People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1894 — STRIKERS GAINING. [ARTICLE]

STRIKERS GAINING.

Leaders of the Miners Wee in Encouraged with the Situation. Columbus, 0., April 26.—The fourth day of the great coal strike brought encouraging news to the national officers of the United Mine Workers, and they are confident that the general suspension will be a success. They expect a complete shut-down on May 1. when the contracts of a large number of miners who are now at work will expire. Telegrams have poured into tlie national headquarters all day from operators asking permission to work mines at the prices demanded under certain conditions. In every instance these requests have been denied, President McBride declaring that the order for suspension adopted by the miners specifically provided that no coal should be loaded. Only repair work about the mines is allowed under any circumstances. There are many operators who are anxious for a conference and who would gladly pay the prices demanded by the miners if such a thing could be arranged. The national officers of the miners, however, are determined not to yield at any point until the operators and miners in every district can be brought together and agree upon a scale of prices so that the miners in all sections of the country can resume work on equal conditions. Illinois miners in convention at Springfield indorsed the strike ordered by the national bodj r and adopted a political platform. W. A. Crawford, of Bryant, was elected president of the Illinois branch of the United Mine Workers of America.