Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-10-26
SOFT COAL STRIKE POSSIBLE
By Frederic j. Haskin

SERVERS say THAT dnOlnSR coal SCTlkS
is scheduled for next spring, this
time in the bituminous field. The
agreement which ended the strike
of 1922 ends March 81 next, and a
suspension of mining operations will
take place the following day unless
a new agreement shall have been
negotiated in the meanwhile.
Present prospects, as reflected in
the attitude of the officials of the
miners union and the organization
of the operators, do not encourage a
belief that a new agreement will be
reached. Both sides are said to be
preparing for a fight that will be
the supreme test of their respective
strengths.
The preliminary skirmish, which
takes the form of a propaganda cam
paign is already under way. Both
| miners and operators are going in for
| publicity on a large scale and are
hurting charges and counter-charges
back and forth in an effort to sway
popular sentiment before actual hos
Utilities open up. y
On the one hand spokesman for
the United Mine Workers charge that
the non-union operators have control
of the National Coal Association and
are doing everything in their power
to precipitate a strike with a two
fold object In view: first to break up
| and destroy the union, and, second,
to control the market during the
strike period and sell their coal at
| p~rofiteering prices such as were
charged during the 1922 strike.
On the other hand the operators
charge that the miners, in their eff
forts to unfonize all mines are seek
ing to get a strangle hold IN the en-
tire industry, enforce outrageous
wage demands and the extension of
the check-off system, and inf1ict an
u~nwarranted advance in coal prices
upon the
The miners say the operators r
trying to compel arbitration in wage
fixing, to which the union can not
| agree and survive. The operators
say that the wage demands of the
union are SO unreasonable that an
agreement can never be reached by
negotiation and there must be arbi-
tration or there can never be an ad-
justment of differences. The oper-
ators add that the miners must
know that their demands are in
defensible, otherwise they would not
| decline to arbitrate, and to this the
miners retort that they always get
the worst of ID in an arbitration and
that the insistence of the operators
upon arbitration is only a subterfuge
to win the approval of the uniform
ed and unthinking public.
In this situation it is barely pos
sible that congress may get busy in
the approaching session and take
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| disastrous interruption of the a
TONS basic fuel supply.
There are two easons for the be-
lief that emergency action by con-
gress is a remote possibility. The
first is that the coming session i'm
mediately precedes a presidential
campaign and the politicians in con-
gress will be chary about doing any
| thing that might have a pronounced
effect upon the 1924 elections. Any
action that might be taken would I'M
doubtedly provoke antagonisms,
and in such circumstances the poll
tician's policy is invariably to do
nothing.
The second reason is that in taking
up III question of what is to be
done about the coal industry cong
ress will have before it the volumin-
Gus reports and recommendations of
the Goa commission which conclud-
ed it's investigation on September %.
These embrace an amount of data
and statistics that could not be di-
gested and assimilated in the course
| Of an entire session if congress con
sidered nothing else. And if the coal
problem is to be settled upon any
thing approaching a permanent, con-
structive basis, the work of the coal
commission must be reviewed in de-
tail and with great care.
Manifestly congress will have other
important matters to dispose of this
winter. It can not give it's entire at
tention to the situation in the coal
industry, no matter how vital that
may be in it's bearing upon the gem
eral industrial and commercial stu
alton.
The situation in the transportation
industry is almost equally critical.
With the farmers clamoring for
lower freight rates, railroad labor
preparing to stage a fight for in
creased wages, and the railroad own
ers resisting the consolidation pro-
gram, while at the same time there
Is in sight a drive for government
ownership of the roads. it is obvious
that congress has something to think
about besides coal.
y
With another coal strike in pros
pect it is apparent that both miners
and operators are well financed and
we'll ~entrenched for q prolonged
fight. Both sides have been making
plenty of money since the 1922 inn
broglio was ended and each is con-
fldent that it has strengthened its
position before the public. That is
as it may be. However, 1t is un-
doubtedly true that the union treas
ury has been ~replenished during the
past year., and also that the union
is stronger than ever with its mem
bers by reason of the victory in the
anthracite strike.
1t Is equally true that the oper-
ators nave been rolling DIP the pro-
fits since mining was resumed and
that there is more of unity and COM
mon purpose in their organization
than ever before.
AS to how each side stands with
the public, however, the truth is not
SO easily ascertainable. The evidence
as to that will be developed later.
= =
The public is quite we'll ware that
there is something wrong, basically
and chronically, wrong with the
coal industry, and the state of the
public mind may not be unlike that
of the man whose wife had been an
invalid so long hat he finally ex-
pressed the wish that she would get
well, or something! If that sort of
sentiment attains any considerable
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