“ f ^ U R E , w e try -’em p la n !” So th e F airm o n t coal loader explained to me w hy he and his hundreds of com panions had not together hired a law yer to fight for the thousands in back w ages owed them by a ban k ru p t m ine com pany. “ B ut one feller he w an ’ go dees w ay, and odder feller he w an ’ go odder way. N o can.”
“Ju st like us o p e ra to rs !” exclaim ed th e F airm o n t m anager w ho w as listen
ing.
T o g eth er the tw o rem arks told the story of these last m onths in the F a ir m ont region, and especially of these re cent weeks since the announcem ent by th e Consolidation Coal Co. of its new w age policy and its 12 to 15 per cent cut in n o rth ern W e st V irg in ia — a cut alm ost im m ediately followed, as ex
pected, by num erous re ta lia to ry reduc
tions to levels never before know n by th e present post-w ar dollar. P ay in g 37c. a ton for “m achine-m ined and drilled,” the “ Consol” is believed still to stand am ong th e hig h est of the com m ercial m ines. O f these, m any of the
“ w eight-pavers,” follow ing th e ir late M ay adjustm ents to the new C onsolida
tion level, are now paying betw een 2S and 32c. per ton, w hile th e loaders of some of th e “ ca r-p a y ers”' are believed by.
m any to be receiving as low as 20c.—
and less.
D ue to the scarcity of w ork in the com m ercial mines, these cuts appear to have been accepted by the m iners w ith out disorder, though a t one pit whose bulletin board of S aturday, M ay 31, a n nounced th a t day labor w ould be low ered from $3.60 to $2.80, and o th e r jo b s proportionately, M onday’s w histle failed to m uster any w orkers.
P ric es being w h a t they are, th is m ine’s resu ltan t shutdow n probably has m eant slight loss to the operator. By the same token, the addition of his w orkers to th e list of the d istric t’s u n employed, or under-em ployed, will h ard ly make any noticeable increase in th e ag g re g ate m isery of an a re a whose present cup of distress runs over, quite w ithout the fu rth e r burden of its w o rry as to when and w here th e dreadful gam e of tit-fo r-ta t is to be ended and the new w age bottom finally reached.
S ta rv in g coal m iners are, u n fo rtu nately, not unheard of in A m erica, but usually h unger is due to w orklessness.
It is som ething new in my experience to visit a d istric t w here not onlv the
g ro cers but the m erchants, bankers, editors, and op erato rs alike stand ready to speak of m iners w ho w ork anyw here from one to four and five days a week, yet w hose net earnings nevertheless keep them and th e ir fam ilies eith er in o r n ea r the bread line. E ven the
“ supers” and th e m anagers, helpless in the absence of orders, appear relieved to express th e ir com bined hope and w on
der. “ W ith th e help of this last cut,”
explained one of these, “ we ought to get a certain contract. B ut m eanw hile, how — w ith lately only one o r tw o days' w ork a week— how do they m anage to exist ?”
M any of th e local m ining com panies, it m ust of course be rem em bered, p u r
sue the even te n o r of th e ir lucky
“ captive” w ay, w ith th e ir w orkers surely th a n k in g God each m orning for steady w ork a t w ages protected, for the present at least, from the deadly g n aw ings of the alm ost w olfish com petitive hunger. B ut these establishm ents are not so num erous as to p revent th e dis
tric t p resenting a picture ab h o rren t to every self-respecting citizen.
I
R E F E R not so much to th e h u n g er of thousands of local part-tim e w orkers as to the state of local publicW h itin g W illiam s, w ho h e re s u r
veys th e eco n o m ic s itu atio n in th e F a irm o n t d istrict fo r C oal A g e , b rin g s to h is w o rk a b ro a d b a c k g ro u n d a n d sy m p a th e tic u n d e r s ta n d in g o f in d u stria l relatio n s.
T ra in e d a t O b c rlin , C h icag o , a n d th e U n iv e rsity o f B erlin ; assistant to th e p re sid e n t o f O b e rlin fo r e ig h t years; ex ecu tiv e secre tary of th e C lev elan d W e lfa re F e d e ra tio n fo r five years; M r. W illiam s th rew u p th e ro u tin e d u ties o f p e rso n n el d ire c to r a n d v ice-p resid en t o f th e H y d ra u lic S teel C o. to sp e n d fo u r y e ars as a co m m o n la b o re r in th e co al m ines a n d steel m ills in U n ite d S ta te s a n d E u ro p e . S ince th a t tim e h e h as w ritte n a n d lec tu re d exten siv ely o n in d u stria l relatio n s.
Personnel Consultant Cleveland, Ohio
opinion created by th e ir condition. I have w orked alongside th e coal loader enough to know how com m only he m urm urs and m utters about the” dis
honesty not only of his em ployer but even of his own duly elected rep resen ta
tive a t the tipple scales. N o r need any careful observer tak e too seriously th e discontented S ocialists an d th e ir v ocifer
ous p reaching of the “ crim es of capi
talism ” to increasing crow ds in the locality. B ut it is a new experience to find, as I have lately found in the F a ir m ont region, th e m em bers of every p a rt of the local com m unity, from top to bot
tom, com pletely persuaded th a t th is o p era to r o r th a t one reg u larly g ets m ost of his present profits from the coal stolen from his m iners on either his m ine cars o r his tipple’s scales !
I ’m not saying th a t I believed these stories. T h a t’s not im portant. B ut it is im portant th a t w hole com m unities of av erag e, self-respecting A m erican people do believe them . U ndoubtedly, such public im pressions and convictions bud' and blossom in the frequency w ith w hich receivership follows receivership, and especially in the w idespread rancor created w hen th e ban k ru p t is shortly observed to be the real pu rch aser of some o th e r mine.
T h e public repercussions of all this experience are, quite naturally, enough to persuade the d istric t th a t som ew here, somehow, a M oses m ust be found' equipped to lead it into a b etter era—
and soon. T h e trouble is th a t no un anim ity w hatever appears to exist as to ju s t w hich M oses it shall be.
Some suggest th a t m em ber of the Moses fam ily surnam ed U ncle Sam.
H is leadership would, of course, include not sim ply F a irm o n t and W e st V irg in ia but th e en tire country. F o rth w ith , these believe, th e presen t destructive com petition w ould cease— a consum m ation devoutly to be prayed for, in spite of its fo rcin g some hundreds of thousands of m iners to seek w ork elsew here. N o t m any ta x p ay e rs and few er business men, how ever, ap p ear to view th is U ncle Sam M oses w ith any
th in g but m isgivings. B ut, it is signifi
372 C O A L A G E — Vol.35,
No.6-P u b l i c A N N O U N C E M E N T
by th e C o n s o li d a ti o n C o a l
associations and o ther tools for solidifying th e ir buying technique.
N O T E S
Fig. 2— Four Collapsible Props
plains th a t the sand can be made to fall in th e ja ck and move upw ard through release openings by rapping on th e e x te rio r of th e pipe. Such gentle suasion on fine m aterial is m ore effective by fa r th a n pressure. T h is quality of fine m aterial is utilized in freein g the props before . rem oval. F o u r of the props, illustrated, have screw tops : th e B aron M asham , the M annesm an, the R einhard, and the B aird. O f these, the B aird is of recent introduction.
Some props, those w ith screw s being notable exceptions, seem better designed to hold the load w hen set than well fitted for rapid erection in coal of vary in g
height. W h e re small wood blocks a re used, how ever, it w ould be possible to have m any of these blocks on hand of v ary in g length, but one w onders some
tim es w ith the sand o r fine-coal cushion prop, how easy it is to g ag e ju s t how' much sand o r small coal should be put in a prop to m ake it of the correct length for shouldering its proportion of the load under com pression. In fact, th a t is a v irtu e of the incom pressible prop. W hen it is set up, it is quite clear ju s t how much tim ber m ust be set over it to b rin g it up to the roof. T h is provided, an equal roof descent will b rin g an equal load on the ja ck unless the cap pieces and bottom pieces a re in one case much thicker th a n in another, or the tim ber of unequal com pressibility.
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