The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-05-29

draw nearly S. day for his services.
using his boy as dummy. No won
der that sons are in demand and
daughters at a discount in this re
gion. 1t can be readily seen by this
illustration of very frequent occur
renee that the Knights of Labor, by
restricting the limit of days work,
modify very materially a miners
earning capacity, and absolutely re-
fuse to allow him to make all the
money he can. They say to him,
"You must not earn more than So.
a day; )" anil he submits. The knights
plead in abatement of this that by
this system they obtain an equitable
division of the work that each min
er has his share, and that equal JUS
tice is neted out toaall. More than
7 this, they CAIN that any wrongs
worked by this system are more than
counterbalanced by the higher rates
of wages obtained by their combina-
ton, and which they could never
secure should each work in his indi-
vidual capacity. OF course, the
Knights of Labor and the miners are
one and the same thing, and is not to
be thought that the miners, when
they assume their royal title of
knights, will work injury to them
selves knowingly, or will take steps
which they must feel will not ad-
vance their own interests. 1t is often
true that the leading spirits of the
guild are naturalbOrn agitators who
are never happy in times of peace,
and who are by no means the best
miners. Yet it would be unfair to
assume that the resolutions passed by
the knights of Labor at their secret
Saturday night meetings do not ex.
press the general views ofa very large
majority of the miners in this entire
region.
Now take the companies side of the
question. Beginning with the ton of
coal at the mouth of the mine, with
65 cents for mining, there comes,
first, the freight to Cumberland then
the cost of handling there next, the
freight and tolls by canal to George
town, or thu freight by rail to Balti-
more; again, the cost of handling
and sale, agents at the mines. at
Cumberland, at Baltimore and at
New York. Add these up. and their
sum total reaches over So. so, as saw
by calculation to-day. and this leaves
barely 30 per ton for the companies.
Yet an Investment in these interests.
if intended to he legitimate, should
pay good rate of interest. Suppose,
for example, some well-to do reader
The american has $4,000, which he
hardly knows what to do with. Coy
ernment bonds or city securities are
at hand, which will pay him $500 a
year interest on his Investment, and
at the end of ten years his $4,000
will haYe increased to SIS 900. New,
suppose that in an unhappy moment
he decides to put it in a coal
mine, seeing at fifty cents per ton
there isan excellent margin for profit.
But he forgets that at the end of ten
years his coal mine, or original S10,-
600, is likely to be exhausted, and
that in that time his profits should
have been large enough to have coy-
cred not only the interest, but the
whole original investment. AS
many of the companies here have
not paid a farthing of dividend for
some years past, nor are likely to do
so for some time to come. it is no
wonder that the well-te-do readers
should prefer government bonds or
city securities to coal company stocks,
with all their possibilities of utter
worthlessness. One great weakness
! vi tnC APctiiSo bAo RtleNSho
of the Knights of Labor is that they
are not a unit, as their interests are
of a very varied character. Out of
the fifteen or more companies here,
three or four are in existence solely
for speculative purposes. and would
rather submit to the demands of the
miners at an increased expense as
long as they can show a good pro-
duct from their mines for brief per-
iod, as they do not pretend to work
for the entire season. Until the
"truck" system was abolished by the
last legislature, several of the COM
panies were so interested in the sup
ply stores for the miners that, rather
than run the risk of losing by bad
miners bills and strike, they were
ready to submit to anything the min
ers might ask without a murmur.
Counting out another company,
which is so far interested in the rail-
road that its freighting pays far bet
ter than its mining operations, there