The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-05-11

The Philipsburg news presented In anoth-
er column is of decidedly startling character.
1t carries us back in memory several years, to
an earlier stage in Montanas Development
a stage which it was hoped and believed had
been relocated to the past. That it does not
prove to be entirely of the past that the mi
ners of Phihpsburg have seen proper to re-
vive it, is to be regretted, and will be regret
ted by none so much as those who are their
real friends and we'll wishers, as distinguished
from blatherskites and demagogues who al
ways seize, upon any such occasion as the
present, the opportunity to thrust themselves
forward as the friends" of the w~orklngman:
To form an opinion of the proceedings lately
taking place at the Trout mine, it is fortu-
nately unnecessary to take al all into account
the question who was right or who was wrong
in the original matter in dispute. 1t is not in
the least necessary for us to provide ourselves
with a large amount of information, to get an
understanding Of the details and minutie of
a large and complex business, as we would
per force be compelled to do were we to UNI
dertake to form a rational judgment OIL the
original quarrel. Even if we lake the
trouble to get possession of a vast number of
data, without which no intelligent opinion
could be formed, how are we to decide that
our opinion is impartial, unbiased? How are
we to guard against being influenced OH the
one hand by our respect for a firm of estab-
lished'reputation for integrity and fair dealing,
and orr Svtnnatlv on tho othar for man yyhn
lave worked faithfully for wages they have
never received; who have honestly earned the
money they claim as their due, and who, even
in their present proceedings, are contending
for what they honestly believe to be their
rights?
But happily there is no occasion to go to
the foundation of the matter. All we need
do is to consider the dispute as it exists, and
ask it the miners are taking the right way to
settle it. Their object is to get possession of
the mine. Leaving out of sight then, the
right or the wrong of the matter, is their
course of action the very best they could have
taken in order to accomplish their purpose ?
If it is they are on the right track, if not, on
the wrong. Ifthey had only to deal with the
firm of Caplice & Smith, or with the follow
ers whom those gentlemen could bring to
their assistance 1t is more than probable that
the miners would carry the day but 1t is not
with any firm or any individual, it is with the
ldw that they must deal. Caplice & Smith
were in peaceable and legal possession of the
mine. and now of course they can invoke the
,rot,,t,np of t1a law arJ uhau tho l,,p- is
once appealed to, sooner or later it will tri-
umph, unless indeed, the opposition to its
mandates take the form and assume the pro-
portions of a successful civil war, by no means
a probable contingency in this instance. By
appealing to force then the miners have over
matched themselves. But this is not all as
by so doing they will surely forfeit public
sympathy now largely Oh their side. If the is
sue comes to blows, if an officer gets kille&or
wounded while in the discharge of his sworn
duty, tickle public sentiment will be quick to
change against those who are now its favor
ties and then, in the face ola hostile public
opinion, even supposing them not to come
within range ofthe criminal law, the miners
will find it impossible to obtain a verdict
which might now with good management be
secured. "What are they to do, then ?' it
may be asked. "They are too poor to go to
law, and if not allowed to use force in con-
tending for their rights, need they sit quietly
in idleness and ~inaction ?" By no means
but instead of appealing to brute force, let
them appeal to the greater force of public
opinion. Let them state their case to thai
supreme court-the public.
Any newspaper in Montana will place it,
columns at their disposal. Let them Civ,
their side of the story, invite investigation
and call for arbitration. A refusal to submit
to arbitration would cause a popular verde
to be recorded at once against The party S,
refusing a verdict that would speedily prov
fatal to the business prospects of any firm Ell
deavorins to make Roadway against it. Blu
there will be no refusal to submit the matte
to arbitration, if a proposition to that effect b
made. Then let it be made. There Is justic
IN the land. Let the dispute be submitted t.
its award.
After repeated failures the English have a
length discovered a process by which fresI
IAnf aan a ,,oDarnI HrI n