322 ROBERT H. THURSTON 



dispute were many and had long been taking form on both 

 sides. On the part of the miners, shorter working hours, bet- 

 ter pay, both for the day's work and for contract work, better 

 arrangement regarding the measurement of the product of 

 the day's labor, recognition of the union, and various priv- 

 ileges were demanded. On the part of the proprietors and 

 managements of the mines, it was asserted that it was, as a 

 matter of business, impracticable to award higher wages, to 

 establish a shorter working day, or to modify in any impor- 

 tant degree the methods or the details of working. It was 

 claimed that it was impossible to officially recognize the union, 

 composed, as it was, mainly of men whose work lay outside 

 the anthracite fields, and who, officers and men alike, were 

 entirely ignorant of the conditions prevailing in the anthra- 

 cite fields. It was stated that the influence of the union had 

 been wholly bad, and that it had become already impossible 

 to maintain essential discipline to carry on the business in a 

 satisfactory and profitable manner, and that conditions were 

 constantly growing worse through the malevolent influence 

 of the union. It was asserted that the union, instead of cul- 

 tivating a fair minded attitude amongst the miners, rather 

 sought to make the workmen assume an antagonistic and 

 even actively hostile position and thus stimulated a warfare 

 which was entirely wrong, as well as unfortunate from a 

 business point of view. The interests of the employer and 

 the employee were asserted to be identical, and it was urged 

 that no organization capable of converting the two once 

 friendly parties to the business into enemies, maintaining, at 

 best, an armed truce, could or should be recognized officially. 

 The outcome of this dispute between the representatives 

 of the two sides was the appeal of the miners to the national 

 organization, the consultation of its head with the heads of 

 the local unions, and, finally, when agreement was not 

 reached, a strike which called out about a hundred and forty 

 thousand men belonging to the national union and forced 

 out of employment practically all other miners and destroyed 

 the business of nearly all other industries in the anthracite 

 coal region. It loaded upon the other miners of the country, 

 in part, the support of the men on strike, and diverted large 



