The Operator's Side

Scanned from  Public Opinion, December 25, 1902.

THE presentation of the operators' side of the coal strike controversy was opened December 17 before the commission sitting at Scranton. In the statement made on behalf of all the large operators, the respondents concede the right of labor to organize for its protection and to benefit the conditions of the laborer, but they feel that to be subject to any control of a bituminous coal organization would end in the ruin of the anthracite coal business in Pennsylvania.

As to wages it was claimed that contract miners in the anthracite field earn $600 per annum or more, and that many of them earn upward of $1,000 a year, and that all laborers are paid higher wages than those employed in other occupations of equal skill and training. Comparative figures were given showing the truth of this assertion.

As to the adoption of a system by which coal shall be weighed, and fixing a minimum rate per ton, it was claimed that in the larger part of the anthracite coal field, owing to the pitch of the veins and other conditions, it is not only impracticable but almost impossible to adopt such a system.

As to the claim for the reduction of the hours of labor, without any reduction of earnings, it was asserted that miners and laborers do not now work eight hours, and that as to the miners, in a majority of cases, they work less than six.

The alleged unfairness of the wage statements came to the notice of the commission as a result of its inquiry into the child labor question. Several little girls testified that they worked all night in a silk mill in order to help their fathers along, who were employed in the mines and received poor pay. The Erie company, in whose mines some of these fathers worked, handed to the commission a memorandum showing that one father last year received about $1,400 for himself and laborer, and that the other father received $1,600 for himself and laborer. The miners placed the two parents on the stand, and they swore that the earnings mentioned were divided among from four to six men. Testimony was also introduced showing that in many cases, how many the companies' representatives could not say, the wage of a gang of two to six men was put down as the wage of the one man to whom the collective wage was paid.

Later in the week much testimony was introduced relative to boycotting and violence in the mine regions. One witness said a member of the miners' union threatened to kill him if he did not stop working, and finally did shoot him. The offender was sent to prison.

John Hoffman, and his son, and the son's wife, said a crowd of strikers visited their home at midnight to harm the son, who was putting in a boiler in the Upper Lehigh colliery. He fled five miles to another town, and the crowd smashed the furniture and attempted to burn the house.

Another witness said he and his wife were hung in effigy in the streets of Nanticoke, the effigy of the wife being of a most offensive character.

Mrs. Kate McNamara of Parsons, the mother of four small children, whose husband was in the mines, and could not come home for fear of bodily harm, testified that their house was destroyed by fire at night and she and her children were rescued with difficulty.

August Scheuch of Hazleton, who worked for the Lehigh Valley company, testified that he was attacked by a mob while he and his sons were going to work. He was severely injured by stones, was stabbed three times, and had five ribs broken.

John Doran, manager of the Wilkesbarre lace mills, testified that because he would not discharge two girls who had relatives working in the mines the 1,100 employees went on strike and stayed out eight weeks.

These witnesses and others who were called, testified that their wives were insulted on the streets, the children were beaten by other children, and could not be safely sent to school, that local unions requested storekeepers to refrain from selling to any one related to a man working in the mines; that their houses were stoned, that they were stoned, shot at, and hung in effigy, and that life generally was made miserable for them and their families. Most of the witnesses connected strikers with the offenses alleged.