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Show IE OPERATORS TO IE OFFER OF SETTLEMENT Counter Proposal Expected When Wage Parleys Are1 Renewed This Morning. Advance Averaging Twenty Per Cent Is Said to Have Been Agreed Upon. I I (Chicago Tribune Special Service.) j WASHINGTON. Nov. 16.- With the mine waige confren"f duo to get down to the business of negotiating tomorrow, the oixrators were In conference till a lato hour tonight framing- the counter proposals pro-posals they will make to the miners' de-maud? de-maud? of a thirty-hour week and 60 per cent advance in pay. If the operators have their way the en tiro negotiations wtU deal with the question of increased pay. They are not disposed to give serious consideration to the establishment of a thirty hour week and In assuming this attitude they feel they have the complete support of Secretary Secre-tary of Labor Wilson, who pronounced the six-hour day and the five-day wwk demanded de-manded by the miners an Impossibility in lew of the urgent need of maximum vro-ductjon vro-ductjon of the necessities of life. ' The conferences or the operators tonight to-night w us devoted almost exclusively to discussion of the wage negotiations they j are prepared to muke. Somo of the operators oper-ators argued In favor of readjustment of wages on a tasis that It was flgurcJ would average an advance of CO per cent. Bank-to-liank Demands. The miners' demand for the reckoning of the dy's tlnie "from bank io bank." also was taken up by the operators. At present the miner Is pld from the time he begins actually digging coal to the time he ceases digging. The miners want pay for the time consumed in descending from the pit moJth and reaching the scene of digging and in returning to the pit mouth. Acting President .Lewis "of the Mine Workers said tonight that he was awaiting await-ing the operators' counter proposal tomorrow to-morrow before considering his next move. He is preparing data designed to show that the Increased cost of living Justifies the miners' 60 per cent Increased wage demands and Hwtt this demand makes due allowances for such pay Increases as the miners have recel ed since 1914. Tho strike caused a 71 per cent reduction reduc-tion in the output of bituminous coal, according to the geological survey, which said today: "The production of bituminous cnnl in the week of November S. during which the strike was in progress, is estimated at 3,477,000 tons, or approximately 29 per cent of t he average for tho four weeks ended October US, in which production pro-duction was at the highest rate attained this year. Slump in Production. "As Indicated in tho reports from the mines for tho week of November 1. this production was outside of the central competitive district, which includes Illinois, Illi-nois, Indiana, Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Penn-sylvania. "The union fields were almost completely com-pletely shut down, the open shop districts dis-tricts but partially, and the nonunion fields little, if any, affected. Thus production pro-duction was mainly in tho general territory terri-tory extending from parts of western and central Pennsylvania, south to Alabama. Ala-bama. In western Kentucky, Utah, Colorado, Colo-rado, and New Mexico. The only fields normally supplying the upper and central Mississippi Valley markets at work were those In southern West Virginia and Kentucky. "Production in tho week of November S was. of course, tho lowest recorded in recent years, for no strike has ever before be-fore affected all union mines at the same time as has this one. The daily average output in the week, of 530,000 tons, was 34 per cent greater than on Saturday, November 1. the first day of the strike." No Threat of Strike. WASHINGTON, Nov. 16. Negotiation of a new wage scalo in the soft coal industry in-dustry stood in much tho same situation tonight as when miners and operators met at Buffalo in September to frame a contract to replace the Washington wage agreement. This time, however, tnere was no threat of a Strike, and both bides were ready to resume their conference tomorrow in tho hone of reaching a quick settlement. Some o tho oporators protested that union miners had failed to return to work as ordered by Federal Judge Andor-son Andor-son at Indianapolis, and In the face oi withdrawal of the strl.ee order by officials offi-cials of the United Mine Workers of Vm erica It was Intimated that this would be brought up at the joint conference confer-ence John U Lewis, acting president o' the miners organisation, Still holding the miners' demands just, took Issue todav to-dav with the statement of Secretary Wilson Wil-son that a wage Increase of 60 per cent would make them a favored class of workers. The demands submitted to t.ie opera-to-s' yesterday reaffirmed the six-hour day. hut omitted cfcrenco to "irom bank tConttuueu ou rage o. Column J..J COAL OPERATORS TO OFFER SETTLEMEHT (Continued From Page One.) to bank," Lewis explained. The miners now are asking a maximum of six hours' working time in the mines. The time required re-quired to ko down into the mines and return re-turn to the surface would add an average aver-age of about a half-hour to the day, Lewis said. There was no indication today that operators op-erators outside the central competitive fields lmended to accept any agreement which might be reached in that territory in advance of the agreement itself. Mr. Lewie declared that miners' representatives repre-sentatives from outlying districts would remain here until a settlement in the coal Industry is reached. "I think tho operators will negotiate with them if they expect to operate their properties," he said. |