Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1902 — THE GREAT COAL STRIKE. [ARTICLE]

THE GREAT COAL STRIKE.

Exodus of Anthracite Miners May Solve the Difficulty. Unless the anthracite strike is soon settled there is a probability that the entire region will be deserted by its adult miners. When the strike was still young one of the district leaders said that if necessary, in order to win, the strikers' officials would take every miner out of the region, finding work for them elsewhere, and not leaving enough mine workers to operate a single colliery. It seems that the threat was no idle boast. Already 45,(MX) adult miners have left the region and have found profitable work elsewhere. And now it is claimed npon what appears to be excellent authority that 50,000 more miners can be given work in the soft coal regions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, lowa, Kentucky and Tennessee. Should these 50,000 leave the hard coal districts the strike situation would be greatly simplified. When the strike was inaugurated there were only 105,000 adult miners, the remaining 45,000 affected by the cessation of labor being composed of boys, old men, bosses and unclassified workers about the mines. Thus it can be seen at a glance that the plaiting of 50,000 additional strikers at work in soft coal districts will force the operators either to grant the concessions demanded, or abandon their mines, in which is Invested the vast sum of $511,500,000. With the adult miners removed from the anthracite region it will be impossible for the operators to work their mines, even though they could import 100,000 men. The Stale law provides that no man shall he allowed to mine j:oal unless he has a certificate and to get a certificate it is necessary to have two years’ experience in the mines and pass an examination. The obtaining of work outside the anthracite fields for the strikers also greatly simplifies the distribution of relief funds. At the national convention iri Indianapolis measures for such a fund were taken. The bituminous miners by a system of assessment will pay approximately $250,000 a week -into this fund and the moneys received from other branches of organized labor will swell the total to $500,000 a week or about. $2,000,000 a month. This, coupled with the fact that so many miners arc earning good wages elsewhere and that work can be obtained by 50,000 more of them, will be sufficient to keep from want the families of the strikers and the few who may remain unemployed. If the robbing of the anthracite field of its adult miner* goes on, the operators will be forced to come to term* nnd to admit after all that there is something to arbitrate. •