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

a tine when we were not willing to resort to this
plan. For two years we have been trying to bring
it about. In the last annual report of the Reading
Railroad Company &c was suggested as the proper
method Of avoiding future troubles; but the Work
inRmen's Benevolent Association has never been
willing TO adopt Il. Acting entirely upon the prin-
cipe that no one had any rights but themslves AMI
that what they did not know was not worth know
ing, they have persistently refused to accept any
other arbter than that of their Wills Whatever
we suggested has been considered as the advice of
an enemy and they have never yet arrived at the
conclusion that the interest Of the woTkngman and
bis employer is Identical, and that both can be
best subserved by unity of action.
Even so late as this afternoon, stated to the
officers of the association that if they would agree
to the postponement of this argument for one week
| would call general meeting of the railroad and
mining interests for Tomorrow, and would hand to
them on the following day friday proposition
that work should be resumed on Monday in all the
districts, without any agreement abeut wages, and
tration and conciliation, with an umpire whose de-
cisiOn should be final, should meet IN each district
to adjust the wages; that whatever such board
agreed to would be paid, and tn the charges for
transportation should be reduced as soon as work
was commenced. Butthis proposition was promptly
rejected, and was told that the argument should
be proceeded with to-day.
From this you will see how little we have to ex-
pect from the managers of this association. The
time will come, however, when the workingmen
themselves will discover that their real friends
and have the courage to tell them when they are
wrong, rather than those who, by pandering to their
prejudices seek to enlist their sympathy, while de-
priving them of the means of subsistence.
And now few words about the proper remedy
for Overproducton.
You can no more legislate to keep up the price of
coal, than you can to keep down the price of gold.
e all remember that during the war a very pro-
minent member of Congress Introduced bill max
ing it criminal otfsnce to pay more for gold dollar
than for paper one. With all his ability as a
lawyer he was as Ignorant of the laws of finance as
the leaders of the WOrkingmen's Benevolent
Association are of the laws of trade. The sovereign
panacea for overproduction is to reduce the supply
by the abrupt suspension of mining though they
thereby deprive themselves of bread, and decrease
the demand as much as they decrease the produc.
tion. The result of every suspension has been to
drive so many customers to other fuels that the
demand soon falls behind the supply, and the ne
cessity for another suspension to be followed in turn
by another decrease OF consumption becomes more
urgent. Thus, in few years, the course pursued by
these leaders would destroy the entire trade, and
reduce the workingmen of the coal region to star
walton.
we have said to them that the proper remedy
for overproducton the increased demand,
which always results from low prices and that it,
instead of doing nothing for three or four months
out of the year, they would work for moderate
wages, the low price of coal would so extend its
use that new markets would be opened to take up
any temporary overproducton; There can be no
doubt that the interests of the miner, the coal
operator, and the transporting company are
identical; but the course pursued by the men
neither has been able to do much more than
to save itself. For every month large colliery is
stopped there is a loss incurred which requires
profit of from fifteen TO twenty-five cents per ton
upon 10 600 tons to make up. IF a coery can ship
100000 tons of coal year, and its owner realize
profit of twenty cents ton, it would be fair busi-
ness; but if the collery is stopped for the first six
months of year. and ships but 80 900 tons the next
six months, 1t will require profit of sixty cents
per ton upon the reduced product to enable its
owner to realize at the end of the year the same
amount of money that he would have derived from
full years business at profit of twenty cents per
ton.
Last wear, the suspension of over four months in
volved q loss to the Reading Railroad Company of
more than 81 900, ,0o0 the consequence of which was
that, upon the 2,0000O0 tons sent to market after
fifty cents per ton to yield US the same amount of
money that we would have received at the de-
creased charges, if we had been permitted TO do a
full years business. The lower the charges upon
the road the better it is for the workingmen; but
by depTiving of business for so many months out
of the year the latter etfectually prevent from
assisting them by low rates.
the entire year the cost of their labor might be
reduced twenty-five cents per ton, and each man
would have more money at the end OF the year than
he has had during the last two years. Ii the ope-
rator could have leven or twelve months of unin-
terrupted trade, he could take twenty-five cents
per ton off his profits and be richer at the end of
the than he has ever been at the end of any
since the war closed. II the railroads could keep
their equipment busy during the whole twelve
duced 25 cents per ton, and more money could be
made than has ever been realized with higher rates
during the reign of the Workingmens Benevo-
lent Association. Thus, constant employment, at
moderate rates, would reduce the price of coal at
tidewater at least seventy-ive cents per ton; and
such a reduction in price would extend the use of
anthracite coal one hundred miles beyond the ter
Titory which it is now consumed. 1t is a safe
calculation that one ton of coal will be used for
domestic purposes for every inhabitant of the dis
rict that adopts it for fuel AS the area of coun-
try in which anthracite coal is used is ex-
tending in the form of a circle, of which
the coal region is the centre, it follows
that every additional 100 miles added to the
radius of this circle increases its area very much
more than the preceding 100 miles; and there can
be doubt that if at the end of the present radius
belt of 100 miles in width was added to the circle
the increased consumption of coal would at once
furnish maIke for any overproducton:
few words more and have done. Throughout
the whole of this investigation it seems to have
been assumed by our friends on the other side that
we had no rights which you were bound to respect,
but that the members of the WOrkingmen's Be-
nevOlent Association possessed some inherent
charm which gave to them peculiar claim upon
your favorable consideration. We have been rep
resented as hard taskmasters, seeking to make
slaves of our wOrkingmen; and they have been
held up TO you as patient, down-trodden and long
the degradation into which they had fallen. It
seems to have been assumed that all your preju-
dices would be excited against the rights of pro-
perty, and that all your sympathes would be en-
listed in favor of the rights of labor
gladly admit, that the man who earns his daily
Bread and decently maintains his family by the
labor of his own hands is far better citizen than
the mser who boards his gold through life, only to
relinquish the glittering store when the icy hand
of death has chilled his grasp. AS between these
two classes the laborer as much deserves our en-
cOuraging sympathy as the miser deserves our de-
: estatiOn and reprOach, But are we in the same
category as the miser? Has the talent given to us
been hidden in a napkin? Or the wealth, for the
protection of which am now a suppliant before
you, been boarded up and withdrawn from those
uses which make wealth blessing TO the whole COM
munity? Without it, where would Pennsylvania be
to-day? What position in the sisterhoOd of States
would she occupy If the capital here represented
had been driven from her borders and invested else
where? Has it not dug canals and built our
railroads? Has it not bridged our rivers aad tun-
nelled mountains? Has it not penetrated into the
bowels ofthe earth, and wrung from the unwilling
hand of nature those inestimable treasures which
are the pride and boast of our great Common
wealth? II this cause is to be won by those most
little cause to fear from apy Comparison which NAV
De made But all that ask is justice. l neither