i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org
i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org
i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org
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36 THE <strong>COAL</strong> TRADE BULLETIN.<br />
THE GERMAN <strong>COAL</strong> STRIKE.<br />
Close to 300.000 men are involved in the German<br />
coal strike which began on January 12. In their<br />
main contentions the German miners seek to<br />
better their conditions as to wages and hours,<br />
and in so far they have the entire sympathy and<br />
support of the public. In addition to their demands<br />
for an eight-hour day, six-hour shifts in<br />
times of oppressive heat, the regulation of weighing<br />
the miners' output, a minimum wage of $1.25<br />
for cutters and 87Vi cents for helpers and extra<br />
pay for overtime labor, the miners have grievances<br />
arising out of the policy of the syndicate controlling<br />
all the mines in the strike district except<br />
those owned by the government, in arbitrarily<br />
closing down certain workings in order to limit<br />
tlie production.<br />
The facts that the miners entered upon a general<br />
strike, in spite of extraordinary efforts of the<br />
German emperor to prevent such a step, and that<br />
they have the powerful support of the Socialists,<br />
indicated a long and bitter contest. The mine<br />
owners, however, determined on January 26 to inform<br />
the government they would accept any judgment<br />
a parliamentary commission might render<br />
after an inquiry into the grievances of the miners<br />
and would immediately remove the grievances.<br />
The resolution, which binds all the members of<br />
the coal syndicate, suggested that the interior<br />
department's commission already at work be authorized<br />
by the Prussian diet to act for the diet.<br />
Although the Prussian minister of commerce and<br />
industry, announced in the reichstag recently that<br />
the government was not willing to undertake a<br />
revision of the general mining laws during the<br />
strike, a conference with Chancellor von Buelow<br />
apparently led to a different decision. A semiofficial<br />
publication states the Prussian ministry<br />
will at an early day lay before the diet a bill for<br />
revising the law in such a way as to be equivalent<br />
to granting all the essential demands of the<br />
strikers.<br />
The scene of the strike lies in Westphalia and<br />
Rhenish Prussia. There was some rioting at the<br />
outset but troops were promptly sent to the affected<br />
districts since which time order has been<br />
maintained. The last important strike in the<br />
German mines took place in 18S9. Then about<br />
100.000 men went out in Westphalia and the<br />
Rhine provinces, and, although the strike was<br />
settled in less than two weeks, there were fatal<br />
collisions between troops and the populace, fires<br />
were extinguished in many f<strong>org</strong>es and factories,<br />
and uie whole empire felt the disruption of normal<br />
conditions very severely. Intervention by the<br />
emperor brought about concessions to the miners<br />
and industrial peace. There have been many industrial<br />
strikes in Germany within the last year.<br />
A recent consular report states that during the<br />
months of July, August and September, 1904, 678<br />
strikes were commenced or were in progress in the<br />
empire. During the same period 579 strikes were<br />
brought to a close. Of this number 165 were<br />
successful, 203 were unsuccessful, and 211 were<br />
partially successful. A large majority of these<br />
strikes took place in the mining and building<br />
industries.<br />
The remarkable industrial development of the<br />
German empire has been based largely upon the<br />
strenuous and notably successful efforts to make<br />
the most of rather meager and inaccessible coal<br />
measures. By great energy in overcoming broken<br />
formations, thin beds of coal, deep shafts and<br />
inferior quality in many deposits, the product of<br />
the German empire has been pushed up within fair<br />
distance of the yield of Great Britain. It is generally<br />
conceded, however, that not even German<br />
scientific methods, thoroughness and low wages<br />
can make coal really cheap in Germany. The<br />
measures lie too deep and the deposits are not<br />
rich enough. As German industries depend upon<br />
coal for much of their scope and vitality, and<br />
scarcity of fuel cannot be overcome by science,<br />
patient labor or anything else, it is obvious that<br />
a coal strike which covers the principal fields in<br />
the German empire must be an event of international<br />
importance.<br />
CONTRACTS WERE NOT RENEWED.<br />
Contracts of the Pittsburgh Coal Co. with M. A.<br />
Hanna & Co. and Pickands, Mather & Co., both of<br />
Cleveland, made at the time of the formation of<br />
the Pittsburgh company, expired by limitation on<br />
January 1. Under these contracts the Pittsburgh<br />
Coal Co. furnished these parties with coal with<br />
which they supplied their customers on the Great<br />
Lakes on a commission basis, which arrangement<br />
proved to have been more remunerative to the<br />
two firms than to the coal producer. Now that<br />
the contracts have expired, these parties will purchase<br />
their coal supply elsewhere and the Pittsburgh<br />
company will not be restricted in marketing<br />
its coal on the lakes as it was during the life<br />
of these contracts.<br />
Miners Asked To Pay For Strike.<br />
The Silverbrook Coal Co. of Wilkesbarre has filed<br />
claim with the conciliation board that the mine<br />
workers at their colliery, who twice recently went<br />
on short strikes, should pay the company $2,000.<br />
The conipany officials maintain that the strikes<br />
were a violation of the strike commission's findings<br />
and were unauthorized, and that as the company<br />
was put to considerable expense in maintaining<br />
the colliery without workers the mine<br />
workers who struck should pay for the loss. The<br />
demand will shortly be considered by the conciliation<br />
board.