Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1923-09-27
JACK MEETS THE FURNACE
AND LEARNS ABOUT COAL

It had turned suddenly cold. One
of those freak early fall twists in the
weather when the thermometer jumps
down hill and everybody forgets sum
mer clothes and wonders if the moths
were busy the past months in their
winter outfits. Ruth and Jack were
home playing in the attic and Uncle
Ted had just arrived by the way of
back door discussing with Mother
whether or not they should start a
fire in the furnace.
wouldn't be a bad idea," said
Uncle Ted. at will take the chill off
the house and also we can see if the
furnace is working all right for the
the winter"
"Start it if you want to-" said
Mother. "I'm warm enough in this
kitchen. But if you do start it get
Jack to help you. 1t is time he is
learning something about it,
Uncle Ted went into the house and
called up stairs, "Jack! Oh! Jack!
come down here. I've got some
thing for yoo." Jack came down a.
bout six steps at time. what is
|. it Uncle Ted?"
Give got job for you. Come on
and help your Uncle saart the fur
nace.''
Gee, wanted to play" said Jack.
at isn't cold anyway"
"Now come on Jack. Time you
were learning something about a
furnace and while we are working
I'll tell you a story about coal, Ruth
come along and you can listen while
your brother works this time" They
were soon hard at it - splitting
wood, rleaning and shoveling in the
big, black pieces of coal.
Children, you remember what a
time we had getting coal last year
bebecause of tn ebig strike. For a
while it looked as though we would
have the same old story over again
this winter. The wage agreements
between the hard coal miners and
the operators Of the mines came to
end on August 31st. Two or three
weeks before that date the leaders OF
both of those groups met at Atlantic
City and tried to reach a new agree
ment for another year. But the min
ers wanted much higher wages. the
employment of nobody but Numbers
of the miners union, and the collect
ion of union dues from the pay envel.
opes of the men every time they are
paid off. The mine owners refused
to grant those demands, and wher
August 31st came the miners went
on strike and the mining of hard coal
came to an end. It looked as
though we would all have to be colo
| or burn soft coal, coke or oil this win
ter. 3s
When Mr.. Coolidge took office af-
| ter the death of President Harding
early in August, he began to study
the coal situation. President Hard.
ing had appointed coal commission
which had been hard at work for
many months collecting a great deal
OF information about the business
All that was laid before Mr.. Cool
idge and explained to him by the
members of tn commission, and he
directed them to do all they could tt
bring about settlement between the
miners and the mine owners. The
commission made number Of sug-
gestions for a compromise, always
keeping in mind the people who buy
the coal and who were already pay
ing a high price. A few days be-
fore the end of August it became evil
dent that no agreement could be
reached without giving the miners
more wages and adding to the price
OF coal. The coal commission would
not approve terms that would in
erase tn ehigh fuel cost, so they de-
cided they could have nothing more
to do with the matter.
1T has been decided by the Su-
preme Court that the mining Of coal
is state matter and not one in
which the national government can