to compel opera tors to meet them in joint wage 1 conference, were all set today for a showdown on the question
 of who is who in the coal in dustry. The operators, bent
 on announced program of wage
 retrenchment, continue in their refusal to meet the miners. Meanwhile, the government is maintaining a --hands off policy-standing aside to let
 the operators and miners bat
 tie 1t out. so long as the public Is not suffering from the ef-
 fects of the conflict.
 Washington, April I-Decfded upSry~>
 policy of non-intervention at least at this stage of the dispute, the ssd-
 ministration viewed the beginning of
 the national strike today with the protection of the general public as the uppeEmoSt concern oT officials TEhs they believed was assured both by existing conditions and the present coal surplus in addition to production at nOn-union mines during the strike Pittsburgh, April I-OficiaI esti- mates of the number of union miners I nlinous coal district who left their work yesterday were withheld by headquarters of District Five, United Mine Workers, and Pittsburgh Coal Producers Association, controlling about 75 per cent. of the output of the district. The district today marked
 the celebration of the eight hour day. always observed by the miners as d holiday, and the operators took the ground that they would, on that ac- count be unable to determine the ex- tent of the waIkout before Monday There was nothing to indicate that the Wa1kout had been anything but orderly at all points, and wherever union men were employed. ample forces to man the pumps and fans and otherwise protect the mines were left at their posts when the suspen- sion took place. Indianapolis, April 1-Conhtz that the suspension of work begs midnigt1 by union coal miners result today in complete tie the country's unionized feI1s~6i of the United Mine Yyorkef-s of ica at it's headquarters here aw reports from district leaders sho the exact effectiveness of the Y
 down.
 An outward calm prevailed a,
 union headquarters here and off
 declared their program for the fl
 would be determined largely by
 Velopnents- Responsibility for
 general leadership, rests with the i62 ternational president, John Lewis, who said his field head" would be wherever he happened to be.
 New York. April 1@CongressionaI action to prohibit over development of the coal industry was proposed here by Philip Murray, vice presiden of the United Mine Workers of America as "a cure for the great evil which has America in the grip of a nation wide strike today
 Ten thousand bituminous mines are being worked in this country, when 1000 mines could o(j1ansa.uIfaa1 hcient coal for the nation
 he declared.
 Wflkesbarre, Pa, April
 tons in the anthracite coal
 at a standstill today under tf
 sion order of the United Mi
 CTS of America.
 Lansford Pa, April 1-
 thracite mines of the Lehig Navigation Co in