Frostburg mining journal., 1880-07-24
MINING JOURNAL.
IT. B. ODER, Editor.
FRosTBUKH, MD, JULY "a, 1880.


to sound argument.
The Netvs says:
In March, 1879, the miners were receiv-
ing 40 cents. Then followed a protracted
strike, and an advance to so cents This
continued until in this season the rate was
fixed at G5 cents, which was an increase OF
sirty-t,e0 and a ha!fper cent. orer the rate Of
March, 1870.
Why take March, 1879" as the
starting-point? Because it was es-
sential to the whole Aimsy argument
which followed.
The rate stood at 40 cents little less
than one year.
The rate stood at 65 cents at least
eleven years-from 1867 to the sum-
mer of 1878, and then it was fall,
first from 81, then from rs cents.
If we take the rate as it stood for
eleven gears, as against one year, we
will find that the wages of our miners
have not increased one per cent. The
1921 per cent" claim is all fudge
unless the News will refute the tenor
of its article by admitting that the
1924 per cent. increase" was made
practicable by the surrender, an the
interest Of the trade, one year before,
6y the hard-hearted miners, of thirty
eight and a.hal per cent. of their
wages.
The NeaVs' statement is very spe.
cions. An increase of 1929 per cent. y
looks big, and it is likely to produce
very erroneous impressions. 1t is as
if the history of mining began in this
region in "March, 1S79"-"one year
last grass" Then 25 cents increase
as per centun1 factor Of 40 cents ap-
pears SO much larger than 25 cents
decrease as aper centuna factor OF %
cents. But 383 per cent or there
about, of 65 cents, is 25 cents, and
1924 per cent of 40 cents is % cents,
and the short and long Of the whole
matter is-if the miners had never
given the companies 3S3 per cent. Of
their wages, the companies would
never have had the slightest occasion
to hand 1924 per cent. increase" back
to the miners.
We repeat 1.-THE increase Of min
ing wages, instead of "624 per cent"
has not been one per cent
Since then, and long before, the rates on
the Cumberland and Pennsylvania railroad
have not been advanced. They.remain as
fixed by law at the instance Of the coal
companies.
A very cautious paragraph. Won
der if "long before" covers 1875
when three cents per ton per mile
was the charge in defiance of law
If 80, it covers also the period o.
1876 when the Legislature fixed the
maximum charge at two cents per ton
per mile; it covers also the attempt Of
the Cumberland and Pennsylvania
railroad to get away from its name il
order to make the enactment inappli.
cable, and 1T covers also the memora'
BILE decision of the Court of Appeals
which not only set aside the name o
Cumberland and Piedmont" as inval
id,but compelled "the same horse will
another color" to disgorge the amount
of ertra-maximum charges. This
abatement, Wih interest, of over 33j
per cent. of its charges for coal car
riage, is the only concession the Gum
berland and Pennsylvania railroaC
has ever been known to make to the
trade. 1t was like the concession te
a dentist for drawing eye-teeth, but
like the miners now, it stood at last
where it stood before.
Just here we will remark apr0pos
of the current talk Of the miners
habitual disregard of trade interests
etc., that, as a class, they have never
yet taken more than the law allows
If they had, the coal trade wouldn't
be worth saving. And if the Court
of Appeals had not stopped tie
charge of 8 cents, there would have
been nothing to keep the rate from
going up to 4, 5, 6, 7 cents, or to a
point where the operator would have
been compelled to beg the railroad to
take their coal as part pay for the
freight, and the mines for the balance
The NeaOs says the railroad rates
"remain as fixed by law at the in
stance of the coal companies" The
proper statement is-the rates re-
main just'as high as the law possibly
allows and no higher-at the instance
of the companies. The latter also
instance, in their late circular, the
need of reduced wages-why? Eo-