Salt Lake Tribune | 1909-04-11 | Page 2 | Failure to Reach Any Wage Agreement

FAILURE 10 REACH m TOE AGREEMENT Hope Still Held Out That Troubles Trou-bles in Anthracite Regions Will Be Settled. PHILADELPHIA. In.. April 10. Despite De-spite many roiiforoiicos, conditions with regard to wages in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania remain unj changed tonight. Some of the mine workers entertain tho hopn that an amicable agreement will yi't bo reached. President Lewis made a statement this afternoon, giving a rcsumi; of the mine workers' sijlo of the controversy. ''It is said that the oporators havo granted a concession," slates Mi JjOwjb. "This 1 cannot understand, as the operators refuse to agrco to restore tho wages of thosi men which had been reduced during tho past throe years in direct violation of the award of the strike commission. "Tho 'Operators' representatives refused re-fused likewise to jwrmit tho minors' ropresenatives to sign any- proposition on behalf of the United Mino Workers of tho anthracite region. Views of Commission. "Great stress lias been givt'n to Iho strike commission's award by tho operators oper-ators in stating that the award did not provide for the signing of any agreement agree-ment with tho United Mine Workers. "As a matter of fact, the sl.riko emu-.mission emu-.mission not only believed that an agreement agree-ment should lin made with tho mino workors through ihoir organization, but recommended a form of agreement which is a matter of record. "It seems t.ho strike commission's award is to be made tho instrument of depriving tlio anthracite mine work-' work-' ers of every right that wago earners and citizens of this country should enjoy en-joy aVcortling to tho laws of the land. '"No one questions tho right of the mine owners to organize, a'o one has denied them the right to fix the selling prico of coal. No one has interfered, or, so far as wo know, oven attempted to interfere in their right to sell an-fhracito an-fhracito coal at such a irieo as they decide upon from month to month. "That they havo a perfect organization organiza-tion is evident from tho fact that they can issue orders at any time to advance or reduce tho selling ")rice of coal and that order is quite uniform in its application, ap-plication, liven now it. is reported that limy have notified their selling agents not to contract for largo tonnage, "Tho representatives of tho anthracite anthra-cite United Mino Workers were a unit in their position when supporting and defending propositions that were presented pre-sented and submitted to tho oporators."