Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-03-09
Combinations and rIonoeoIies.

E,ditor Rutland He1ud There is on
o point in the pending difficulties or dead
o lock between the operators aud miners il
! the coal region, which we shall do well t.
keep before the public mind. An effort i
= making on the part of the operators VIII
are for the most part the large and veal
thy transportation companies, owning Of
controlling the railways and canals lead
ing into the coal fields, to lay all thu
blame of the present difficulty upon The
miners and their combination, called the
benevolent Workingmen's Association ,
and it is intended by counter combina
ton and the embargo on transportation tc
break down this Association of the min
ers. Instances are cited showing that in
consequence of the existence of this Asso.
citation operators could not discharge an
employee who was a member of the Asso-
citation without its resulting iu the sus-
pension of all work, and they could not
employ laborer who was not a member
without the other miners all ceasing to
work.
Now that such combinations and strikes
are unjust and injurious both to the pub
lie and to the strikers themselves cannot
be disputed. Illustrations of the evil con-
| sequences of labor strikes are close at hand
here among our slate quarries of Rutland
county. Laborers who were not satisfied
with S3 per day and would have $3.50
have principally themselves to blame that
slate have now fallen from IS to 81. so per
square, and that they are unable TO get
employment at any price.
But if the combination of labor against
capital is suicidal, how is it when oapital
combines against labor Will the com.
bination of the carrying or transporting
companies to get supreme power into their
own hands benefit the public e? Will thew
do justice to the laborer
Are not the combinations of railway
corporations with the immense capital
they represent as much or more to be
feared than the combinations of labor. I'll
must be obvious to the careful observer
that the course which the operators in the
coal mines are taking to break down the
MIXERS association is precisely of the same
nature, and is much more likely to become
unjust and oppressive. The laborer must
work to earn bread for his family. The
capitalist is sure of his income from his
we'll invested capital, or if the income be
cut off for time he has the means Of sub-
sistence.
Especially is there danger TO the public
interests when capital has monopoly of
any branch of business The interests of
Rutland county are in peril at this time
from the concentration and monopoly of
the carrying trade in the hands of the
Rensselaer, & Saratoga Railroad Corpora
ion. The slate and BILE trade of this
county, and the development of the
natural resources and wealth of our quar-
lies and mines depend much more upon
he will and pleasure of the combined 7
'ailway corporations reaching out to the {
markets of the south and west than the !
corporations themselves are fully aware 8
If. They have it in their power to build !
Up or destroy the most productive indus
ry OF this part of the country. The PEG.
ole of the South and West cannot afford /
% buy our marble and slate and pay for s
he transportation of it as much as it costs v
o produce it. Already they can do bet [
or nearer home. 1t costs less, we are s
old, to transport marble from Italy to g
Jew York or New Orleans than from Il
'ermont to New York g
Combinations and monopolies in the in. tt
crest of labor as in the case of the c'
Benevolent Workingmen's Association" N
Pennsylvania, made to protect the 81
ghts of the workingmen, are quite as tt
and far more excusable than "
any Of the arbitrary exactions which are Ill
ade every day by the railway corpora a
pms among US. Injustice is never so un- hl
st as when enforced by show of might. to
lr great national danger is a combina- W
N of railway monopolies. W
WEST SIDE va