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Show COAL MINERS GO OUT OH STRIKE PSESI DENT DM,NDEEDCLTA0RE3 'm Al NTA1N DEM AN DS , vAni Last But Few Weeks Coal Supply W"' Le Leaders; In Op nion of sums Utilities Will be the First to Suffer mines of the country and is 6e"'"B JATSSd Sunday on his a, K here to attend congressional ThereVe 600,000 miners ready to stay out of the mines "mdef.n.te 1 until the operators are ready to d cu wUh us the Question o new wage agreements in the central com-petitive com-petitive fields," Mr. Lewis adding that, while the union court ed investigation for anthracite and the bituminous industry, it seeks no gov alt intervention, but does ask for the support of public opinion n forcing the operators to continue college col-lege bargaining with miners over wages and working conditions Discussing coal reserves and the er-fect er-fect of the strike on the interests of consumers, Mr. Lewis strongly expressed ex-pressed his opinion that "a pinch would come earlier than expected. He declared nonunion mine production produc-tion had been "greatly exaggerated, , and that operators had been more or less openly following tactics that forced a strike so thdy could get higher prices and greater profits. "There won't be a single man return re-turn to work this week," Mr. Lewis said, "from the 00,000 men who went out. It takes a little longer in the nonunion fields for us to get the reports. re-ports. In the West Virginia panhandle, panhan-dle, for Instance, right along the Ohio line, there are about 5000 or 6000 men in nonunion mines for whom meetings are being held. They'll probably be out soon. There are meetings here and there in nonunion territory all over the United Stutes. We'll get the returns later. In the union territory we know what happened, the operators opera-tors aren't even going to try to run the mines." Taking notice of the suggestion by Chairman Borah of the senate labor committee that the government ought to intervene further into the situation, situa-tion, Mr. Lewis remarked that he va "afraid nothing much could be done with the operators." "Every attempt has been made to get them to meet their obligations to continue collective bargaining with us," he continued, "and I assume they will maintain their refusal no matter who tries to get them to confer. We stand ready, now as ever, to enter any conference with them to discuss the terms of a new wage contract which will allow ns to resume work. "If the miners today were occupying occupy-ing the position of refusing to discuss dis-cuss a wage contract, as the operators opera-tors are, they'd be morally castigated uy all the citizens of this land." "Although the operators regard each other as competitors," Mr. Lewis said, and are not acting in concert, "we know that we can't get a genenl wage scale without unity of action in the central competitive field, because a difference of a cent a day in wages means cents per ton In the Belling price of coal, makes turmoil In markets mar-kets and closes up old mines to open new ones." "Still they were a unit in wanting suspension," he continued. "They had loaded up all the blir consumers with coal ob the strike scare, and held up the market prices while the loading was going on. Now they think that if trey're shut down long enough there'll be a scarcity, and a runaway market. Their disposition niait the strike Inevitable." . Mr. Lewis estimates the maximum production of the nonunion mines ut 4,000,000 tons a week, much of which he said, was good only for coke. Further, Furth-er, he declared, the middle west could not pay Iho freight to get nonunion coal to them. "Watch the public utility companies In the smaller cities," tho strike loader load-er said. "Thoy will be hit first The big cities are pretty woll stocked, but the little ones are not." Mr. Lewis expected to remain in Washington as long aa l3 presence is required, but said he had no engage ments with President Harding to executive ex-ecutive officers. |