Wheeling Register
KANAWHA'S MINERS
ORGANIZE AND DEMAND AN ADVANCE TO THE COLUMBUS SCALE.
A State Miners' Organization Formed at Charleston Yesterday - Strike on May 1 Probable - A New
County - Ohley Takes Hold - State News.
April 22, 1890
Special Telegram to the Register.
CHARLESTON, W. VA., April 21, - A meeting of miners from all parts of the State was held here to- day in the Knights of Labor Hall, in the Cotton block. There were about fifty miners present, representing all the mining regions of the State, and the meeting was characterized throughout by a perfect harmony. The meeting was called to order at 10:30 o'clock by District Organizer M. F. Moran, of Wheeling, who stated the object of the meeting to be the organization of a District Assembly of United Mine Workers of America. The organization was then effected, to be known as District No. 17, United Mine Workers of West Virginia. Officers were then elected for the ensuing year as follows: President, Michael F. Moran; Vice President H. M. Smith; Secretary, Henry A. Foster. The Executive Board is composed of the President and Secretary and Wm. A. Jewell, Patrick McAuley and F. F. Prickett. The various committees were then appointed and a recess taken.
At 1:30 o'clock the meeting was again called to order and a Constitution and by-laws were adopted. The initiation fee was placed at one dollar and the monthly capitation at ten cents for each member in the district. For the Wheeling district the Ohio scale of prices was adopted, which is 70 cents per ton for screened coal and 50 cents for the run of the mine. This is an advance of 2 1/2 cents per ton over the price now paid in that district. For the Kanawha Valley the Ohio scale was also adopted, being 7 1/2 cents per ton more than is now paid. It will be demanded that these scales be adopted on and after May first and as it is not at all likely that the operators in this valley will agree to the advance, it seems probable that there will be a general strike of the miners in this valley at the first of May. The meeting further endorsed the action of the miners in the Flat Top region of West Virginia in demanding an advance of five cents per ton, and pledged their support to the miners in the demand.
Patrick McBride, of Pennsylvania, a member of the National Executive Board, is here, and will remain a couple of weeks among the miners of the valley in the interests of the West Virginia district of mine workers.