The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-08-27

two hundred men, isolated, as it were,
from all the outer world. Our days
are spent in the dark unwholsome mine,
and our evenings and Sabbaths in our
family circle or lettering about in un-
profitable conversation with our fellows,
who, like ourselves, deprived of that
mental recreation which, while it rests
the body improves the mind, seek thus
to while away the hours not devoted
to toll or sleep. 1t requires no effort
on my part to show to you that men
thus situated offered tempting prize
to employers, whose whole life and
energies were strained to the utmost TO |
add to their rapidly accommodating for
tunes. Fist, the tenements for the
accommodation of the miner and his
family are of the most primitive style
of architecture, and possess the least
possible amount of comfort and con-
venienee for the occupant; and although |
the rents for the same may sound low
when compared with that paid in cities,
yet as interest on the capital required to
build the same, the amount assumes
the enormous proportion of from thirty |
to fifty per cent. Then followed the
supplying OF the necessaries of life to
the workmen and their families A
system of employers stores soon be-
came general, known better "a " Com
pany's Stores" In these, prices we're
charged far in excess of those for simi-
lar articles in the stores Of the nearest
villages. The inconvenience of access,
in the latter case, made acquiescence
in the imposition of the extortion NJ
most q necessity. And further, . sys-
tenn Of annual settlements with the
workmen compelled them to deal at the
store of their employer, who. was al-
ready secured against loss in crediting
them, by having their previously hard
earned wages IN his hands. BY this
combination of circumstances, it ofeE
happens that miners and laborers work
ed steadily for years and never handled
ten dollars in money, and ut the yearly
settlements it was often found that the
store bill, the rent bill, the coal bill, the
DOCTORS bill, the shoemaker's and the
butchers bills, all Of which was deduct
ed from the wages at the office, left
little or nothing to the workingman rs
his years savings from his wages, and
frequently he was brought into debt ut
the balancing Of accounts.
4 This condition of isolation and its
consequent imposition gradually work
ed the degradation Of the class who
were its victims; and think / risk
nothing in saying that prior to the
rebellion no class of men in our section
Of Pennsylvania were worse paid or
worse treated than the miners and
laborers of the anthracite coal field.
That frequent strikes and some acts Of
lawlessness resulted therefrom will not
be denied, but being ill-conceived and
worse conducted, no permanent good
resulted from the former, and by the
latter much undeserved censure fell
upon miners, as a class, to which they
were not entitled.
The causes of complaint of which /
have enumerated are Of class which
might occur in other occupations beside
ours, and only effect us through the
medium of dollars and cents, but we
bold still further and far greater cause
for complaining against our operators
and Legislators, and that is the culpable
omission of all proper protection against
accident in the mine, through imprope-
ventilation, improper construction, or
insecure or insufficient propping, &c.
Thousands of lives have been needless
ly sacrificed through want Of proper
attention TO thase matters. It can not
be charged th:t it was not knnwn anah,
protection was required and should be
enforced by law, for it was well known
that such protection was thrown around
the laborer in the mines Of nearly, if mot
all, the European countries, and 20 sue
eessful has it proven that the average
Of deaths from such accidents in the
mining districts of Europe, as compar-
ed with our coal fields, in proportion to
the amount of coal produced. is two
thirds less than among us. Although
this has been known and read of by all
men for years, yet it required the sac
rifce of an Avondale to awaken our
legislators to q sense of their duty to-
ward our craft, and thus we last winter
were favored with the first installment
of practical Legislative protection which
has been vouchsafed us in the great
mining state of Pennsylvania
/ have thus given, or attempted ut
least, a portion of the evils which we
have heretofore labored under and
which led some two and a half
years ago to the institution of our first
protective union, and which, one year
ago last spring, resulted in the COM
plete organization of our Miners and
Laborers' Union of the anthracite coal
field Of Pennsylvania. The struggle we
then endured was for the purpose of es-
tablishing q principle which would for
the future do away with strikes and
their attendant evils; and as we have
been since then continually traduced by
large portion of the press Of the coun
try for our course, /, perhaps, could
not better perform my duty to my con-
stituents than by explaining the prin-
ciple for which we labored, or as it is
more popularity termed "The basis"
There being in the spring Of 1869 more
coal in the market than could be dis
posed Of, it became evident that some
Of the mines would be compelled to
stop, and as these gluts were of contln-
ual recurrence, our Union determined
to prevent them in future, if possible,
and to that end ordered a general sus-
pension, which order, after little hest
fancy on the part Of few districts,
was obeyed throughout the coal-feld,
and twenty-five thousand men patiently
awaited the slow exhaustion of the
mountains of coal at the seaboard mar
ket. When that became reduced to
such an extent as to warrant a speedy
return to mining. the Union, through
AZ G.ar,d Gorr,nil an hxa;fAad IN all ahn