Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1878-05-31

h Another Coal Burner has "a
Say IN the subject.
PINE STATION, May 20, 1878.

PINE STATION, May %, 1878.
EDITOR SENTINEL: In this morn
ing's issue Coal-burner fully explains
every thing connected with the vexed
question, 10 his sa ~isfaction, l sup
pose.) Let US see how the thing has
worked heretofore. -Four years ago
the Superinteudents did announce
publicly that they were willing to give
thirty cents per bushel for good mer
charitable charcoal, and they paid that
rate until about Is months ago., when
the price of coal came down to IS
cents, caused by men going to work
without knowing what chances they
had of selling their coal, wi hout any
means of their own, but being carried
for a while by men eager 10 sell goods
to them lat ruinous rates, because sell
ing on credit and mechanics dong
their work on the same layout, max
ing coal than there vas any de-
nIand for. Just about that time my
friend Coal burner, or his friends who
had so generously advanced him all
he needed To start in business At the
moderate profit of from 80 { o 100 per
cent. comes To ths conclusion that they
must have their pay, and the Coal
burner, who leads the hardest life of
all, has to come to the front with his
charcoal, and must generously give up
everything he has, and pack his blank
cts out of camp.
We had a practical illustration ofthis
one year ago, when there We're many
instances when men worked the whole
season and came out in debt. | can
cite one instance where a man ave up
everything he had on The promiseihat
his creditors would give him a clear
record, but when a settlement vas had
there was still a balance owing them,
and they made him give them his note
for balance-about $500. At thirty
cents per bushel he could have made
only small wages, owing to the dis
lance his timber was from Eureka.
To supply this market, four iifths of
the timber has to coiDe as far as that,
aud some wen farther. Coal burner
ascribes all this to the fact
of the companies giving large
contracts, but former experience
will not sustain this assertion as far
as the prosper ty of the small burners
~ u u III ldO III al .
whenever a contract has been let,
the furnaces have had their coal with
less trouble, and the small burners, as
they are called, have done better tor
tins reason: that if they had no cen
tracts to put in they would not be en-
couraged t % make coal, and if they did
make any coalihey knew exactly what
they would get and could shape their
course accordingly. If the superin-
tendents will investigate the mater, as
a matter OF justice to the small burn
ers. they will find that in most in
stances. Goal burner" or his friends,
have get all that the small burner
earned, and that those who worked IN
sub contracts OF for wages are all far
better situated, provided they have
hu~banded their earnings with discre-
ton.
The matter of the intelligence and
prograssiveneSs of the several superin
tendents having nothing tn do with the
scarcity of charcoal or the welfare of
the small burner, | shall let them pass.
On the whole | think his arguments
will not bear him out in his assertion.
II seems TO me more like a bid for a
repetition of the same dose, and
Inducements for men to go in head
first. and not come out even tail fore
most, but stay in the hole altogether.
COAL-BURNER,