New-York tribune., 1869-06-21

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"party."
LET rs here premise that we do not profess
70 know all the facts whereon the COal-men
are at issue, and do not assume that the
Iaborers are more just or less selfish than the
employers. We assume that each party looks
mainly to its own interest, and that the labor
ers are at least as likely to have made unreas-
enable demands and exactions as the mine
owners. In so far as they have resorted to
lawless violence, or to threats of violence, we
are against them, as all the world knows Our
purpose is not to prove either party wholly IN
the right, but to indicate basis of equitable
adjustment and lasting peace. This basis we
find in Proportion, or an agreement that the
miner shall receive a fixed per centage OF the
price at which Coal is selling simultaneously
at New-Yorlz, Philadelphia, or whatever may
be its principal, controlling market
This is nothing new. The Whaling business
has been mainly prosecuted on this basis these
MANY wears. Most of the Fishing done by
Yankees on the Banks of Newfoundland is
conducted on this principle Yet the whalers,
the fishermen, never imagine that they own the
vessels they navigate or may direct the captains
in sailing them. They understand that, when
undetermined proportion of whatever shall be
realized therefrom, and with this they are all
content. Whoever heard of strike on
whaler or fishing smack Where else do Cap
ital and Labor cooperate more harmoniouslyf
Now it seems to us that the Coal business is
one eminently adapted to beneiicent prosecu-
ton on this principle. We will take that of
the Laclawanna Valley for illustration. This
City is its chief market, and the price here is
always declared or easily ascertainable. The
cost is made up of q few items, viz. l. The
mine-owners' royalty; 2. The miners wages J;
3. The Railroads charge for transportation
4. The cost of delivering or storing; .. The
cost of selling. Let us suppose it agreed that
the mine-owner shall have 10 per cent, the
miner 90 per cent, the Railroads so per cent?
the seller per cent, and that the remaining
| 10 pov cent be appOrtioned to breaking, stor-
ing, and delivery. (We do not pretend to IN
| dicate the just proportion we are quite aware
| that it must be diaerent for different mines,
according to the difficulty of mining, depth from
which coal is raised, distance of the mine from
| Scranton, &c.) We are only illustrating and
vindicatng principle.
| Say Coal is selling to-day for S. per tun
| (wholesale) and jumps up suddenly to 60; what
is fairer than that not one interested party"
only, but all interested parties mutually, should
share the advanced Would not MINER breaker
| forwardcr, seller, and all concerned, redouble
their efforts to increase the product and push
il to market. in order to share in the harvest7 2
1t seems plain to us that they would work
more harmoniously and efficiently than If the
profit was to be monopolized by one Inter
csted party" alone.
But Coal may fall as well as rise, and next
month Coal, owing TO the general rush to market,
drops to 81 per tun; is it not right that all
the interested parties should participate IL the
reductionl Ought not the miner, the forwalder,
and all the rest, to be content with less low
than when Coal sold for s. or Sc Must not
even the miner-ignorant and selfish though he
bc-see the justice Of this7
Our correspondent thinks he would not-hat
| he would insist on his per centage when Coal
was high, but would repudiato his bargain
| and demand new deal when the market rubd
so low that he could no longer make god
day-wages. This is precisely saying that he
has neither honesty nor common sense; :or
he could not fail to understand that if he e-
pudiated tho scale when it gave him less
| than day wages he could not expect TO return
| TO it when tho price should again rise abo'e
the average standard. Ii seems to us a mistale
to refuse to do right to-day from apprehension
that some one else may do wrong tomorrow.
We hope TO see the day when every tun o
American Iron will be made on the basis o!
PrOportion-such n per cent. of its market
price to the mine-owncr, such n per cent. to
whoever supplies the fuel, such per cent. TO
the smelters, &c. When that blessed day shall
have come, we shall no longer sec Berks,
Schuylllill, Lehigh, Luzcrne, and Carbon Coun-
ties, giving abominable majoritc5 for candi-
dates whose election is shouted over by the
organs of our British importers who stigmatizc
Protection as robbery and assert that Coal
costs us 50 or 50 per tun more because Of the
Tariff.
Mr.. "interested party" we have considered
this matter patiently and fully, and our judg-
ment is that Proportion is the true base of adj
justment and harmony between Capital and
Labor. There are practical difficulties to be
overcome in its establishment, but nowhere are
they less formidable than in tho production c2
Coal, I'D.
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