The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1871-03-09
The Coal Strike.

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'enna., from whence tho principal Il
upplies OF this Invaluable fuel are h
|rawn for the great eastern citics Of q
New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, q
Boston &c.
These estrikes" are engineered for
- most part by what are called
Miners Associations" established
by the ;miners themselves
for mutual protection, and to enable
them through the means of organiza-
ton to oxtort from the owners of the
mines inst compensation for their
labor. Lattcrly however, thoir man.
agomcnt has fallen into tho hands OF
the proprietors of the coal mines
themselves, who use these organiza-
tions as gigantic engines of dospotic
power, to enrich themselves regard
less of the untold misery Of the poor
consumers.
Whom this strike commenced coal
was worth seven dollars per ton in
New York, while to-day it brings
twenty-eight. Tits plain enough to
the commonest understanding that
these manipulators OF the "Miner's
Associations" are reaping enormous
profits off of tho gullibility of tho |
poor laborers, who are their dupes in |
this matter. During the summer
time they accumulate IN tho large
cities immense stocks of FOCAL pre-
paratory to the denoaement of their
swindlo. Presently when winter
comes with all its rigor, and coal is
indispensable to the great mass Of
tho people, in the large cities, who
have been unable to lay in their
stock during the summer, then at
once they under the plea Of necess-
ity, and hard times, reduce the price
per bushel paid to the Golfers for
digging and then forthwith the
miners Associations" order all the
men to stop work, and the strike is
upon them all over the State. In
the meantime the Satanic proprietors
chuckling in their glee over the cum
ming management of their we'll or
ganized and controlled "Miner's As
sociations" at once double and quad
ripple the price of their stock on
hand until they dispose of it at enor-
NOUS profits, when the strike is
again declared at an end, and the
poor emaciated miners are allowed to
| 60 to work the summer over again,
to again become the puppets next
| winter of those same unscrupuious
monopolists.
/ 1t is to DO hoped that the stolid
colliers will sometime in their lives,
learn that they themselves and the
suffering poor of the country, are
the only parties damaged by these
foolish strikes.
In the meantime, as q partial
remedy, Congress should, at once,
remove the tariff on foreign coal
in fact it should never have been
levied. There is just about as much
justice and reason in levying q duty
; on coal, salt and iron, as there would
be on air, fro and water. These
staple indispensable and invaluable
commodities to the rich and poor,
should be as free as God Almighty'e
own free air. It is true that the
duty on coal is only $1.25 pcr ton
but then if that were removed, i,
would enable what few vessels VIC
have loft on the high seas to bring il
from Newcastle and Nassau il
ballast, rather than stone, and thus d
lively and beneficial competition
would spring up, and the stocks Of
fuel, which would accumulate in the
largo cities during the summer
would end the occupation of the
heartless monopolists; Of the scoun.
drels, who perpetrate these annual
infamies against miners and consu.
mers alike, and which they falsely
oalls"strkes" tor the benefit of the
poor miners.
l Another way to crush tho thing
cut, is for the poor consumers to get
up counter organizations in the large
cities, and, when this robbery is
again attempted to be perpetrated,
to march en- naasse to the warehouses
Of those thieves and help themselves,
free gratis, to what coal they want.
1t would not DO q justifiable proceed
ing in ordinary cases, but it would,
perhaps end the "strike" business in
coal, Mt least, and therefore the end
would justify the means.
At any rate gentlemen, members
of Congress! the hundreds of thou
sands Of poor people, all over the
Eastern States, who are unable to
buy coal to keep thenwelves warm,
and TO cook their scanty food with,
cry out to you, in voices which
should be heard and needed, to do
your part in puncturins this greedy,
foul fuel monopoly, by abolishing tho
foolish, senseloss and most unjust
tariff on imported coal. Will you do |
it.?
Pursuant 70 act of Congress Rhode
Island has already deposited in inches
prepared for them in the Capitol at
Washington, the statues of two of
her distinguished dead; the soldier
Nat Greene, and the citizen and
statesman Roger Williams.
According to the terms of the law
each State can deposit at it's own OK.