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Show BITUMINOUS MINERS SETTLE. CLEVELAND, March 29. The first step toward a stoppage In coal production pro-duction In the United States as a result re-sult of wage disputes was taken today to-day when the miners' union ordered 170,000 mlneis in tho anthracite re-' glons of Pennsylvania to quit work next Sunday at midnight. The suspension was ordered because be-cause of the operators' refusal to grant the union demands for Increased In-creased pay. The shutting down of the mines, the union officials say, will cause a loss In the coal production of the country of 7,083,000 bushels of anthracite an-thracite a month and will entail a loss In pay to tho miners of not less than $350,000 a day. Measures to induce miners and operators op-erators to renew negotiations broken off in New York several weeks ago, already are talked of. Settlement of the bituminous coal miners' wage disputo on a basis sat-lractory sat-lractory to both sides was announced late tonight as having been practically practi-cally arranged. The order for the anthracite miners min-ers to quit, soys: "Snennclnn nrdflr Tn nil finthra- citc mine workers: Your committee, to whom was delegated authority by the Pottsvillo convention to negotiate negoti-ate a wago contract, have, up to this time been unable to do so and Inasmuch Inas-much as the present wage agreement expires March 31, all mine workors except engineers, pumpmen, firemen, slabmcn, watchmen nnd such other men as are absolutely necessary for the proper protection of property, are hereby Instructed to suspend work beginning April 1, and remain idle until further notice" Summarized, tho facts about the suspension are: Number of miners to quit, 170,000 In Penns.Iania. Demands' Twenty per cent increase in-crease in pay; eight hours a day Instead In-stead of nine, complete recognition of the union; adoption of a system whereby the oporators would deduct from the pay tho union dues each month, and give It direct to the national na-tional union; modification of the conciliation con-ciliation board created in 1902 to cn-ablo cn-ablo employes to deal more directly with employers. One Instead of Ihrec-year contracts. Demands rejected by the operators on March 13, Offer of the operators to continue the present scale rejected by the miners. min-ers. Hopo of an early resumption after a short suspension was not abandoned. abandon-ed. It was declared the suspension might help in determining what steps might be taken in bringing both sides together. John T. Dcmpacy, of Scranton; Thomas Kennedy, of Hazelton, and John, Fahey of Shamokin, presidents of tho union anthraciito districts, sent n tolegram to Georgo F Bear, Penn-svlvanla Penn-svlvanla railroad president and operator, oper-ator, outlining tho terms upon which tho minors were willing to resume negotiations. ne-gotiations. Mr. Baer answered that he would agreo to a conference. A report that the operators wore not disposed to refuse all the demands, de-mands, but were willing to grant a slight wago increase was thought to have dono much toward creating a desire de-sire among the miner? to rnako tho suspension as short as possible. As sustaining their demands for increased in-creased pay tho union convention gave out thlB statement: "Our desire for a 20 per cent increase in-crease in pay will not seem unreasonable unreason-able when ft is learned that most of tho 170.0QO anthracite miners work a " "" iMMnn "tit fi ponIy about two-thirds of tho time. The average working time for each man Insllyear wa$' 240 days and -tho aver-ago aver-ago jsalary earned by each for tho year -Was about $500 or less than- $10 a wfcek. ' '. "Our men take greater rlBk "than they do In other countries. The total number of men killed in mines for the last ten years was 24,037. The yearlv record of deaths In mines Is. now about 2,800. In tho United States the death rate for 1,000 men is 3 91 as compared with 1.43 in Great Britain and It Is moro than double that of anv other coal producing country In Europe." President White at midnight said a compromise between tho operators' offer and the miners' defy had been agreed upon. Tho operators' committee commit-tee of ton, of which George Baer Is chairman, will meet with the anthracite anthra-cite miners in Now York at a date which will probably bo decided tomorrow. |