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Show Mining and Financial . BEYOND the annual strike of 'the smelter employes at Murray and the strike of the coal miners of Carbon county, this state has had little experience with strikes, labor troubles and the wage question. Because of this unfamiliarity our people are wary of the animal. They are afraid to approach It from the front lest it may bite or from the rear because it may kick. Those who venture into the vicinity vi-cinity at all, walk as carefully as if they were treading on eggs ana eggs sixty cents a dozen. Yet the wage question Is one of the most Important Import-ant factors in mining. The pay roll is the big item of expense in connection connec-tion with the metal production and the value of mining stock turns largely upon the cost of labor. The daily newspapers did not say much about the threatened strike at Bingham before be-fore it was called, and the actual walkout walk-out at Alta because they are possessed of an ostrich-like instinct which bids them bury their heads in the sand; an illusion that what they do not chronicle chron-icle will not exist. Such arguments as they do publish are delicate roseleaf affairs, plucked in the garden of sentiment. senti-ment. The defense of the strike agitation agi-tation is that the miners, like the rest of us, are having the dickens of a time trying to buy what they need with what they make; that they work pretty hard and are killed or maimed with considerable regularity. All this is sentiment, humane sentiment perhaps, per-haps, but still sentiment. Nor is the argument on the other side more practical. The Bingham companies claim credit for increasing wages 25 cents a day all round when everyone knows that Increased mining min-ing activity and emigration have pro. duced a scarcity of mine labor from Michigan clear to the coast and forced wages up in every section. They exhibit ex-hibit also the threadbare argument that they should not be asked to treat with the miners because the miners' representatives are not their own employes. em-ployes. All these pleas are purely for effect on the public. Why not speak up frankly and explain the facts? There is nothing particularly dangerous danger-ous or sensational In the truth. A clear understanding In which neither side tries to lool the other or itself, Is more likely to bring a peaceful and satisfactory settlement than to aggra vate the trouble. Labor is a commodity possessed by the miner and he has to sU it to make a living. It is a commodity that the mine operator must buy- if he Ib to continue operations. In actual practice there is very little difference between selling labor and selling copper. The Beller wants to get as big a price as he can; the buyer Wants to pay as little as the seller will accept. If the seller of labor or copper asks a higher price than other producers of the commodity com-modity his offer Is reacted. If he forces the prfce to such a figure that there is no profit left for the prospective pros-pective buyer, he destroys his own market. On the side of the miners there are just two questions worth considering. One is: Can the mine owners get a sufficient quantity of this labor elsewhere at the prevailing price? The other: Can the mine owners pay what we ask and still make the prevailing profit on the capital cap-ital invested). The questions that confront the mining companies are: Can we get the labor We require for less than the price asKed by these vendors? and, will it be cheaper for us in the long run to buy the labor for what the vendor asks, or wait until un-til he is willing to accept a lower price? That is a cold-blooded way of stating stat-ing the case, but it is a fair statement state-ment and the beauty of recognizing it is that It points the way to a peaceful peace-ful solution of moat wage disputes. If the questions on both sides could be answered conclusively In advance there never would bo a strike, for a strike is the crude and costly way we have of getting the answer. The mining camps in which miners and mine owners turn their cards face up and assist each other in replying to the four leading queries are seldom disturbed by walkouts or lockouts. For this reason there is no need to worry about Tintic, Alta or Park City. Unless policies have changed very recently, the matter of wages will be settled amicably in all three camps and the earnings of the mines will not be cut to any great extent. The result In Bingham is not so easy to predict for the spirit shown on each side is far less friendly. (The Btrike was called after this was written.) Very many of the Utah mining dis-tricts dis-tricts owe their immunity from labor troubles to the manner In which their mines are capitalized. At first glance there is no connection apparent between be-tween the par value of a share ana the attitude of the working miners, but if you will go to Eureka in the Tintic district and find out the number num-ber of mining shares held by those same working miners you will see that there is a connection. As stock-holders stock-holders the miners are in a position to take a look at both sides of the wage question. They know just how it feels to pay an assessment and (realize from experience that mine-owning mine-owning involves liabilities as well as dividends. The low price per share is the quality that Induces the miners min-ers to Invest In stock and puts them in sympathy with the other stockholders. stock-holders. Where shares are quoted In two figures, as with some of the coppers, cop-pers, the employes are excluded virtually vir-tually from partnership and tnoir Interests In-terests are solely those of wage earn ers. |