Evening star., 1925-08-28
MINE PROTECTION
DURING STRIKE IS
AGREED At PARLEY
Maintenance Crews to Be
Retained to Prevent
Millions in Damage.
WALK0UT ON TUESDAY
AFFECTS $4,000 MEN
Soft Coal Men Prepare to Seize
Market Left 0pen-Me-
diator Sought.
Ry the Associ ated Pres..


PHILADELPHIA, August 2s.-The
anthracite operators and miners to-
day reached an agreement on the
question Of maintenance men for
work in the mines during the sus-
pension set for September l.
The arrangement provided that
normal conditions that obtained
during idle periods In the past shall
be the basis for this agreement"
The agreement read as follows:
1T is agreed between the repre-
sentatives of the anthracite operators
and the representatives of Districts !.
and of the United Mine Workers
of America as follows:
"In the event of a suspension Of
mining in the anthracite region after
August 81, 1925, maintenance men
necessary for the proper protection
| and preservation of property shall re-
main at work. subject to the follow
ing provisions:
First All maintenance men shall
receive any adjustment of wages that
may result from subsequent .agree-
ment between the respective parties;
such adjustment, II any, shall be retro
active to September !, 1928.
Men Shall Not Be Ousted.
Second. That maintenance men
necessary for the proper protection
and preservation of property shall be
continued at their regular necessary
continuous occupations, and II avail
able, not be replaced by others during
the continuance of this agreement.
Third Normal conditions that OBJ
tanned during idle periods in the past
shall be the basis for this agreement
Fourth. Any differences arising In
the mines under this agreement be
tween committee and company of1cials
as to the employment or non-emploH-
ment of any maintenance men shall
be referred for adjustment to the
members of the board OF conciliatton
for the district"
Had an agreement not been reached,
/ Il was said, the mines would face
/ dilemma even more serious than the
walkout itself.
Where idleness would be only tenn
porary in its i'll effects, flooding and
! cave-ins, which maintenance men are
! left in the mines TO prevent, would
be very serious. A weeks neglect
might easily cost the industry mil
] lions of dollars in damage. it was
/ said.
! W. w. Inglis, president of the Glen
Alden Coal Co. of Scranton, today VIII
submit the report TO date to the
operators scale compittee. of which
he is chairman.
| Lewis Calls Strike.
| The SUSPENSION order involving 15s.-
/ 600 men and S2s mines was issued last
| night by John L. Lewis. president OF
the United Mine Workers Of America.
Your scale committee" read the
| call to the miners, charged with the
responsibility Of making a new con-
tract has been unable TO arrive at
any understanding as affecting wages
| or conditions of employment to be
effective after August 81. 1925. There
fore, our membership in districts Nos.
/. I and is advised that no contract
being in effect. suspension or MN
ing will automatically take place at
midnight Monday"
Quick to take advantage of the
coming suspension of mining in the
anthracite industry, bitunlinous oper-
! ators met here today TO make plans
for going into the hard coal market
and furnishing soft coal wherever 1t
can be sold.
Both Sides Represented.
The soft coal operators represented
union and non-union mines in central
and western Pennsylvania and the
Somerset and Westmoreland County
districts of the State.
| They have their eyes on the New
| England trade. where a movement
has been started TO find substitute
for anthracite, and eliminate the peri
odical shortage of hard coal in that
section, due to suspensions and other
causes.
The soft coal men said they are pre-
pared to send into any territory in the
| emergency prepared sizes OF their
product, which they say Is good sub
stitute for anthracite.
Meanwhile the miners scale commit
tee which signed the call announced
it would continue to use every in
| fiuence to bring about, if possible, a
general agreement which will mean
substantial progress for the anthracite
mine workers"
Mr.. Inglis, who is chairman of the
operators scale committee. with
which the miners broke off negotia-
tions at Atlantic City, August 4, pro-
nounced the suspension call entirely
unnecessary" The men would lose
more than 81 ,00o, 900 a day in wages.
he said, business conditions in the re-
gion would be upset, and the hard coal
market as whole was sure TO be still
further invaded by fuel substitutes.
| Mr. Inglis expressed belief that
failure to win the miners to a no
strike" pledge pending the threshing
out of differences had been due to
their pre-occupation with soft coal
problems. Many bituminous coal ope-
rators are now refusing to abide by
the union contract signed in 1924. be-
cause they say the wage 1t fixed has
become prohibitive.
"The feeling is growing" said Mr..
Inglis, that the union policy Is domt-
mated by its greater concern in soft
coal affairs. That was admitted to be
the case in 1922 and it looks as though
1t were true today"
Sees Ozark Age" Tactics.
He called the unions refusal to work
without a contract satisfactory in all
respects "a relic of the dark age OF
unionism' Arbitration was the sole
salvation in the present day and age.
he said.
President Lewis said the union had
waited as long as ii could in hope that
the operators would modify their re
fusal to deal with demands involving
increased production cost. He said
with only a few days remaining in
which to notify the 325 union locals in
the anthracite region before Septem-
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