Cortland Evening Standard, Thursday, October 8, 1902.
VOTED TO REMAIN OUT.
Practically Unanimous Vote of Miners' Locals.
DECLINED PRESIDENT'S OFFER.
Mr. Mitchell In New York—No Increase In Shipment of Coal in Wyoming District—Men Determined Not to Return to Work Until Some Concessions Are Granted.
Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Oct. 9.—Unless President Mitchell's hurried visit to New York bears fruit, the end of the mine workers' strike seems a long way off and the prospect of sufficient coal being mined to satisfy the public demand is extremely poor.
Every local union of the miners' organization throughout the hard coal belt held a meeting and resolved to remain on strike until the mine owners grant them some concessions.
And while the reports of these meetings came pouring in to Wilkes-Barre President Mitchell dictated a letter to the president of the United States in which he gave his answer to the proposition that the strikers return to work and trust to have their condition proved through an investigating commission.
What the answer of the miners' chief is he refused to divulge, but it is difficult to conceive that with the replies of the local unions piled around him he could do otherwise than respectfully decline the president's proposition.
Mr. Mitchell sent his letter to Washington before he had heard from all the locals and at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, accompanied by the three district presidents, left for New York. His mission there is also a secret.
As New York is the headquarters of the coal operators a rumor immediately spread that a settlement was in prospect, but Mr. Mitchell and his colleagues would not say whom they expected to meet.
It was a busy day for the miners' officials about headquarters. From early morning to late at night the returns came in constantly. In the evening the corps of newspaper correspondents stationed here were invited to examine the reports, and not one was found that was not couched in firm language.
Briefly stated, the resolutions in these reports affirm the confidence of the men in the integrity and judgment of their president, praise President Roosevelt for his efforts to end the strike, denounce the presidents of the coal carrying railroads for their alleged abuse of the chief executive at the conference in Washington, denounce the employment of the coal and iron police, thank all organizations and citizens throughout the country for the financial assistance given and denounce Governor Stone for sending troops here.
Nearly all the resolutions contained a sentence to the effect that the men will remain out "though all the troops in the United States are sent here," until they are granted some concessions.
Additional troops for this region have not yet arrived and the general strike situation remains unchanged. The coal company officials have nothing to say beyond the fact that they are awaiting developments.
There s no increase in the shipment of coal, very little of which is being produced. No violence was reported and in fact, very little since the troops were stationed here. The production of coal since the Ninth regiment has been in this valley has not increased. And if the resolutions adopted by the local unions indicate anything it is not likely that much coal can be shipped to market for some time.
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| John Mitchell. |
MITCHELL'S REPLY.
Declines to Accept President Roosevelt's Proposition.
THE TEXT OF MITCHELL'S LETTER.
Appreciates Responsibility Resting Upon Miners but Declines to Advise a Return to Work—Does Not Feel that Miners Should be Asked to Make Further Sacrifices.
Washington, Oct. 9. —President Mitchell's letter declining to accept President Roosevelt's offer to appoint a special commission to investigate the miners' grievances and to do all in his power to carry out the recommendations of such a commission, if the miners will return to work at once, was made public this morning.
Mr. Mitchell states that he appreciates the responsibility resting upon the miners but bearing in mind their experience with the operators in the past and inasmuch as there is no law to enforce the findings of the proposed commission, he has to decline to advise a return to work simply on the hope that the operators might be induced or forced to comply with the commission's recommendations.
The text of the letter follows:
"Hotel Hart, Wilkes-barre, Pa., Oct. 8, 1902.
"Hon. Theodore Roosevelt,
"President of the United States, Washington, D. C.
"Dear Sir—Hon. Carroll D. Wright has, no doubt, reported to you the delivery of your message to me last Monday and my statement to him that I should take your suggestion under advisement, although I did not look upon it with favor.
''Since that time I have consulted with our district presidents who concur fully in my views.
"We desire to assure you again that we feel keenly the responsibility of our position and the gravity of the situation, and it would give us great pleasure to take any action which would bring this coal strike to an end in a manner that would safeguard the interests of our constituents.
"In proposing that there be an immediate resumption of coal mining upon the conditions we suggested in the conference at the White House, we believed that we had gone more than half way and had met your wishes.
"It is unnecessary in this letter to refer to the malicious assault made upon us in the response of the coal operators.
"Having in mind our experience with the coal operators in the past, we have no reason to feel any degree of confidence in their willingness to do us justice on the future; and inasmuch as they have refused to accept the decision of a tribunal selected by you, and inasmuch as there is no law through which you could enforce the findings of the commission you suggest, we respectfully decline to advise our people to return to work simply upon the hope that the coal operators might be induced or forced to comply with the recommendations of your commission.
"As stated above, we believe that we went more than half way in our proposal at Washington and we do not feel that we should he asked to make further sacrifices.
"We appreciate your solicitude for the people of the country who are now and will be subjected to great suffering and inconvenience by a prolongation of the coal strike, and we feel that the onus of this terrible state of affairs should be placed upon the side which has refused to defer to fair and impartial investigation.
"I am, respectfully. John Mitchell,
"President, United Mine Workers of America."
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| Judge Rowland Davis. |
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
The Democratic City Convention.
The [Cortland] Democratic city convention last Tuesday would have been a very perfunctory one, and its ticket would have meant absolutely nothing but for the nomination of Mr. Jas. Dougherty for City Judge. As it is, Mr. Dougherty is the whole ticket, the other nominees only serving the purpose of fillers and figure heads. It is not attempted to be concealed that the only effort to elect any candidate on the ticket is to be made for Mr. Dougherty, who is also the only nominee whom any intelligent Democrat believes to have the slightest chance of success.
Where a minority party singles out for attack one man on the opposing ticket, and sacrifices every nominee on its own ticket save one for the benefit of that one, there is always some danger to the object of the attack unless the normal majority of his party is overwhelming. It, therefore, behooves every Republican to give the candidate for city judge on the Republican ticket an unflinching, energetic and active support. Mr. Davis was renominated unanimously and without opposition. His record justified this action. He has made a faithful, intelligent, judicious and successful magistrate. He has enforced the law without fear or favor. Naturally the law-breakers who have felt the weight of his hand, and their sympathizers, will not be favorable to him, and for this very reason every citizen without regard to party, who wants the law enforced, should do what he can to put Mr. Davis back into the office which he has filled so well. He is a liberally educated lawyer, having a naturally fine legal mind, well read in his profession, has the experience of practically two terms of successful service, and is besides a graceful, pleasing and forcible public speaker and a willing party worker. It would be a discredit to his party and his city should the combined Democratic effort which is to be made against him be successful.
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| Cortland Mayor Charles Brown. |
COMMON COUNCIL
Held Regular Meeting Tuesday Evening.
REPORTS OF CITY DEPARTMENTS.
Map of Dry Creek—Application for Side Path Franchise—Routine Business Transacted—Bills Audited.
A regular meeting of the [Cortland] common council was held Tuesday evening at the office of the city clerk, at which all members were present.
J. D. F. Woolston presented a map of Dry creek, which was accepted and placed on file. This showed the condition of the stream from the river to the Corporation limits. Mr. Woolston suggested that it be straightened out and the bed lowered in many places. He thought that if this was done that the water could be kept within the banks and then there would be no further trouble with Otter creek. The maps of the two creeks will be used by the committee of residents of the western section in an attempt to clear out the two streams.
E. M. Santee, chairman of the Cortland county board of [bicycle] sidepath commissioners, appeared and requested permission to construct a sidepath from the north side of the fair grounds on the west side of Homer-ave. south to Wheeler-ave. Upon motion of Alderman Wright, seconded and declared carried:
Resolved, That the Cortland county board of sidepath commissioners be authorized and empowered to construct and maintain a sidepath as requested, and that the common council approve of the same.
Upon motion of Alderman Scudder, seconded and declared carried:
Resolved, That an order be drawn on the city Chamberlain for the sum of $40 less the court expenses in favor of the forest, fish and game commission, being the amount of fines collected for a violation of the forest, fish and game law.
Reports of the city Chamberlain and the commissioner of charities were submitted and received. There is $6,628.69 remaining in the city treasury. The poor for the month of September cost the city $54.15. City Chamberlain Maycumber also submitted a report of unpaid taxes and local assessments heretofore assessed and remaining unpaid, the only unpaid tax being upon property assessed to the executors of Daniel Van Hoesen, erroneously.
Upon motion of Alderman Scudder, seconded and declared carried:
Resolved, That such erroneous assessment be stricken from the assessment roll.
Cortland has not a single unpaid tax on its assessment roll. Formerly about $3,000 was left over from year to year.
A report of the dog catcher was submitted, showing that forty-one dogs had been caught to date. Such report was received and ordered filed.
Upon motion of Alderman Yager, seconded and declared carried:
Resolved, That notice be given and published in the official newspapers of the city of Cortland as required by law of the time and place of registration in said city on Oct. 10, 11, 17, and 18.
Upon motion of Alderman Yager, seconded and declared carried:
Resolved, That the matter of water and water hydrants on Harmon and East Main-sts. be deferred until spring.
Upon motion of Alderman Skeele, seconded and declared carried:
Resolved, That Dr. Higgins and Dr. Didama be empowered to make an examination of the injuries of Charles Erway.
Upon motion of Alderman Pettigrew, seconded and declared carried:
Resolved, That an arc light be ordered placed at the corner of Main and Crawford-sts., and that the light at the L. V. R. R. crossing on south Main-st. be moved to the corner of Main and Union-sts.
Bills were allowed and ordered paid as follows:
Upon motion, the meeting adjourned until Oct. 14.
A Suggestion.
To the Editor of the Standard:
Sir—As we hold union services in our city churches in warm weather why not do so during the present winter and let the poor of our city have the stock of coal of all churches save one, thereby doing good to our fellowmen and giving a practical example of self denial of Christian people. Yours truly, Lawrence N. Frederick.
Cortland Party in Washington.
A note from J. R. Birdlebough who is one of the Cortland veterans attending the G. A. R. encampment at Washington says:
Washington, Oct. 7, 1902.
The Cortland party arrived in Washington after midnight. All are well and happy. It is estimated there are 400,000 visitors in the city. The weather is beautiful and warm. The military and marine parade today (Wednesday) was a grand affair. If weather continues fine the G. A. R. parade tomorrow promises to be the most impressive in its history.
Coal for Employees.
A notice has been posted along the line of the Lehigh Valley railroad stating that one ton of anthracite coal would be supplied to all employees of the company having families.
The coal will be supplied at the scheduled rate per ton. As the indications point to cold weather very soon the company desires to assist its employees and not have them pay the exorbitant price charged in some sections of the country.
According to the orders only married employees who are keeping house will be supplied. If the one ton of egg anthracite does not last until the settlement of the strike they will be given another.—Ithaca News.
No such notice has been seen or heard of by the Lehigh Valley employees in Cortland, although they hope that it may be a reality. There are about 1,000 employees of the company who live in Cortland, and the majority of these would be benefited by this plan.
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| West Virginia coal miners wearing oil pots. |
MINING CONDITIONS.
Real Cause of the Strike as Told by a Scranton Newspaper Man.
A Boston business man last week wrote to the editor of The Scranton Tribune, the leading paper of northeastern Pennsylvania, asking him for some light on the conditions of the work of the coal miners. The following is the reply:
Replying to your inquiry of the 1st. inst., I will try to explain mining conditions to you as briefly as possible.
The miner drills the hole in the coal seam, inserts the powder, fires the blast which knocks the coal down, and then takes a rest while his helper pulls the coal out and loads it into the mine car. A miner in four to six hours, with easy work, can ordinarily knock down enough coal to keep his helper busy from eight to ten hours or longer. The miner is paid by the car in this region, averaging about $1 a car and the usual day's work is six cars, holding about 3,000 pounds of lump coal, rock "bony" and slate.
Of this $6 gross earnings the miner pays $2 to the laborer and keeps $4 for himself, out of which he must pay for the powder he uses, oil, wicks, fuses and the sharpening of his picks. In some places the unit of pay is the square yard of coal in the seam, and in others a weight unit of 2,750 pounds, it being claimed by the operators that on an average it will take from 2,750 to 3,000 pounds of gross coal (that is, coal as it comes from the seam) to net one ton of 2,240 pounds of coal as prepared at the breaker for market. The miners claim that where the unit of payment is the mine car the car of today is bigger than in years gone by, and continually growing. One of their jokes is that the mine car is made of live oak.
However this may be (and my personal belief is that there is just about as much honesty on one side as on the other), it is a fact that the industrious miner averages, net per month, for about twenty days' work of from four to six hours a day, all the way from $60 to $100, and could make twice as much if he would blow enough coal to keep two laborers employed instead of one. Today miners who are "scabbing" work as high as ten chambers apiece, and earn in some cases $20 a day. But it is a peculiar fact that under normal conditions the miner does not seem to be ambitious to do more than one chamber at a time, or to work beyond five or six hours a day.
The Real Cause of Strike.
The real cause of this strike was that the miners' helpers, who are mostly foreigners, had got it into their heads that the miners were not making a fair divide. They were organizing a mine laborers' movement to force the miner to divide even. The operators have nothing to do with hiring the helpers. They are hired by the miners themselves. To avert a sub-strike among their "butties," as the laborers are called, the miners swung through the general strike ostensibly for the points set forth in their published demands, but in reality to enable the union to control discipline and thus put it beyond the power of the laborer to revolt.
In the mines also are many "company hands,'' men paid by the month to run engines, act as firemen, attend to the pumps, etc. The union's demand for an eight hour day was to enlist them in the strike. They are getting good wages—engineers, $60 to $80 a month for long hours but light work, and others in proportion. Nine-tenths of these men were entirely satisfied, and many of them refused to go out.
When the coal in big lumps comes from the mine or pit, it is passed through a high structure called the breaker, where it is broken by steam machinery into the various sizes, and the impurities are picked out. Much of the labor in the breaker is done by boys, who average 75 cents a day. They have no complaint, for their pay is better than that of the average lad in a city office. But they belong to the union, and have votes in the calling of strikes, and the idea of striking has developed among them rapidly. Last year in this end of the coal fields there were a hundred-odd local strikes, mostly over the pettiest conceivable things, and the breaker boy and barroom loafer element had a good deal to do with declaring them.
Are Well Paid.
I have lived in the anthracite region fourteen years, and know that in the year 1901 the miners earned more money than ever before during my time. Our banks are full of their savings, very little of which has yet been drawn out, in spite of their five months' idleness. There is no similar grade of labor in the country which is better paid than the anthracite coal miner, and no workman more independent, because the law of the state practically gives him a monopoly of the labor of mining by forbidding any but a licensed miner to work at mining in the mines. To get a license, or certificate, as it is called, he must first have worked at least two years in the mines as a laborer, and then pass an examination to show that he knows enough about the peculiar requirements of mining to be a safe man to admit to a chamber.
BREVITIES.
—Wood for fuel is scarce in Elmira and kindling wood sells for $4 per cord.
—The Ithaca Gun Co. are contemplating the use of crude oil for fuel in the place of coal.
—It is stated that the honey crop of Central and Western New York is nearly a total failure.
—The Woman's Baptist Foreign Mission society will meet Friday afternoon at 3 o'clock at the home of Mrs. Randolph Beard, 11 Church-st.
—A regular meeting of the Woman's Home Missionary society of the First M. E. church will on held at the home of Mrs. N. J. Peck, 21 Washington-st., tomorrow at 3 p. m.
—There are now 1,700 inmates in the Soldiers' home at Bath, the institution being so crowded that about 200 are fed in the hospital. There are still many applications for admittance, but there is no room at present.
—A few Canastota farmers are engaged in growing dill weed. It is used by pickle factories to mix with cucumbers for what are known as "dill pickles." Dill resembles caraway, is grown and cut like grass, and produces about two and one-half tons per acre and sells for $25 per ton.
—New display advertisements today are—J. W. Cudworth, Eye glasses, etc., page 6; G. H. Wiltsie, Drygoods, page 6; Baker & Angell, Shoe bargains, page 8; R. W. Mitchell, Beef, pork, etc., page 6; C. F. Thompson, Grapes, etc., page 5; Cortland Fish & Oyster Co., Oysters, page 6.
—The estimate of the board of public works for carrying on the department for next year was placed at $15,040 at their meeting Monday night and this is the amount that will be asked for in making up the budget for next year's expenses. The board of public works of Oneida asks for $22,500.
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