Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-07-09
ADD At LEAST ST TO
YOUR 1923 COAL BILL
(contlnued from page ID


scale for the period of one year. That
year will expire September 1. I'm
less a new agreement is reached by
that time the men automatically will
be out of work.
"If. under general industrial con-
ditions as they were last year, the
demand for a 20 per cent increase
seemed fair and reasonable-and it
did-then certainly with industry
flourishing in all lines as 1t is today
and with costs of living still high,
a reiteration of the demands of a year
ago is the least that could be expect
ed"
Another factor influencing anthra-
cite miners in their new wage de-
mands is the fact that whereas an
thracite miners have been advanced
II per cent in the last three years
bituminous miners have been ad-
vanced 81. AS an offset to this,
however, operators contend that the
longer operating time in the hard
coal fields gives the worker a larger
yearly income here than in the btu
minous field.
Day workers in and around the
mines now receive from $4.20 to sc
per day. However, l found some
! shovel men at the Jeddo mines, near
Hazelton, who told me they got only
| S5 to 40 cents an hour.
Overtime, Too
The miners run, in the main, from
Sc. to So per day. Rinaldo Capel-
lini. newly elected president of Dis
trict No. 1 estimated the average
earnings at about $50 every two
weeks" This, however, he pointed
out, is not the return for an eight
hour day but includes much over
time, often a two-shift day, as the
men frequently, when they AVE
completed their days loading, stay
late and blow up rock and prepare
their drift for the next days work.
High wages, it is?" said Dar
Lewis of the older generation Of
Welsh miners, now q minority in thu
district. "Well, mabbe. But a dollal
don't go SO far any more. Ant
where're you goin' to find anybod!
to do it any cheaper
zone of these brlcklayers's helpers
they're payin' So to $40 a day in New
York'd die of heart failure If you't
drop i'm 1900 feet down into thu
belly of a mountain and tell m I
crawl in under the rock.
'If he earns his $40 a day up Their
in the sunshine who's got the nerv'
to say the men sweatin' a THOUSAND
feet under these hills don't earn a
much?
would he swap jobs at even pay
Ask inn"
Miners Strong
The five-month tie-up last yea
demonstrated the solidity of the min
srs organization in the hard Goa
fields, and the men are admittedly Il
better position to force their de
mands than they were at that time
In the words of the Independent
citizen Of the coal fields, who
neither miner nor operator. 9TH
miners have the operators ON tn
hip and both sides know it."
Briefly, the demands Of the min
ers are n reinstatement of the Shamo
kin demands of last year, calling 70
a 20 per cent increase in scales {
mine pay, with SO per day increas
for day labor. Translated into ton
mage costs, it is estimated these in
creases would amount to from s
cents to 81 per ton.
Additional demands, involving ex
penditure by the operators in pre-
viding free tools. payment of uniforI
rates for blasting top and bottol
rock and for handling refuse, SUI
plying free all necessary props, shet
iron. timbers, ETC., and extra shove
ing VIII, IL granted, result in the ao
dition Of about an equal amount b
the operators to their selling prlc,
1t is believed.