The Strike

Chairman John H. Uhl, John Johnson, President of the International Correspondence School and the nestors of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Schuylkill Counties, Pennsylvania, spent a busy week talking, traveling. They were members of the Citizens' No Strike Committee, which presented itself as a battledore and shuttlecock between the estranged parties to an impending anthracite coal strike.

Never once did the committee come within four aces of averting a strike. It would have been infra dig for both operators and miners (accustomed to the intervention of U. S. Presidents, or, at the least, of Pennsylvania Governors) to lie down together at the behest of the local citizenry.

But the committee served one glorious purpose. To John L. Lewis, round-faced round-bodied President of the United Mine Workers, the committee furnished a respectful audience for one of the greatest oratorical masterpieces of his career.

For three hours Mr. Lewis uttered speech of bewildering power drawn from argument and emotion, fact and fancy, figures and phrases. Most incisively he attacked the operators' propaganda that any increases in wages must be paid by the public. They should be paid, said Mr. Lewis, from the operators' enormous profits. And he cited endless statistics to prove the enormousness of the profit,--for example, said he, the Lehigh and Wilkesbarre Coal Co. made $7,182,000 or 31% on its investment in 1924, would make over $11,000,000 or 51% in 1925, issued a 200% stock dividend in April, 1924, and paid an extra dividend of $3 a share in January, 1925.

But, like many orators before him, Mr. Lewis did not achieve by speech his apparent object. He did not convince the absent operators.

Two days later, all pretense of negotiation having been abandoned, the following notice issued from the Hotel Bellevue-Stratford, Philadelphia.

Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 27, 1925

To the officers and members of local unions of Districts 1, 7 and 9, United Mine Workers of America.

Dear Sirs and Brothers:

The present, agreement between the anthracite operators and mine workers expires Aug. 31, 1925. Your Scale Committee, charged with the responsibility of making a new contract has been unable to arrive at any understanding as effecting wages or conditions of employment to be effective after Aug. 31, 1925. Therefore, our membership in Districts Nos. 1, 7 and 9 is advised that no contract being in effect a suspension of mining will automatically take place at midnight, Monday, Aug. 31, 1925.

Concerning the question of maintenance men remaining at work during the suspension we advise that proper instructions will be issued to our membership, as an agreement covering this subject can be consummated with the representatives of the anthracite operators. Please hold yourselves in readiness to put our policy with respect to maintenance work into effect as soon as possible after receipt of its contents.

Your Scale Committee will continue to exercise every influence to bring about, if possible, a general agreement which will mean substantial progress for the anthracite mine workers. We will endeavor from time to time to keep you fully advised as to the situation. We hope that the utmost co-operation will be exercised between our membership and the Scale Committee.

JOHN L. LEWIS,

International President.

PHILIP MURRAY,

International Vice President.

THOMAS KENNEDY,

International Secretary-Treasurer.

RINALDO CAPPELLINI,

President District No. 1.

ANDREW MATTEY,

President District No. 7.

C.J. GOLDEN,

District No. 9.

UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA.

A new arrangement regarding maintenance men was made, more satisfactory to the miners than any --in previous strikes. Ten thousand men--bratticers, carpenters, drivers, doormen, headmen, footmen, engineers, pumpmen, lumbermen, etc.--will stay at the mine throughout the strike, will receive retroactively any increase in wages when operations are resumed, will not be discharged by the operators.

And so, at midnight August 1, the strike--technically a mere "sus- pension" due to expiration of all existing wage agreements--began.

Many miners are immigrants-- chiefly Poles, Russians. There were indications that several thousand would take this opportunity to recross the Atlantic--one was returning to Central Europe with $10,000, enough to buy up his native thorp.

How long will the strike last? To determine this point in the horoscope are three loci.

1) Sometime the miners will get bored with their vacation.

2) Sometime the operators will have sold their large accumulated stocks of coal.

3) Sometime the politicians may hear the public calling them to intervene.

The first point is calculated to be before October 10; the second about November 1; the third about December 1. Averaging these three dates, would put the result about where the operators want it. The theory of miners' tactics is to wait until accumulated coal is sold or until public officials intervene (the latter being a consummation devoutly undesired by operators-- or, at least, so the miners think.) Then the miners hope to wring concessions from the operators.

But even John L. Lewis has not offered a guess as to the probable duration of the strike. And it is a safe guess that if Mr. Lewis had guessed, his guess would prove to be wrong.