Evening star., 1933-08-10
STABLE WAGE RATE
FOR COAL TRADE IS
URGED UPON n. R. A.
Basic Mine Scale Held by
Operators and Unions
as Industry Aid.
SEEN MEANS TO BRING
ON FAIR COMPETITION
Basic $5 Day and 30-Hour Week
Agreed on by Lewis, Taplin
and Harrington.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press
Pleas for stabilization of the COM
pet;tion-harassed bituminous industry
by stabilization of its miners wages
was made to the Recovery Admins
tration today by three leading coal
figures.
John L. Lewis, president Of the
United Mine Workers, in his testimony
at a hearing on the industry's q pro-
posed trade agreements. said the union
lin supplying a uniform, competitive
labor cost for bituminous coal mining,
has been the only stabilizing force
which the industry has ever had"
so far as it's efforts were weakened
during the period from 1925 to 1882
by attacks made upon it or by the in
defensible reputation of agreements
with it, Lewis said, "its constructive
influence has been supplanted by the
law of the jungle which has known
neither humanity, profits or investors"
Operators Back Lewis.
George Harrington of Chicago and
Frank Taplin of Cleveland, among the
largest operators in the country, Joined
IN testimony that one basic wage scale
was the only means of bringing really
fair competition to the industry.
All favored a S5-a-day basic rate for
underground workers and a 30-hour
week.
Meanwhile a decision providing for
election of checkweighmen by miners Of
the Pittsburgh Coal Co. at the entrance
to the mines after working hours, was
handed down today by the Pennsylvania
Coal Arbitration Board headed by Ger
ard Swope.
The provisions for electing the men
who weigh the output of the workers
were identical to those provided yes
terday by the board for the mines Of
the H. c. Prick Coke Co. in Fayette
County.
Must Be Elected.
The checkweighmen are to be elected
with all workers who help to pay their
wages participating by either secret
or show-o hands vote as may be de-
termined by majority Of the meeting,
This controversial issue is the last re,
naming of the dispute which brought
on the strike in the Pennsylvania BIZ
luminous mines which led to a declar.
alton of near martial law by Gov. Pin
chot.
What would happen to a request OF
Donald Richberg, N. R. A. general
counsel, that the open-shop clause be
deleted from the non-union code re-
manned uncertain after the operators
got together last night.
Not Inclined to Remove It.
II oI fhox
operators, representing well over half
of the Nations tonnage, were not in
clined to remove the clause. They do
not want the United Mine Workers to
get control of the entire Nations mine
labor, they say, holding their open shop
clause the only insurance against such
control
In his testimony Lewis told, reading
52-page prepared statement, how he
mad met with a group of operators to
draft one of the 81. Then he insisted
that the code or codes finally approved
give miners the right to join any union
they choose.
The (recovery) act" he said, after
giving employees the right to organize
unmolested for the purposes of collective
bargaining provides as basis for at
tanning its objectiveS, co-partnership
between employers and employees. 1t,
therefore, inevitably follows that
the act assumes that employers will
freely recognize and deal with repre-
sentatives of employees
Obstructing Purposes of Act.
Refusal of employers to do this in
wolves two deplorable conclusions: "a
That employers are refusing to abide
by the spirit and letter of the law,
and (2) by this refusal they are not
only obstructing the fundamental pur-
poses OF the act to accelerate economic
recovery, but what is more serious, they
are promoting discord and dislocations,
for the reason that they leave no alter
native to employees but the undesirable
one of using their collective strength
to force recognition Of their organiza-
tion and its representative.
Lewis recalled that the code to which
he agreed would forbid mine employ
ment of children 16 or under, but said:
I'VE should be very glad to change this
prohibition to 18 years or under"
Explaining his minimum pay sched-
ule, which varies from $5 a day for
underground to 81 a day, or slightly
less, for some above ground workers,
Lewis said these under normal condi-
tions would be entirely made.
quate' and would add very little to
the purchasing power of areas previ-
| ously unio1ized, but, On the other hand,
they will bring non-union fields in the
South and North up to more accept
able living standards"
He reported, though, that while he
had agreed to S per cent lower pay for
| miners in Northern West Virginia, east
| OF the Mississippi and south of the
Ohio rivers, there is not the slightest
evidence that the cost of living is
| lower in the South; such evil
dence as exists indicates that very pos
sibly the cost of living is higher on the
| average in Southern than Northern
communities"
Inc olHerentlal was accepted, he
said. ''in the hope that we may be able
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