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COAL TRADE BULLETIN^
Vol. XII. PITTSBUKGH, PA., APRIL 1, 1905. No. 9.
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN:
PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH.
Copyrighted by THE COAL TRADE COMPANY, 1004
A. R. HAMILTON, Proprietor and Publisher,
H. J. STRAUB, Managing Editor.
SUBSCRIPTION, - - - - $2.00 A YEAR
Correspondence and communications upon all matters
relating to coal or coal production are invited.
All communications and remittances to
THK COAL TRADE COMPANY.
926-930 PARK* BUILDING, PITTSBURGH, PA.
Long Distance Telephone 250 Grant.
[Entered at the Post Office at Pittsburgh, Pa., as
Second Class Mail Matter.]
OPERATORS AND MINERS OF THE CENTRAL
PENNSYLVANIA BITUMINOUS DISTRICT
ARE INVOLVED IN A DEAD-LOCK—
ANOTHER MEETING OF THE JOINT
SCALE COMMITTEE IS PROPOSED FOR
APRIL 4—MEANWHILE MOST COLLIER­
IES WILL BE IDLE.
After a disagreement, March 28, of the joint
scale conference of the Central Pennsylvania
bituminous district, which met at Altoona on
March 16, the operators of the district are in
session to-day at Philadelphia considering the
ultimatum presented by the miners. This ultimatum
is, in substance, that the operators must
renew the present scale. In the event of their
failure to agree to do so, the mines are to remain
idle until an agreement is made. if the operators
agree to-day to pay the scale, the miners are
to remain at work until April 5, by which time
the operators must sign the scale, otherwise operations
are to cease until the scale is signed. Up to
the present time the operators have been practically
a unit in the determination to obtain concessions
from the miners and few of them have
been willing to even consider the conditions under
which the latter agree to remain at work.
At the time adjournment was taken the
miners had refused a concession from the operators
who offered a ten per cent, horizontal reduction
on the present scale to rule from April 1 to
September 31, and the present scale to rule from
October 1 to March 31, 1906, the latter clause becoming
effective only upon the condition that no
coal tax bill be passed by the legislature. The
miners offered instead to accept the present scale
in its entirety.
The conference, at its flrst session, on the afternoon
of March 16, was called to order by President
James Kerr, of the Beech Creek Coal & Coke
Co. W. B. Wilson, national secretary-treasurer of
the miners' organization, was elected chairman
and George E. Scott, manager and treasurer of
the Puritan Coal Mining Co., was named as secretary.
The rules of the last previous conference
were adopted, after which the
PROPOSITION OF THE MINERS
was presented. As indicated by the announced
action of the sub-district and district conventions,
it provided for a rate of 66 cents per ton for pick
mining and six cents per ton additional in all
veins less than four feet thick, and that the differential
between pick and machine mining be reduced
to seven cents per ton. The contents of the
document were as follows:
We, your committee on scale, beg leave to present
the following for your consideration:
First. That the pick mining rate be 66 cents
per gross ton. or its equivalent per net ton, and
that all coal under four feet shall be paid six
cents per ton additional; all other differentials to
be maintained with present increase.
Second. Machine mining: That we demand a
flat differential of seven cents per ton between
pick and machine-mined coal, and where chain
machines are in use that the machine runners be
required to prepare their own bottom.
Third. Day wage scale for eight hours' work:
Cutting by the day $3.18
Scrapping or helpers 2.54
Motormen by the day 2.72