Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 June 1902 — SHOWS MINERS’ EARNING POWER [ARTICLE]

SHOWS MINERS’ EARNING POWER

President Mitchell States That Workers Make $1.42 Per Day. ARE FORCED TO ASK FOR MORE Cost of Living Has Increased to the Point Where More Wages Must Be Forthcoming—Compared to Pauper Labor of Europe. A dark picture of the condition of the anthracite miners of the Pennsylvania districts is painted by President Mitchell of the United Mine Workers of America in his address to the public, just issued. Mr. Mitchell in his address shows that the earning power of the miners is less than S3OO a year—sl.42 a day for fewer than 200 days of the year, to be exact—and he claims their condition is really but little above that of the pauper laborers of the old world. The address begins with the statement that the leaders of the miners have done everything in their power to have the questions in dispute settled by arbitration, laughs to scorn the statement of the operators that they are unable to pay higher wages to their men, and gives figures to prove the point Killed in the Mines. It is pointed out that more men are killed and injured in the anthracite mines of Pennsylvania annually than were killed or wounded during the Spanish-American war; and the claim is made that the miners, instead ol being paid for all the coal they mine, are really forced to dig from 2,740 to 3,190 pounds before the operators will call it a ton. The claim is made that the cost of living has increased to a point where the miner is compelled to ask for higher wages, denies the allegations of the operators that the productive Capacity of the mine workers has fallen off, and quotes official figures to substantiate the contention that the employers can pay higher wages without increasing the cost of coal to the consumer; asserts that the coal-car-rying railroads, which control about 85 per cent of the mines, absorb the profits of the coal companies by charging exorbitant freight rates. The direct statement is made in closing that in case the present union of miners is crushed, which, it is added, is not likely, a new organization that will be greater and stronger will arise from the ruins.