PENNSYLVANIA. 



623 



ties wherever thereunto required, and upon all civil 

 magistrates, officers, and citizens in their several 

 spheres of action or influence to sustain or enforce 

 the laws against all offenders in anywise responsible 

 for the evils and wrongs under which we now suffer. 

 Given under my hand and the great seal of the 

 State, at Harrisburg, this seventh day of April, in 

 the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 

 and seventy-one, and of the Commonwealth the 

 ninety-fifth. JOHN W. GEAEY. 



Early in April the Anthracite Board of 

 Trade offered a compromise to the miners of 

 the Schuylkill district in the following propo- 

 sition: 



The "Working-men's Benevolent Association to 

 abandon all future attempts to control the collieries 

 in any manner, or to interfere directly or indirectly 

 in the matter of the employment or discharge of any 

 one, so that the operator shall have exclusive control 

 and management of his works. Secondly, operators to 

 agree that no one is to be discharged simply on account 

 of his belonging to the Working-men's Benevolent 

 Association, or of any part of the Workingmen's 

 Benevolent Association, but that all men are to be 

 left free to join the said Association or not as they 

 may think proper. 



But this was promptly rejected. The next 

 proposition came from the miners, and was to 

 refer the questions at issue to a board of arbitra- 

 tion consisting of representatives from the two 

 opposing parties, with an umpire. This was ac- 

 cepted, and Judge Elwell, presiding judge of 

 the district comprised by the counties of Co- 

 lumbia, Sullivan, and Northumberland, was 

 unanimously chosen umpire. The meetings 

 were held at Mauch Chunk. Both sides pre- 

 sented their cases, and after long argument a 

 decision was reached on the question of the 

 control of the mines, but not on the question 

 of wages, the miners insisting on a basis of 

 $5.50. The principal points of Judge Elwell's 

 opinion on the former question the control 

 of the mines which was accepted, were as 

 follows : 



1. The right of an owner or lessee and operator of 

 a colliery to the entire and exclusive control and 

 management of his works is guaranteed to him by 

 the law of the land, and is of such an unquestionable 

 character, that it ought not to be interfered with 

 either directly or indirectly. 



2. The umpire concurs with, and adopts as a correct 

 statement of the law, that part of the late proclama- 

 tion of the Executive of this Commonwealth, wherein 

 he says that "It is unlawful for any person or asso- 

 ciation of persons, by violence, threats, or other co- 

 ercive means, to prevent any laborers or miners from 

 working when they please, for whom they please, 

 and at such wages as they please, and alike unlaw- 

 ful, by such violence or threats, to deter or prevent 

 the owner or operators <3f mines from employing 

 whomsoever they may choose to employ, and at such 

 wages as may be agreed upon between the employer 

 and the person employed." 



3. It is the undoubted right of men to refuse to 

 work except upon such terms as shall be agreeable 

 to them ; but a general understanding that no person 

 of a particular association of laborers shall work for 

 any operator who has in his employ a member of 

 such association who has not paid his dues to the 

 association, or who does not belong to such associa- 

 tion, is contrary to the policy of law, and subversive 

 of the best interests of the miners and their employ- 

 ers. An association may inflict fines upon its mem- 

 bers for breach of its by-laws, and expel for non- 



payment, but it has no right by combined action to 

 place the defaulter in the light of an outlaw in the 

 transaction of business with others. 



4. The umpire decides that it is contrary to the 

 spirit of the law, as stated secondly above, for a r.ody 

 of men to agree not to work, because their employer 

 refuses to employ a particular person, or because' he 

 has discharged such person. 



If such a case arises "where the act of the operator 

 is deemed to be oppressive, and he refuses to redress 

 the wrong, it is a proper one for local arbitration, by 

 which, in most cases, the difficulty could be properly 

 settled without the disastrous consequences arising 

 both to the employers and employed by a strike, 

 even at one colliery. 



5. As persons of sound mind and competent age 

 are permitted by law to bargain for themselves, their 

 contracts in regard to labor at mines should be held 

 as sacred as other contracts, and should not be an- 

 nulled or set aside in any manner different from that 

 provided for other cases. Interference by persons 

 not parties to the contract is not to be tolerated. 



6. Operators ought not in any manner to combine 

 against persons who belong to the Miners and Labor- 

 ers' Benevolent Association. Any operator who re- 

 fuses to employ a person because he is so connected, 

 or who shall discharge him for that reason, would 

 thereby give good grounds for censure and for othei 

 members to refuse to work for him. 



7. No member of the Miners and Laborers' Benev- 

 olent Association ought to be deprived of work be- 

 cause of his being selected oy his branch to perform 

 the duties mentioned in section three, article sixteen 

 of the by-laws of that association, ii his duties are 

 performed in the manner therein mentioned. 



8. In regard to the right claimed by the miners to 

 cease work when they see cause, whether in a body 

 or otherwise, it is impossible to lay down any rule. 

 And I am not aware that it is expected of me to do 

 so. But I may be allowed to recommend that, after 

 resumption again takes place, and business is again 

 moving in its accustomed channel, immediate steps 

 be taken to provide for the adjustment of difficul- 

 ties, if any shall arise in future, before they reach 

 the disastrous proportions of those which now afflict 

 not only the laborers and operators, but the whole 

 country. 



A mine disaster occurred at "West Pittston 

 on the afternoon of May 27. The shaft known 

 as the Knight shaft, owned by the Lehigh Val- 

 ley Eailroad Company, and operated under 

 lease by 0. A. Blake and Company of New- 

 York, took fire, it is supposed from friction in 

 the hoisting apparatus at the top of the break, 

 and burned fiercely and rapidly, while 30 or 

 40 men were working in the mine. There 

 was but one outlet, and that by means of the 

 shaft over which the breaker was erected, 300 

 feet below. Only about half of the imprisoned 

 miners were rescued alive. The horrors of the 

 Avondale disaster were repeated. 



A large increase was made in the number 

 of public schools during the year. The num- 

 ber in the State at the close of the year was 

 13,320 ; average number of children attending, 

 567,188; number of teachers, 19,021. Thesurn 

 of $8,580,918.33 was expended for the main- 

 tenance of these schools. A general appropri- 

 ation of $750,000, a hundred thousand dollars 

 more than was appropriated last year, is asked 

 for this. Only three districts in the State have 

 refused to accept the common-school system : 

 these are Harmony, ID Beaver County, and 

 Overfield and Washington townships, in Wyo- 



