The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-19


are transporting 10000 tons week. we cannot
discharge our employees, the railroad track must be
constantly watched, repaired and guarded; every
superintendent and agent must be at his post and
receive his salary OF his wages the only men whom
we can temporarily dispense with are the coal
price of coal should be low, because low prices in
crease consumption, and we make money more
from large tonnage than from high rates of
You can Judge of the effect upon such a railroad
company, when an imperative decree of the Work.
ingmen's Benevolent Association suddenly deprives
1t of all its coal tonnage; when the receipts of the
road from coal traffic are suddenly reduced from
over million OF dollars per month to less than two
hundred thousand dollars, while the expenses re-
main nearly the same; and yet to this extremity
last two years-and all because the Workingmen's
Benevolent Association have determined that the
IS per ton at Port Carbon or 5 pe on az AZ Eliza
bethport Why, gentlemen, stand here in all sim
certify speaking for the several railroad companies
that represent, to say that, II this evil is not
abated, we will be glad to have our charters for
feted and taken from us, so that our stockholders
may invest their money in some other enterprise,
and in some other country where the rights Of pro-
perty are respected, and the citizen may appeal
with confidence to the protection of the law. 1
trust 1 may not be misapprehended. 1 speak the
language of sober truth when / say that If this
state of society is continued for six months longer
we will come before you as petitioners, asking you
to invoke the assistance of the courts, so that
may be permitted to surrender our charters, and
obtain for our stock and bondholders the money
they have invested. Then let the Workingmen's
Benevolent Association take charge of our roads in
for us ALL that this should to pass than that
we should continue the farce of pretending to
tEol our own property while the baiefGl influence
Let me now call your attention to the coal trade
itself, and show you how injuriously it has been
affected by the insane action of the leaders of the
workingmen. You know that anthracite coal enters
into competition with bituminous coal and with
wood as fuel. Whenever anthracite can be intro
duced at a moderate price, 1t dsplaces both of the
other fuels for domestic purposes and is generally
IN
manufacturing purposes. But 1t Is not only mode
rate rates of price, but certainty and regularity
of supply, that are necessary to enable 1t to main
tain its position. Even at lower rate, many manu-
facturers will discard anthracite and use bitum-
inous COAL If the supply of the former constantly
interrupted and the latter can at all times be OBJ
tained 1 think speak within bounds when say
that there are consumers now burning bituminOus
coal at the rate of 900 tons per month who have
been driven to 1t by the high prices and irreguarty
of supply of anthracite caused by the repeated
strikes and suspensions of the last two years. If
you go into the steeple of Independence Hail. and
look out over the city of Philadelphia, you will
see the thick black cloud of smoke of bituminous
coal rising from the stacks of many manufactures
at which nothing but anthracite had ever before
been burned and if you go to the bay of New
York, and look over the shipping congregated
there, you will see that hundreds of ferry boats
steamboats, and steamships, which formerly burned
anthracite, are now using btuminous COAL 1t is
exaggeration to say that in the year 1871 there
will be burned at least 100000 of tons less of an
1t not been for the criminal folly of the managers
and leaders of the Worklngmen's Benevolent AS
So much for the coal trade. Now let us look at
the iron trade Within the next few years the ques
ton is to be decided, whether the State of Pennsy-
vania is to maintain her supremacy in the iron
trades whether the valleys of the Lehigh and
Schuylkin to be the sites of furnaces and roll
ing-mils; whether the manufacture of iron Is to
be moved to the southern states-to Kentucky, to
Tennessee and Alabama-where vast deposits of
iron ore have lately been brought to notice. L
know of many instances where some of our largest
iron manufacturers have invested large amounts of
money in the iron districts of the south. If coal
he obtained at Port Carbon at from 40 % to
50 30, and at Mauch Chunk at from SO 75 to SO,
there be no doubt that the valleys of the Schuyl
kill and the Lehigh will continue to be the great
centres for the manufacture of iron. But If the
policy of the Workngmen's Benevolent Association
Is to be entorced-f coal is to be kept at fifty cents
higher than it should be- and the regularity of
the supply be constantly interrupted by strikes and
mia will have to bid farewell to its great iron manu-
and be content to other States that are
per in an industry which, by proper care, she
could have retained forever for herself. A very
experienced iron manufacturer lately stated that
the English iron trade required no better protection
for its products in America than has been afforded
By .nS IN anS wth
in the last sixty days 1t Is believed that more orders
for Scotch pig iron have left the United States than
under other circumstances would have been sent in
Upon the general prosperity of the State, the re-
suits of the course which have been condemning
are but too apparent. Since the LIST of January we
have fallen behind last years trade to the extent
of about and half millions of tons of coal.
Of this, two-thirds would have gone beyond the
State If IL had been mined, and would have been
WORTH at the Stat line, at least four dollars ton;
that four millions OF dollars which in the space
of three months would have been sent into the Com
monwealth by foreign consumers OF our products,
are now lost forever,
But let call your attention to the effects of this
association upon its own members. | speak now in
behalf of the rights of of rights of the
sleek wellfed and well-dressed leaders of the or
ganization that you see around us here but of the
thirty thousand suffering men who are anxiously
awaiting the decree of their society to know whether
they have right to make use of their hands to
labor for the support of therfamilies. Capital has
its rghts-property is entitled to the protection of
the law; but higher and dearer than the rights of
capital, or the claims of property, is the right of
the laboring man-condemned to earn his bread by
the sweat of his brow-to make use of the strength
which God has given him, without hindrance or
molestation from any one. But do these men pos
this right, or, rather dare they exercise 1t? Is
it not notorious fact, that the DEGREES OF tribu-
nal called the General Council OF the Workngmen's
Benevolent Association have condemned to idleness
thousands of men who entirely satisfied with
their wages, and who would now gladly return to
work IL they felt certain that the State to which
they owe allegiance had the power to protect
Workingmens Benevolent Association agree that
the question of resuming work at the So 90 basis
may be submitted directly to the men. to be voted
to predict that eight out of ten would gladly en-
brace the opportunity of going to work. In all the
history of the coal trade do not believe there have
ever been two such disastrous years to the aboring
classes have been the last two under the domina-
tion of their society L think have shown how in
juriously this organization has affected the best in
terests of the SUate but it has affected no one as
injuriously as Its own members. Think of an or
gani cation, entered into for the purpose of mutual
protection, being 30 perverted and mlsmanaged as
almost to reduce its members to starvation! They
ask for work; 1t has permitted them to work in
Schuylkill county but five months out of the past
twelve. They want steady wages and regular en-
ployment, and when they have both it compes
region may be assisted in a strike and brought un-
der the control OF the society They pay their dues
ham fr0u itq han,