The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-03-02


same results would follow in other parts he
knew, and the whole bill would be sadly
injurious to the effective operations Of
capital in the Sta&e. He did not believe
the passage Of this bill was the desire of
the operatives themselves. Notwithstand-
ing Mr.. Hinchcliffe's assertion of it being
the sentiment Of $4,000 Of these men in
this State, he thought it the work Of
few demagogues, for personal aggrandize
ment. He did not have an organization
at his beck as Mr.. Hinchcliffe had, at
whose back these galleries (pointing up to
them, and which were well filed by men
from Springfield and elsewhere) could be
filed in . days notice with men for the
purpose of awning this body into passing
this bill, and although he did not have TO-
600 signatures to petition whose votes
were threatened against the opponents of
this bill in this House but he had some
thing more than this, he had the voice of
900, 900 working men in this State who OPP
posed the passage of this bill in the State Of
Illinois. The workingmen were opposed to
the bill, because its operations would en-
nance the price Of coal per ton, he be-
lieved, two dollars, and they would only
suffer from such measure. 1t would not
be the members on this floor who would
feel the burdensome effect of paying two
dollars per ton extra for coal. 1t would
no. be the capitalists who would feel it
would be alone the workingmen and he
was the friend of the workingman, and for
their sake he would oppose it. He was a
workingman himself, his progenitors were
all workingmen. He was proud to know
be had risen from their ranks, and he felt
he was fulfilling his duty to them as 8
faithful representative in entering his pro-
test against this measure He did not Che
assured the members of the committee)
have any special interest in the Blooming
ton Mine, but it was located in the district
he represented, and he would tell the
honorable gentlemen there that the owners
of it had sunk every dollar they could
raise in that hole, and if they were com
PEELED to sink another shaft they could not
raise the money 80 to do, and they would
be utterly necessitated - close the mine.
In this much he represented q mining
community, and as an illustration of his
statement that the measure was not the
wish Of the miners themselves, and that
mine owners were not as rapacious and ill
minded as they were represented, he
would state that the proprietors Of the
Bloomington shaft Tin which he had no in
terest) learned some time ago that their
shaft was in an unsafe condition for their
workmen 70 decend and ascend in, and
they determined at once to stop operations
and have it put in order. They intimated
those intentions to their workmen, and
actually closed the shaft for repairs against
the appeals and protests of the miners en-
ployed there. The gentlemen did not
know there were men in the gallery who
knew better than this-who knew that
they discharged their Superintendent at
this mine for insisting on the dangerous
state Of the shaft, and the necessity there
was for its repair represent a Mining
community, " said he, land there has never
been a man of those miners to once ask
me to vote or work for the passage of this
bill. How far this is true the miners at
Bloomington can answer. This is pos
sibly one Of the reasons why the gentle
man opposed the bill because he was not
solicited to support it. The man seems to
have gone to Springfield with the idea that
what n was not pledged to support he
ought naturally to oppose, especially when
the interest Of his friends, the working
men, were at stake.
After some further remarks Of cognate
character, he declared, once again, his OPP
position to the bill as it would ruin the
capital employed in the operation of coal
mining in Illinois.
Mr. Rice, from Sangamon county, next
made a stirring and energetic speech In
in favor of the bill, and urged its passage.
He could not see any wisdom in legisla-
ture or a government which required ito
wait until the horse was stolen before they
locked the stable" Although no Avon
dale or Pittson horror had occurred in Hi
nois, themeans of producing them were with
in her, and it was better TO prevent than
cure A second shaft to any Of our mines
would not cost more than from y, 600 TO
S10, 600, and it ought not to be question
against the protection of the miners The
miners in Sangamon county have q warm
friend and advocate in Mr.. Rice.
Mr.. Morrison, from Cook county, ad-
dressed the members through the chair in
behalf of the bill, not on the grounds Of
having a coal mining constituency; not,
because, that capital and labor was inter
ested or that capital would be 30 restricted
by its provisions that it would take wings
and fiy over to the sister States not, be-
cause there were 10000 names pstitioning
its passage, but from the higher and nobler
sentiment of Justice and his sense of right
Thecoal miners in praying for the enactment
Of this Law did not ask that it should be .
law because they would be financially be-
nighted; they did not ask it that it might add
five cents to their days wages they asked
it simply that it would protect them from
dangers uncalled for; dangers that the
employment Of known remedies would
wipe out of existence dangers that did
not need to be there but for the rapacity
of soulless and heartless capitalists. They
simply asked that their lives might be pre-
served to their wives and their little ones,
because they loved these, and not because
that it would entail unnecessary expense
upon operators or reLard the progress Of
mining. He was surprised at the member
from Mclean county, man OF his cul-
ture-a man Of his education-a man Of
his experience, who boosted Of his poverty
stricken progenitors. Here a burst Of sp-
plause which could not be restrained went
forth from the House and the galleries, but
it was Immediately checked by the gentle
man who said, TINT he did not speak for
applause, nor yet from any other motive
than that he believed in it's justice and its
necessity; the condition of our mines
demanded it. He too could boast of
having sprung from the ranks of labor.
He too was once poor man and he had
the satisfaction of stating that he was a
poor man still, in that particular he was a