THE NENANA DAILY NEWS
Application made April 1. 1918, at the postoffice at Nenana, Alaska,
for en?y as second class mail matter, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Hub of Alaska —_Where Rails and Rivers Meet
Published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday by the Nenana Printing
Company, at First and B Streets. Nenana, Alaska.
R. G. Southworth — — — Editor and Manager
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WHAT THE STRIKE MEANS
(From The Eagle Magazine)
The explanation of the dispute
which resulted in a strike of coal
miners on the first of April, is in
the fact that a section of the in
dustry producing over one-third of
the country's capacity output of soft
coal, is not within the jurisdiction of
the United Mine Workers.
The capacity production of the
country’s soft coal fields is eight
hundred millions tons—which is 50
per cent more tons than the coun
try can normally use. In an abnormal
period, such as that through which
the country is now passing, when
the normal soft coal needs of many
thousands of industrial plants have
languished to the vanishing point,
it is evident that the section men
tioned, which the miners’ union has
not organized and which, at capa
city, produces one-third of the coun
try's total output, can come danger
ously near to supplying the entire
demand. This, moreover, is practi
cally the situation which the operat
ors in these unorganized fields last
year were able, in their freedom
from contract-fixed w-ages, to bring
about. At the first sign of a slack
ening demand for coal, in the on
set of industrial depression, they
summarily lowered wag&s, and there
with the prices of coal at the mine
mouth, and so secured to them
selves the best of the slackening de
mand. Such competition, based or
freedom in lowering wages, has giv
en operators in the fields dominated
by the United Mine Workers all the
ground they need for refusing te
confer with the miners as to whethei
«sa
their wages shall or shall not go
down, sufficient at least, to meet
this competition, or even whethe:
the union organization shall endure.
But there is a side for the miners
too—not to mention the side of the
consumers. One can arrive at a
clear estimate of these sides of the
problem only by looking into the
conditions under which the minine
of coal and its distribution are car
ried on.
Soft coal is mined in more thar
i a score of states, extending frorr
Pennsylvania to the Pacific Coast
About four thousand firms are en
! gaged in the business, and abou
1 six hundred thousand workers ar<
' employed by them in their mininf
; operations. The capital invested i
. about two billions of dollars.
’ The miners of both soft and har<
: coal have a single organization whicl
; covers the producing fields by mean
! of local unions and the country a
j a whole by means of national or
ganization. This organization is th
United Mine Workers of the Worlc
i It has on its rolls more than fou
hundred thousand names out o
< nearly twice that number in the it
j dustry, and is the largest labor unio
| in the United States.
Soft coal operators are organize
; in about sixty associations. It ha
; been the custom of the operator
j to meet with officials of tihe miner
union every two years to arrang
a contract covering wage scales an
conditions of labor. Such a contrac
1 is that which expired on April '
The contract of 1917 revising wage
upward was “for the duration c
the war" only. Woth the cessatio
of hostilities in the fall of 1918, the
tremendous demand for coal which
had marked war industry, began to
slump and by the spring of 1919
had slumped alarmingly. The miners,
in spite of ther war contract for
higher wages, could not be given
working days enough to make them
a decent living. Living costs more
over, were mounting. In September,
1919. the miners in their biennial
convention voted that the war was j
over and their contract “for its.
duration” ended. They proposed a i
new contract which had for its;
salient points a sixty per cent in- j
crease in wages, a six-uour day and ;
a live-day week. Upon the rejection
of these demands by the operators.1
the miners were called out of the
mines. The strike began on Novem
ber 1 and lasted six weeks, the min
ers and operator? agreeing to a
temporary fourteen per cent wage
increase pending final settlement by ;
a presidential commission which
ultimately gave the union miners a
further increase.
; Both the union ana non-union
■ operators took these awards with
'-nod grace because it had become
apparent that the coal business was
about to experience another boom.
! Conditions followed which put a
premium deliveries of coal and the
' result was wholesale gambling in
J fuel, some of the operators taking
| one hundred per cent profit at the
, mine mouth. The miners did not
want to be left out of all this, and
some were able to force wage scale
amendments providing higher rates
of pay.
There came an end to this flurry
; in 1921, when the wheels of in
. j dustry everywhere slowed down.
■ j Unhampered by any union eon
: | tract, bound only by their habit
: | of “following suit”, when it was to
i their interest, the operators of the
Inon-union mines in Pennslyvania,
i: West Virginia and elsewhere prompt
, | ly cut wages, and prices, knowing
i j that thus they should have an im
•; mediate, overwhelming advantage
=■1 over the operators in the union
. fields.
r
f
l
i
s
s
e
d
s
f
n
The result was that union mines
had to be content with the tail end
of the demand and some got no
orders at all. Two hundred thousand
workers in union mines were thrown
out of work and those that remained
in the employ of the companies had
only a few days’ work throughout
the year, so that, in the best fields,
the union miners last year averaged
only about $750 for the year. The
workers in the non-union fields, or
the other hand, though their wage;
had gone down, had more working
days and made more money in 1921
than their higher paid brothers ir
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j the union fields.
The contrast was like “handwrit- ]
] in^ on the wall” to the officials of •
: the United Mine Workers. It led.
them to expend one million dollar;
j and brave company-employed sheriffs
and machine guns to organize the
West Virginia mines. They perceived
that the lowering of wages there j
and the unfair competition in sell- j
ing coal which that proceeding made
possible, would torpedo the wage
aspirations of the entire industry.,
The same contras: prevented the;
non-union miners of West Virginia
from seeing this point. They could i
only see that, at the moment, they
were better off with their lowered
wages than their organized brothers
with wages fixed by contract. Cer
tainly their conviction in favor of
organization was too shaky to stand
against the violence and oppressive
military tactics employed by the j
companies in suppression of union-;
ism. The attempt to unionize them
failed utterly.
Today the United Mine Workers
find themselves up against the con
i sequences of that failure to domin
i ate a section which, at capacity,
j can, with union miners striking,
1 supply all of the present slackened
j demand for coal. So long as the pub
i lie is not distressed the Government1
j is not likely to intervene so force
i fully as it did in the strike of 1919.
| Xor will the operators have any big
i incentive to come to immediate
! terms, since it is now at the be
i ginning of the slack season. There
| are no open arms for the miners in
other industries as the strike drags I
on and the families grow hungry, j
All the privations will be on one!
j side only—the miners' side. Conse
t quentiy, unless their army of of
I organized members contemplates 1
; some more direct action than has
j hitherto been attempted, it would
| seem that the miners must fail in
j the accomplishment of their immed
: iate demands—the maintenance of
the present wage scale, the six-hour
; day and the five-hour day.
i
1
Nenana Gardens
Frank Tuefel, prop.
Fresh Vegetables
Rose Bushes
and other
Flowering Plants
Phone
LOCAL TRAIN SCHEDULE
THE ALASKA RAILROAD
| Trains leave and arrive Nenana as
follows:
2:00 p. m., Sunday and Wednesday
for Healy, McKinley Park, Tal
keetna, Wasilla, Anchorage and
Seward. Arrives Nenana 11:50 a.
j m., Sunday and Thursday.
; 2:00 p. m., Sunday, Wednesday and
Saturday for Healy, McKinley
Park. Arrives Nenana 11:50 a. m
Sunday, Monday and Thursday,
j 2:00 p. m., Sunday and Thursday
for Dunbar, Fairbanks, Chatanika.
Arrives Nenana 12:10 p. m., Sun
day and W'ednesday.
A. A. SMONBECK
ANCHORAGE
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Sew*rd. Alaska, for Service
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