Scanned from Public Opinion, December 18, 1902.

Since the anthracite coal strike commission resumed its sessions, on December 3, some very interesting testimony has been given by mine-workers relative to the conditions of their employment. The operators have already announced that they will rebut many of the statements made, and, if this is done, their side of the case will be given a hearing at a later date.

James Gallagher, who has worked for Markle & Co. for twenty-one years, stated that in all the time he worked for the company he only once had received any money, and that was $50. "We traded at the company store and got credit," he explained. "We had to buy provisions there, though the prices are from 10to 12 per cent higher than at other stores; but clothing, which is 20 per cent higher, we could buy elsewhere. I made an average of $1.25 a day every day of the years I've been working, I guess, but I was never out of debt. Sometimes I've owed the company a big amount—as high as $211 once. Every time I worked hard and reduced the debt until I was nearly clear, the company would take me out of the place where I was making $60 or $70 a month and put me in a place where I could not make $25, and then back into debt I'd be again."

Andrew Chippa, a breaker boy, employed by the same company, started to work last spring to wipe out a debt of $54 owed the company by his father when he was killed in the company's mines. The lad has not received any money for his work, but his earnings have been credited against the company's bill. As he has a mother and three brothers and sisters, his earnings have not been enough to reduce the bill. Instead it has grown to $88.17.

The first description of the work of a fireman was given when Jacob Ansbach, a Coxe employee, took the stand. He said that he worked one week from 6 A. M. to 4:30 P. M., and the next reversed these hours. His pay was $1.57 a day. Every other Sunday he worked twenty-four hours at a stretch. In the six years he had had his place, he paid between $700 and $800 on a house which he had bought for $900.

The most pathetic story yet told to the commission was that of Henry Call, a Markle employee. The old miner, decrepit from many injuries, told under the examination how the evictions were carried on. The wife was sick and her 100-year-old mother was blind and unable to walk. The day on which they were "thrown out" was rainy. He took them the best way he could to Hazelton, seven miles away, and placed them in a cold, damp, empty house. This was last month, when the atmosphere on the Hazelton mountain was quite cold. His wife became worse. Medical aid was kindly furnished free by a Hazelton doctor, but it did not help her much. "We were greatly worried because of our having been turned out of our house, and, one night," the witness said, between sobs, "she died."

W. H. Dettry, president of a local union, employed as a miner by Coxe Bros., said that company men are paid an average of $7.20 a week, and all contracters are required to stay in the mines from 7 A.M. until 3 P. M., regardless of whether they have enough cars to fill with coal they had mined. He said a black-list exists at the Coxe mines, and that he was on it for nine months, because he refused to work a breast which netted him only three dollars a week. He also complained of the docking system.

James McMonigle, a miner formerly employed by Markle & Co., said the breast he was working in was so dangerous that he complained to the company officials that he might be killed. He was told if he worked any other breast he would not be given any cars. He went out on strike, and after the suspension he was refused work and evicted from his house.

John Early, a check weighman, employed at the Gypsy Grove colliery of the Erie company, who was president of the Gypsy Grove "local," told, on stand, of an alleged attempt made by a former mine foreman named Grimes to bribe two presidents of local unions of the miners to have ten men in each local use their influence to have a resolution passed sending the men to work, thus making a serious break in solid ranks of the strikers. Each of the president was to receive $2,500 and a good position as mine foreman, and each of the ten men was to get from $100 to $200 each. Early refused the money and told Grimes he would see him later. Early reported the matter to District President Nichols, of the union, who gave out a public statement, in which he intimated bribery was being resorted to in order break the strike, and the whole thing fell through.

The Delaware and Hudson company presented figures to the commission December 10, they being the first certified statistics to be handed in. They show the average earnings of the miner in 1901 to have been $622.63, and his laborer $449.47. Mr. Mitchell, on the stand, said that $600 should be the minimum wage.

Father J. V. Hussie, pastor of St. Gabriel's church of Hazelton who has been a close friend of the miners, said, of the living conditions: "There has een much change in the last six years. The condition in and about Hazelton is deplorable. I say it without any coloring. The people are barely able to exist. The deplorable condition is most strikingly evident in cases of sickness, the sick being unable to secure bare necessities. Markle & Co. have a burial fund, because their people can not save enough money to insure them burial. The foreigners have burial societies. It is impossible to keep families together. The children have to leave their homes and get work. The average age when the miners' children leave school is little over eleven years."