OCR Text |
Show WAR POWERS INVOKED 10 11 MIXES Word Is Passed That Intervention by Federal Fed-eral Authorities Has i Become Imperative. I Garfield Directs Union Men and Operators to Get Together in Scale Contro v e r s y. WASHINGTON, Nov. is The government gov-ernment stepped to the front today to force the miners and operators to negotiate ne-gotiate a new wuge agreement and resume re-sume work in the bituminous fields before be-fore the country is in the grip of a coal famine. Clothed witli all of his war time powers pow-ers as fuel administrator, and acting by dire'-t authority of the president's cabinet. cab-inet. Dr. H. A. tiarfield called a joint meeting of eeale mmmiTtfrt at wlrteh he was expected to give formal notice I that the time had come to resume min- I ing operations ou a normal scale. While the joint conference was set for this afternoon. Dr. Garfield found that a full aitendance could not be obtained, ob-tained, so it went over until tomorrow. Meanwhile word was passed that the strike situation had reached that point where action was regarded by federal authorities as absolutely imperative. There was no evidence, as presented to the cabinet, that the scale commit- tees, called here last week to negotiate a new waft6 areem?nt, bad made the least headway. Reports from the central cen-tral competitive fields, embracing the states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, strongholds of the L'nited Min? Workers of America,1 showed all mines shut down and not enough coal coming from non-union 'plants in other states to meet the normal nor-mal demand by several million tons. DRASTIC ACTION. IS DEMANDED. Other reports from widely separated sections brought the same story of a raprdlv vanishing coal supply, wit"h in-(ligations in-(ligations that hundreds of industrial plants would be forced to close shortly unless coal production was put back at! normal. In the view of many officials the situation was critical enough to demand de-mand drastic actiou. Although he would not discuss the nature na-ture of the, statement he was prepared to lav before the operators and miners, it was said on high authority that Dr. Garfield was prepared to present the situation forcibly to the chief representatives repre-sentatives of the1 mine owners and miners. min-ers. There was no intimation as to what direction governmental action (Continued on Page 4, Column 4.) INVOKE WAB POWERS TO WORK COAL MINES I (Continued From Page One.) would take in case the deadlock con tinned. Steps taken by Kansas to operate the mines under government authority, j ami fear by both sides that other states ; would do likewise,' were urged as a strong reason for quick settlement of all wage ditputes. The operators' scale committee &ent word to the miners that it was not ready to meet them in joint session. Commenting upon a statement issued tonight bv their executive committee denying thnt the conference "is being held up because of differences and in decisions ofi the part of the operators," spokesmen for the operators declared their entire policy has been under con- I aideration in their secret sessions. The probable attitude of the admia-istration admia-istration nnd the fact tbat the miners have not returned to work were naid to be the principal subiecta which have occupied their time. The failure of the United Mine Worker of America to tell the men to return to their jobs was ' said to have left the negotiations in virtually the same state as when the ; threat of a strike caused the break up of the Huffnlo meeting. Some of tke operators held the view ; that the government, acting through I Fuel Administrator Garfield, was a I "third party" to the contracts and that the wage scale laid down by the Washington agreement rould not ha ! i-hangvd without the authorization of Dr. Garfield and nssurances as to what changes would be allowed in maximum coal prices. other opera! r 'l.e !u ''.now tV. riewa of the director general of the railroads, as tho railroad ndminlstra tion is the largest single purchaser of coal in the eountrv. The department of juntlre was the third governmental agency Involved in the discussion, there i being a strong feeling among the oper ator that the government had nt ful filled its dutv in merelv ordering the j withdrawal of the strike order, but i Should prosecute vignnonlr miners re i fusing to go bsck to wnrk. Plans tit prractit this phase of the aituatiou to ' tit" nttornev general were changed Mien lr. Garfield's call for a conference a:' received |