The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-05-29
Mines and Miners.
Correspondence of BALTIC. Americana ]

timOre coal dealers who are on an ex-
cursion through the Cumberland coal
region, swung round the semicircle
to-day from Piedmont to Cumber-
land, stopping few moments at this
mine, going to the innermest room
of another, and passing by another
with mere introduction by name.
Although the day has been swelter-
ing hot, and the coal dust sticks to
mems skins with the close affection
of a pOrus plaster, the visit has prov
ed very satisfactory, and has furnisll-
ed the party with a fund of informa-
tion at wholesale prices which they
would by no inEalls part Msss fps !
retailers profit. although but very
few of the excursionists handle this
bituminous coal in Baltimore, or
perhaps see 4 ton of it fiom one
years end to another, yet the soft
coal trade is not unrepresented, and
those who do not deal in this Mary
land product have learned some very
interesting and not Improbable les
sons IN the resources of this region.
1t is no easy task te gain any correct
conception of this vast area of coun-
try, deyoting all its energies to this
one trade, mining and shipping on
~ a ,,iIlint, nt fans nf coal
each year for the last thirty eight
years, pouring it out now at the rate
of two million tons a year, likely to
continue this for far more years in
the future than it has in the past-it
is truly no easy matter to recall a
correct conception of this which shall
at the same time embrace the vari-
Gus factors which directly or indi-
rectly combine to keep these mines
in operation. Here are the thousands
of miners, looking to the successful
operation of these great enterprises
for their very bread and butter, and
for the bread and butter for their
wives and children here are the su-
perintendents and agents and their
assistant superintendentS and assist
ant agents, looking exactly in the
same direction as the miners, tho
perhaps, seeing their way far more
clearly here are these great coal
companies, with eyes in the same
line of profit the railroads and 9TH
er carriers, the receivers Of the coal
in Baltimore and other Doints-all
these, looking for fair or unfair mar
gin of profit from the black and dir
ty product of the earth's very bow
els, each jealous of the 6ther'S share,
each seeking his own interest, if nec-
essary, at the sacrifice of all the rest.
Is it, then, any wonder that there
are strikes at the mines and among
tho miners? One does not have to
open'his eyes very wide 10 see that.
with all their Interests at stake, if a
sacrifice is to be made, it will be
made at the foot of the list, and the
miners will be the first to feel it. In
the universal fight between the
weaker and the stronger, the weaker
must go to the wall every time as
truly i'll this coal industry as in the
world at large, or IN the urize ring in
particular. This problem is the veX-
issima question which troubles the
philosophers of this region as badly
as question of free will and predesti-
nation troubles our Presbyterian
theologistS. Yet it is pleasure for
one who has no earthly interest in
either one side of the question or the
other. who never saw Il coal mine or
a coal miner before in his life, and
has NO desire to see either coal mine
or coal miner again during his Iorres-
tial existence, and has no eXpecta-
tion of seeing many of them in his
celestial epoch-it is Il pleasure to
such man who despises coal in the
abstract, and would be glad to join a
society for the reinstatement of wood
fires and the back log of New Eng
land and the West in their earlier
and better days-it is certainly a
pleasure to him to stop here in this
mining town, listen to the
story of the miners as it is told by
the agents of the coal companies.
turn around and listen to it as it
comes from the miners themselves,
and then sit down here in this cosy
room in the Merchants Hotel and
draw his own conclusions as if he
were some philosopher who had de
voted the best years of his life in So
luton of the problem.
Four -iiiths of the people in Iona
coming are miners. If there were
no miners there would be no Iona.
coming. There are two or three small
hotels, as ma1y more general supply
stores, a couple of carpenters, school
masters and preachers, tinker,
house painter and The rest are miners