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Show ALLIANCE OF GREAT UNIONS CONFAB TOPIC President Lewis Says Con- ference Will Be Fruitful of Results HOLD MORE MEETINGS Operators Asked to Meet in Plan to Ward Off Fuel Strike CHICAGO, Feb. 21. ' A defense alliance" al-liance" was up for discussion here today to-day by coal mine and railway union I leaders who assembled on the invita-Itlon invita-Itlon of John i Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America Fifteen of the sixteen major railway ! unions accepted Lewie' Imitation to participate In the conference Mr. I Lewis said he was confident that the conference would be "fruitful of rc-I rc-I suits." He also said that other con-ferences con-ferences in the future would probably 1 le necessary before any final program ;ior the alliance might be adopted. The threatened miners' strike on 1 April first according to the miners officials, of-ficials, was In no way connected with the proposed alliance, but the officials 1 said their hope was to create a potential po-tential utrength in two basic Industries of such force as to prevent any arbitrary arbi-trary wage reductions by employers without conferences with the workers. OPERATORS INVITED. President John 1 Iewls of the United Unit-ed Mine Workers of America today asked coal operators of the centra', competitive field comprising the states Ol Illinois. Indlnna. fihlo and also f western Pennsylvania to moot with union official at Cleveland on March 2 for a wage conference which he Raid might avert the impending strike Similar requests have been rejected by Homo otierators who said that they wished to discontinue bargaining with the miners. MESSAGES SENT ol T. Mr. Lewis' mes-oes for the Cleveland Cleve-land meetlnjr were sent to al! associations associ-ations qt eoal operators In the central competitive field and also to operators who were signatories to the present wage agreement made in New York two years ago. The 'leveland meeting, meet-ing, if approved bi the operators. Mr. T-ewls -aid. would fix the dates for 1 negotiations on the wage scale. No actual work on a scale agreement, he said would be taken st the Cleveland meeting. In his Messages, Mr. Lewis referred to a provision of the present contract (providing for the preliminaries of tho vage negotiations this year, and i said "aside from the obligation to meet as sot forth In the Agreement, I consider such meeting essential and 1 necessary from the standpoint of public pub-lic interest and public welfare." |