| Show DOLAN SAYS STRIKE WOULD BE A FAILURE district president explains why he voted with operators at indianapolis all soft coal strikes have failed pittsburg pa feb 11 II 1 president patrick dolan of tho the local district mine aline workers of america whose resignation was de demanded last week a at t the convention of delegates from the local union in the district before he voted with the operators at indianapolis to maintain the present wage scale tonight issued a statement in which he gives his for so voting in the statement president dolan says have lost soft coal strikes let us be honest about these things our wages have been increased more than percent and our hours of labor a have been decreased from ten to eight hours since 1897 Is it right under this thi s ryan resolution to jeopardize all those things and let me tell you the miners of the country have never won prominent soft coal strike under the direction of president mitchell mark hanna settled the first anthracite strike for us and president roosevelt settled the second nobody has bar settled our big soft coal strikes because wo we have lost them president mitchells big soft coal strike was in the southwest it lasted eighteen months and ended in utter failure hundreds of good men were victimized the second soft coal strike was in maryland where our people of the entire state were utterly defeated ills his other disastrous soft coal strikes his in kentucky where our people were beaten colorado strike a failure in colorado colora do where the organization spent over our union was wiped off the face of the earth in west virginia central district we were defeated in the cabin creek district in west virginia where the organization spent wo we lost in the meyer dale district we wd spent and were here defeated d at the present time we have a strike of miners in alabama alabam a which has been on for nineteen months they are striking against a 10 percent reduction under the ryan hyan resolution which says all districts must get 12 12 1 2 percent advance over the present scale the alabama operators will have to withdraw their demand for a 10 percent reduction and give the 1212 12 12 1 2 percent advance or a total difference of 22 12 1 2 percent before any other district in the country can settle how is this to bo be brought about mitchell Is blamed the pittsburg district has been criticised criticized because it has not more than twenty y eight thousand members president mitchell Is as much at fault as any living man he refuses to help us he came into the nonunion non union irwin district at tho the very height of his popularity and widely advertised two meetings at one ho he had fifteen men and at tho other we adjourned because there was not anybody there here when mitchell cant get a meeting what can a fellow like me do 1 I have been in the trades union movement for thirty five years in scotland and america and I 1 have sat at the feet of the greatest laborers leaders the world has ever known in eluding the great alexander Mc mcdonald Dold rom boyhood I 1 learned that it is a leaders duty to tell lils his people not what they like to hear but what they should know they must be told when they are in the wrong as well as ap I 1 I 1 I 1 when they are arc in the right this Is my platform and I 1 am willing to rise and fall with it before the miners and the publio public of this country mitchell Ml wont talk new york feb 11 john mitchell matchell Ml president af 6 the united mine workers of 0 america arrived in this city tonight from indianapolis he refused to say anything regarding the coal strike situation I 1 |
