The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-25
CITY LLIGENC NCE.



The legislative CSmmitree on the Coal rrou-
bIes- The BtuminoEs Miners nnd their GARD
-The Complete TOnDape Tor the Week, ETC.
The special committee appointed from chose
valiant defenders of our state and city rlghts
the legslaturemen, for the purpose OF taking
testimony and of ing report on the sub
ject of the coal difficulties, have been busy dur
ing the past week in attending to the duty ln-
trusted to them, performing il in their own
inimitable style, and in the manner most ple1s-
ing to themselves. They have thus far COM
pleted their labors to their satisfaction suf-
fciently to make an extended preliminary re-
port, going over the ground of dispute, stating
that, whatever the final report of the committee
may be, legislative action of any kind will not
go far towards remedying the evils
that exist, and recommending that
the parties to the dispute take the matter cut of
the hands of the Legislature and settle IL between
themselves, as they might have done in the
first, place before 1t was brought before the judi
ciary, by means of arbitration. The report
even goes into the English plan OF arbitration
which has been made public SO often, explain
ing IL in detail, and recommending It's adoption
at all hazards. Probably some friend of the
movement has called the attention of a commit
teeman for the first time to this excellent plan.
and he, being struck with its good points, of
which it has many, has seized upon 1t as the
quickest remedy, which indeed it IL, If all
parties only knew it. The committeeman was
probably profoundly ignorant of the fact that
the plan has been repeatedly proposed to the
miners, and has as repeatedly failed, because
either one side or the other did not take enough
interest in the matter. recommendation of
a method of introduction would be of vastly
more service at present than any number of
favorable criticisms of the thing itself.
The final report OF the committee, it is ex-
pected, will be presented some time next week.
1t will be very voluminons document. 1t
would also be very valuable were it not that it
is only monument of how the weary length of
the thing may be dragged along retarding all
other movements towards reconciliation which
promise much better and speedier results. The
committee have, for one thing, greatly exceeded
their Instructions, probably because they
thought it would be to the best interests of the
public to do so. The resolution of the Senate
creating the committee was explicit enough,
and required the committee to investigate
whether any of the anthracite coal-car-
rying companies have violated their char
tered rights. Notwithstanding these in
structions, the committee have en-
tered upon O very expensive general in
quiry into the whole coal question,
of which the use cannot be seen at present
They seem to have taken it for granted
from the start that the violation by the COM
panies of their respective charters has not been
made, and that any legislation that way would
be useless. They thereupon set themselves to
thinking in what other way they could he use
fai, not caring to return to those who sent them
without having spent some money and with
such little report as these facts would warrant,
and so have chosen their own course of action.
The committee will close up their operations
about Friday. The closing arguments by the
counsel of the respective sides will begin next
wednesday afternoon, after all the testimony is
in. The railroads will have the final say, and
w cause will be summed up in person by the
fhs.i Pfhrssidept o. the Reading Company.
since the committee u~, "a gone thus far, how
ever, it is hoped that they will SEQ siie 'nine
through to the end, and not make only partial
quiries far enough, they will find out, except
they be wilfully blind, how the workingmen
have been governed by their organization in the
past, and how unjust are the numerous demands
oh han hoo do bxytb nj
rather by its officers in its name.
As we supposed last week, the bituninous
miners were not so foolish as to bind themselves
to the w. B. A., and unite in general suspen-
sion for the benefit of the eastern region. 1t
can hardly be supposed that such thing could
ever happen, the regions are SO far apart and
the interests so different. 1t is well known that
the officers of the eastern union have been en-
deavoring to bring about such result for some
time but without success. When they caught
sight of the delegates at Johnstown, they pro-
badly thought that the western men had
agreed to the propositions because they had
cOndescended so far as to send representatives
to the meeting there held, and thereupon sent
off the telegram to the effect that general sus-
pension was inevitable. The bituminous miners
in their card which they were obliged to pub
lish contradicting the report, state that I'VE
have no idea of abandoning our own organiza-
tion, which we control, to put ourselves under a
foreign organization, controlled by strangers.
We have had steady work for the last fifteen
years, and want the same in the future"
Good for the bituminous miners. Their own
organization, it might be added. is what the
w. B. A. was intended to be-a benevolent as
sociation, from which the miners draw money
in case of sickness, death, or other calamity,
and which takes measures for the best interests
of the miners. 1t is not an aggressive body like
the W. B. A. If the latter were this only, there
could be no opposition to it.
The following is the complete summary OF
the trade for the past week as reported for the
Pottsville Miners Journal of to-day