Frostburg mining journal., 1880-07-17
construction of the new road. It
forced the introduction of the element


ly threaten the introduction of cheap
er labor Why cheaper labor ? Be-
cause the new railroad forces the car
rying trade from Homecoming to Gum
berland from ffty-two to thirty cents
per ton, and this must be indemni6ed
in some way.
In the outset and all through our
advocacy of the new road we have
had no interest at heart but the min
ers'. We have endeavoTed to win
the sympathy of our people for the
enterprise, because we saw in it an ell
ement which would preserve their
wages. On this ground we have op-
posed Mr.. Mayer; on this ground Mr..
Mayer at length contends that his
high rates of transportation make it
necessary that wages should come
down, solid affirmation of all we
have maintained in favor of the new
road.
Personally Mr.. Mayer is very es-
Unable gentleman; Mr.. Loveridge is
the same. Both are public men, ad-
ministering in some sense public
trusts. For Mr.. Mayer, personally or
publicly, as insisting upon lower wa
ges, we care nothing; for Mr.. Lover
idRe, in the same sense and attitude,
we care nothing.
Upon the companies circular we
find the names of both these gentlemen.
With reference to consistency how do
they appear there? We have in
tfmated how the former stands; then
how the latter2 Mr.. Loveridge
could heartily join in every plea set
up in that paper for lower wages.
Who knows better than he that high
transportation compelled the building
of his road2 Who knows better than
he that the Cumberland and Penn
sylvania and Baltimore and Ohio
railroads haze made C9earfeM a rival
region' Why, the policy which Mr..
Mayer represents has multiplied and
emphasized every plea for lower wa
ges We really needed no new rail-
road, but his rates made it indispensa-
BILE to both stockholders and miners.
With our geographical and artificial
advantages, and closer relations with
the..seaboard, we should have dominat-
ed the steam-generating coal market,
but his and Mr.. CARROTS policy has
put this magnificent region at the
beck and call of Clearfeld, and depre-
ciated our product to the level of a
confessedly inferior coal. Our Goliath
is slain every day by Clear6eld's lit
tie David, who would have never been
in the field but for the gigantic trib-
ute levied upon this region by those
who should have fostered, protected
and developed it. From this quarter
comes the deman d for lower wages
that the miners may alone and single
handed protect us all from the trade
despotism it has created.
In the light of history Mr.. Lover
idge may well subscribe to Mr.. May
er'spless for lower wages. At this mo-
ment he cannot do otherwise he can
make no money as long as he has to pay
freight to Mr.. Mayer. As soon as he
can pay this to himself he proposes
to save twenty-six cents per ton euem
at the present price of mining. More
over, this proposition, we understand,
is to hold good with Mr.. Mayer, who
intends to carry coal then as cheap as
anybody else. The tendency of Mr..
Loveridge's policy, then, is to reduce
the cost all round Of marketing coal,
just precisely where the miners in
sist the reduction should be made.
To effect this in some measure Mr..
Mayer appeals for fteen cents. This
has been declined. The next appeal,
it is thretened, wiU be made to &we-
den
If there was a particle Of sincerity
in the companyies circular, in view of
the distressed condition of the trade,
why will the leading spirit not throw
off no,0, "the accepted time," the
twenty-six cents which is to be drop
ped when the new road begins to car
ry coal? If fifteen cents from the
miners will save the trade, why
wouldn't twenty-six cents from the
save it?
But leaving what the new railroad
and Sweden are going to do wholly
out of the question, the sincerity of
The companies solicitude for the trade |
nav be tested by their unwritfan nj