The Uniformity Agreement

Pittsburg, Aug. 3.- Signatures will be appended to the "uniformity agreement," which has been in preparatior. for a week. The last corrections were made late Monday night and the completed documenta were ready for the commission Tuesday morning. Those members of the commission who are coal producers will sign it and at once start out to visit the owners, or managers, of the 141 mines, which are named as necessary to be included within the compact, to secure additional signatures. Those who were appointed by the convention of operators to put the document in proper form and to consult with attorneys as to legal phases of it are eonfident the compact will be accepted and will be signed by the required 95 per cent. of the owners or managers of mines, and that a better day dawns upon the coal industry of the Pittsburg district, which means less contention between the operators and miners. The general purpöse and provisions of the agreement are understood. The binding quality of its provisions upon those who give adhesión to it to perform what it provides for are'new. This is because, after its submission to a number of the leading attorneys at the Allegheny county bar, it was decided that it might be binding in law. The changes suggested were made and are substantially incorporated in the eleventh section or paragraph, which provides that all disputes arising shall be submitted to the commission. If the decisión rendered by the commission is not satisfaetory an appeal can be taken and the matter placed in the hands of a board of arbitrators for final settlement. The agreement should then be flled In the county courts and, therefore, declsions shall have the same forcé and effect as a rule of court. The award Will be final and conclusive upon all parties, and execution for the amount of such award and costs raay issue forthwith for the collection of the same. It is hoped to have the required number of signers in time to cali them together some time within the present monih to perfect arrangements to carry it ir.to effect; a meeting before the last of the month is not deemed probable. When this has been done the operators, according to the terms of the contract, will be ready to confer with the rniners about the settlement of the strike and to prepare for a joint meeting of miners and operators to agree upon a wage scale, to go into effect with the uniformity agreement, Jan. 1, 1898.