Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-07-20
HARDING CAN END
NATIONAL STRIKE,
COAL MINERS SAY
Not Enough Operators at
Farley They Declare,
Bituminous Men Prepare
to Open Mines With Troops
BY DAVID LAWRENCE
(Leased Wire Service to The Journal.)
DOWNRIGHT 1927

SCuC f1dTOlQ2 SC1ll mas an opportunity
to settle the coal strike by personal
= intervention. This correspondent
has been given an authoritative out
line of the miners position, which
would seem to indicate that if Mr..
Harding will assemble a joint con-
ference of miners representatives
and operators of the old central com,
petitive field. and propose, as he did
once before, that the miners return
to work on the old wage scale until
next April or thereabouts, pending
commissions inquiry, the proposal
would be Immediately accepted by
the miners.
Miners officials who did not wish
to be quoted at this time, but whose
views are absolutely final in their
own headquarters, pointed out that
the president in reality has never
brought to Washington enough OPP
orators to embrace the union fields
and that in dealing with A. M. Ogle,
president of the National Coal asso-
citation, Mr.. Harding was in reality in
contact with only small group OF
operators who reflect the viewpoint
Of the non-union coal fields. Mr..
Ogle, it is contended, was elected
president of the coal association on
the platform of no-interstate confer
ences, and that when Mr.. Harding
teiegraphed him to bring operators
to Washington, he brought the men
who believed in that platform, a
group dominated by considerations
arising in the non-union, rather than
the union fields.
The miners state positively that
President Harding has really had no
contact with the majority of the
operators of the union fields who
desire to negotiate for an immediate
return of the miners on the old scale
Of wages. The arbitration proposal
was rejected chiefly because it did
not embrace enough of the operators
from union fields, let alone the non
union districts.
What is sought today by. the
miners is conference Of operators
from the central competitive field
or a national conference OF all OPP
received acceptances Of his arbitra-
ton proposal from an unrepresenta-
tive group of operators. Fully 130,-
900, 900 tons of coal are mined in
district whose operators declined to
accept the arbitration.
As for the suggestion that coal
will be mined if troops are sent to
the coal field to protect the strike
breakers this is flouted as the
height of absurdity by union Off
Gals. There are $4,000 men on
strike in Pennsylvania alone" say
the miners officers, ''and even II
one thousand mines were surround
ed, the amount of coal that would
be mined would be infinitesimal. The
surest way to keep union miners
from going back to work is to send
troops to the mines"
So the practical side Of the CUES.
ton is still unsettled. If the gov
eminent took over the mines and
{ agreed to pay the old scale of wages
the miners would go back in jiffy.
They argue that they want to deal
with single body or at least with
a group whose policy will be uni.
form. Government operation would
render simple any wage scale nego.
tiation as the governments word
would be back of the agreement.
The administration here does not
want to get into the coal mining
business. Mr.. Harding's next move,
Of course, is to protect miners who
will work but after lapse Of a
short time the futility of this will
be realized because of the nation s
coal supply will not be visibly in
creased. That's why the miners in.
sist that Mr.. Harding can settle the
strike by addressing invitations not
to one man or small group but to
the operators in every one of the
thirty-five mining districts so that
miners and operators can negotiate
directly The prediction is made that
enough of the operators would come
to make possible an agreement along
: the lines of the present wage scale
with a provision for commission
to inquire into costs and facts or
7 which future scales could be based
HARDING TO SEND ORDERS
TO OPEN COAL MINES
WASHINGTON, July 1S.-Presi
dent Harding late today will send
simultaneously kilograms directing
the operators of all bituminous
mines shut down because of strike
conditions, to resume operation al
once, and requesting the governors
of those states in which the mines
operate to furnish such military
nrotection as may be needed. L
state troops find it impossible tt
cope with the situation. fedora
troops, 1t was understood, may
eventually be employed.
Invited by the president to IRE
turn to your mine properties anC
resume operation" on submittin,
r1eir reply to his arbitration offel
Yesterday, in which a majority &C
cepted unqualifiedly a plan previous
!. " rejected by the miners union, tn,
{ GENERATORS, through their chairman
Alfred M. Ogle, later announced
than an attempt to reopen the mines
would be made. Considerable pro
duction, the employers general,
believed, would result in union field
in Pennsylvania and Ohio II no
where else.
The government, it was intimate,
in official circles today, had full.
considered all the possibilities in
volved in it's decision to ask tina
Aha mines be reopened. The pre-
lection of federal troops and tn
American flag, it was indicated
would be furnished if necessary t
insure production where men wer
Willing to work, and the government
itself might call for volunteer miner
Of experience now engaged in othe
nurslIits. Beyond intimating a be
Iiaf that the lack Of available skille
miners would make difficult the ei
fort to reopen mines, officials of tn
miners union who remained i
=, continued on Page s, Column 81