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)• SOME LABOR NOTES. •
National Secretary-Treasurer W. B. Wilson, of
the U. M. W. of A., in a signed statement to the
anthracite miners denies the charge that part of
the relief fund raised for the support of the anthracite
miners in the strike of 1902 was diverted
from its original purpose. He says the miners
have in the national treasury over one million
dollars and that national officers have the right
and will exercise it to utilize the money to support
any strike that in their judgment ought to be
supported.
* » *
The Montevallo Coal Mining Co.. operating
mines in Shelby county, Alabama, has signed the
agreement with the officials of District 20 of the
United Mine Workers of America. For the last
three years a strike has been on at the place, the
company refusing to sign the scale of wages, or
recognize the union. The company recently
changed hands and the new officials signed the
scale, agreed to recognize the union and work will
be resumed with 200 union miners.
* * *
The new law prohibiting the employment of
boys under the age of 14 years in the coal regions,
which goes into effect shortly, will have little influence
on the coal companies in general. Despite
the fact that it is generally believed that the law
was aimed at coal mining operations, its effect will
amount to practically nothing in this direction
because the employment of boys has been almost
wholly done away with in recent years.
* * *
Some 75 puddlers in the Youngstown, O., district
are contemplating breaking away from the
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers
and forming a new organization of puddlers.
The dissatisfaction is due to the failure of the
association to call off a dead strike and to relieve
working union puddlers of sharing their employment
with the strikers.
* * »
Another misunderstanding has resulted in a
stoppage of work at the Morris Run mines in
northern Pennsylvania. It is understood that the
differences arise from interpretations of certain
clauses of the scale agreement recently entered
into and which, it is probable, will be satisfactorily
adjusted.
* * *
The wage committee representing the United
Mine Workers and the commercial coal operators
of Alabama decided on a 2 ] {,-cent cut in the
miners' tonnage rate for July, making the price
for mining 55 cents. The cut was based on the
lower selling price of iron.
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 43
r
J. W. McQueen, vice-president of the Sloss-
Sheffield Steel & Iron Co., states that there is
employment for at least 5,000 men in the Birmingham
district of Alabama. Both skilled and
unskilled labor is needed and a large number of
mine workers can find employment. The wages
range from $1.10 to $4.00 per day.
* * *
The strike at the Ramsey mines at Dillonvale.
O, which had been on for several weeks, was
settled on July 24 at a conference between the
mine operators and officials of the United Mine
Workers of America, including National Vice-
President T. L. Lewis of Bridgeport, O. Several
hundred men returned to work.
* * *
Committees are at work making arrangements
for a series of meetings to be addressed by John
Mitchell and a number of interpreters, in the Irwin
field during this month. According to the present
plans meetings will be held at all the mining
centers including Irwin, Madison and probably
Greensburg and Latrobe.
* * *
Regarding the report in circulation that a general
strike of the mine workers was imminent,
President Mitchell, of the United Mine Workers,
says: "This rumor of a strike is so silly that I
can find no possible excuse whatever for its circulation."
• * *
An agreement has been reached between the
Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Irota Co.
and its striking miners and the latter, numbering
about 600 men, have returned to work.
* * *
The joint scale conference of the coal operators
and miners of the Nineteenth district, embracing
portions of Tennessee and Kentucky, will be held
at Knoxville, Tenn., on Aug. 8.
* * •
The coal operators and miners of Kansas have
decided not to make a new scale in September,
but to continue until next spring under the present
agreement.
• * *
The strike at the Logan Coal Co.'s mines in the
Dunlo and Beaverdale districts of Pennsylvania
has been settled and the mines are again in operation.
* * *
The miners throughout Western Pennsylvania
will not take part in the Pittsburgh parade on
Labor Day.
The Jefferson & Clearfield Coal Co. has declared
dividends of 2y2 per cent, on the preferred and 5
per cent, on the common stock.