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Show STRIKE ROW LOOMS IN CONGRESS I BORAH GIVES HINT OF ONE I LIKELY MOVE I Idaho Senator Says Indus- I try Must Be More Effi- Hff ciently Conducted B ELSE U. S. CONTROL Ki Indiana Operator Admits It Kg? Is Desperate War on Kg..1 Miners' Union BgL: By GEORGE R HOLMES, MK , International News Service. BqLS, WASHINGTON April 1. The end Hp' of the first day of the nationwide coal H 't tie-up with very complete parah-.-. flHfr? I of production In all unionized fields; flUg i found the government tonight Still flnlr pursuing its policy of sitting tight ' BKS anel awaiting development Jh' It also found a storm being whipped H up in congress that threatens to DTe ik HR over the heads of the coal operators I next week with a demand that tli- go to the conference table with the lilsjCX1-' miners and settle their differences In H j negotiations as in other years. Neither house was in session today so there H was no formal register of the eon- H gressional action, but members of both H houses joined in condemning the op- Hp&j erators for tli-.-.r r. ta il td lie Bw 'Hate. DAY'S DEVELOPMENTS. iffi j Today's developments in the capital were. 1 Iabor officials pronounce 1 i he JBljjf I walkout 100 per cent effective Ln the unionized fields, with some.- support H I from non-union miners. H j 2 Senator Borah, Republican, of ) Idahe. chairman of the senate labor jfl .committee. Issued a public statement in which he said that private owner-" ship of coal mines was undergoing its i last test that If the Industry Is not ttffi"f I to bo reorganized In the. '.ubllc inter- HjT lest then the public must try the ex- perirnent of public ownership. 86 I 3 Alfred M. Ogle, Indiana opera-tor opera-tor testifying before the house lab.-r H committee, declared that the strike. would be settled In the near future and that when it is, lt will be adjust ed by districts and states and not Ic national agreement as in other years 4 Representative Nolan. Republt- H can of California, chairman of the house labor committee, conducting the investigation characterized th opei i tors as being similar to the Kaiser In their making "scraps of paper" out of sacred contracts. OAPITA1 ISTS PLA1 ED. fi Representative Browne. Repub lli-nn, of Wisconsin, charged 1 ; H large financial Institutions In th$ H ; I'nited States, headed f.y J P Morgan H St Co . owns 7,". per cent of the rail- H roads and the coal mines of the coun- ', i igle had a trying day before the b mmittee He laid all th H blame for the present tie-up on the miners. He said the miners had peatedly broken contracts with the operators and that thecontract which H I expired at midnight last night was brokon by them in 1920 when they 'refused to lio up to Its terms an.'. H "had forced state and district in H creases." The miners' demands In the pres- H ent controversy he characterized H ittack on union. Ogle also confirmed that the open j tors arc out to break the national I power wielded by the I'nited Mine Workers of America. There will i no more agreements, be said, cpvei -( ng the central competitive field whli h 1 embraces Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. H "The operators have reached the point . ii dared, w h th ,1 not do business with the miners In IJ the old way. Hereafter agreements H I will have to be made by localities H districts and states and even lndl-I lndl-I vidua! mine." " l Ogle was severely heckled several '. times by committee members. Th drew from him that the operator H la group were not willing to conf- H with the miners for B national agree-incut agree-incut nor had they ever offered Jo. despite the clause in the 1920 agree-ment agree-ment that such a conference should take place before April 1. BORAH IS PLAIN 1 The throat of action In congress looking to the government seizure o coal mines and their operation in the . public interest was plainly coifVeyed by Senator Borah. j "If the coal industry Is not reoi -ganized In the Interest of the public then lt will be up to the nubile to try the experiment of public ownership he snld. "I do not underestimate th,e task which the public will assume when it undertakes this. But I doubt very much If the public will much longer 6ubmit to the present method of op-crating op-crating coal mines " Borah la chairman of the sen.i. labor committee whic h now has before lt a resolution asking an Invcstlga-lion Invcstlga-lion by the federal trade commissi H of the entire coal Industry. Action H will be taken next week mi THODS WASTBF1 L, CB VRG1 "The present strike is the symp-torn symp-torn ' he continued "The disease H the chaotic and shameless wasteful (Continued on i .i;;o Two.) i i ' V &:':rrr . '.matt MM TALKING ! OF U. S. ACTION Congressional Committee to Hear From President Lewis Tomorrow (Continued From Page One) 'method In which the Industry Is now I being carried on. This chaos and w;uste is unloaded on to the public . In exorbitant prices. "There is no possible explanation ( nor Justification for tho price of coal I at the present time other than waste bad management and unconscionable profits. 'Take one Item In this chaotic industry, in-dustry, the Irregular employment. The 'average bituminous mine runs about 200, possibly 216 days out of 366. These unproductive hours are sheer waste. i ' There follows tho fixed charges, i depreciation of Idle mines. Idle cars, ' railroads and 60 forth This item of ' u asto alone has been estimated at ' $500,000 000 a year. Either labor or the consuming public must pay for I this for a glanco at the profits dls-I dls-I closes that tho operators take no part of it." H'ir.ah did not state whether he hlrhself will Inaugurate steps in congress con-gress looking to the government acquisition ac-quisition of mines. The directing heads of the great coal mine strike left international headquarters tonight John L Iewls, president of tho L'nlted Mine Workern Of Vmerlca departed for Washington to bo present Monday betore the house labor committee which is conducting con-ducting an inquiry Into tho coal Industry. In-dustry. WANTS V. B. CONTROL Mr Lewis, before leaving, declared In favor of government control of the nation s coal mlnos. Government noutrol would regulate regu-late prices and Insure the miners of a fair wage, he said. He added that he was not In favor of goernment ownership, however, because of the financial burden that would be placed on the public as a result. William Green, secretary-treasurer of the union, left for hi home In Cospocton, Ohio Prior to his departure. de-parture. Green Issued a statement replying re-plying to Alfred G;de. Terro Haute, Indiana operntor, who testified before the house labor committee- in Washington Wash-ington today to tho effect that the minors had struck for higher pay-after pay-after having signed a contract Green denied that there had been any 'flagrant 'flag-rant -violation" of contract on tho part of the minors Replying to a .stat-ment attributed to Ogle that the operators were under no legal or mn-al mn-al obligation to meet the miners In conference to negotiate j. new wage scale, effective April 1, Green said They (tho operators) can't got away from their signatures Their last contract with the miners stipulated that they would enter su:h a conference." confer-ence." Green declared that the operators are Beeklng to divide the miners Into separate units hoping this will weaken weak-en the unions and bring about lower wages " |