The Connecticut labor news., 1924-02-16

livered in Congress this season." Con- gressman ohm J. Casey, Progressive Democrat of Wilkes-Barre, Pa, last week answered the charge made by Congressman Treadway of Massa- chusetts and others that the coal miners of the anthracite region were responsible for the acute coal short age which caused so much suffering in New England and other northern states.
 "In the winter of Io22-23, after the strike was settled" said MT. Casey, millions and millions of tons of coal were lying on the sidings in the Pennsylvania coal region with no motive power to move the cars into the New England states or elsewhere.
 @'The railroads were unable to move this coal because of their broken-down and almost useless mo- tive power.
 7The unlawful action of the attor- ney general and the conspiracy of those who were in charge of the gov ernment of the United States at that time with the railroad companies brought on the railroad shop strike.
 That was the cause of the trouble complained of, and there is where the responsibility for the scarcity of coal must rest.
 Tine whole difficulty in the anthra- cite coal fields lies within the con fines of the financial district of New York" MT. Casey asserted.
 "The financial interests own the railroads, and the railroads, in vioal- ton of the decisions of the Supreme Court and in violation of the law, own the mines. The coal operators in turn operate sales agencies, and the sales agencies in turn must pay tri- bute to the transportation companies.
 "It is just a wheel starting at the financial district of New York and go- ing all the way round in circle and coming back into New York again. The miners have nothing to do with it."
 MT. Casey declared that he did not represent either the anthracite opera tors or the miners union.
 "I am not connected with either" he declared. T am the son of a miner, born in coa lcompany shack, in mining patch in the anthracite coal fields, There lived all my life and nowhere else, except for a short period I have been located in Wash ington as member of Congress. I have worked in the coal breakers and in the coal mines and have lived among the miners all my life"
 Charging that anthracite operators had added 10 cents a ton to the price of coal when the Pennsylvania legis- aature enacted workmen's compen- sation law, MT. Casey declared it does not cost them more than three cents a ton to meet this additional expense
 This leaves the operators a net profit of approximately $5,ooo,ooo a year which they are collecting from the American people under the guise of it being necessary to meet the re- quirements of the compensation law" Mr. Casey said.
 Notwithstanding these same op- orators have gone into the courts of Pennsylvania and only last week se- cured decision from the supreme court in which it is decreed that any miner who is injured or killed does not come within the compensation law if it can be proven that he has vio- lated the law to any degree.
 "The legislature of the state en- acted the law to protect workingmen and provide against the poorhouse for the widows and orphans, and the su- preme court of the state reads into that law the doctrine of contributory negligence, even while the operators are collecting $5,ooo,ooo year from the public and putting it into their pockets under the pretext that it is for the obligations imposed by the law" lHsls
 Getting down to the question of high prices charged consumers, Rep resentative Casey declared that some operators are paying landowners roy alties as high as $40 per ton for every ton of coal mined.
 A state tax of 10 cents per ton has been passed on to the public with a profit added, he said, and then he made it clear that this law was en- acted over the protest of the miners union.
 In his statement Representative Treadway charged that part of the excessive cost of anthracite resulted