Frostburg mining journal., 1880-07-17
WHO SHALL SAVE THE TRADE'

The miners response to the COM
panies' circular was sent to the rep
resentatives of the companies on
Tuesday. The full text is printed
elsewhere.
Like the paper which called it
forth, it is courteous in tone and bus
iness-like in purport. In these char
acteristics we are glad to see the
Journals suggestions, if not adopted,
at least endorsed.
Those who have read the papers
from both sides have also seen that
the issue is fully made up and joined.
The one asks for reduction of fifteen
cents; the other declines. The one
provides reasons for the request; the
other sees no force in them.
The careful student of this matter,
independent of the utterances 80 far
given out in this controversy, cannot
fail to discover that the undercut-
ting competition of the Clearfeld op-
orators must necessarily reduce, de-
press and cripple our production.
It will be found, also, that the re-
duced price of mining in that field
is the smallest factor they possess.
Hence, the mere reduction of the cost
of labor here will not and cannot re-
move or overcome the difficulties
thus presented. That potoer belongs
alone to the carriers.
The average haul from the Clear
field region to Tyrone is twenty eight
miles, and the charge for coal trans
portation is three-fourths of one cent
per ton per mile, or twsnty-one cents
per ton for the twenty-eight miles,
no charge being made for the use OF
cars.
The average haul from this region
Borden Shaft to Cumberland-is
twenty miles, and the charges for
transportation and tolls for use of cars
on all shipments to Baltimore, are
two and-a-half cents per ton per
mile, or, say fifty cents, per ton for
the twenty miles.
Here is difference of t,0e7ty nine
cents per ton against this region in To-
cal transportation alone.
In the face of this glaring discrim-
ination against our coal, the president
of the company which imposes it is
the first to sign his name to estate.
ment of fact" upon which the sugges-
ton is based that the miners should
reduce the price of labor to fifty cents
per ton. This remark has been made
before, but it will bear repetition and
repetition; it is part of the gospel
of this controversy, to be proclaimed
in memorial of Mr.. Mayer as long as
he chooses to maintain this issue with
our people.
With his own twenty-nine cents
per ton transportation excess over
Clearfeld staring him full in the face,
/. (for no one can know it better than
he,) he leads off in the appeal to min
ers to surrender fifteen cents of their
wages-for what? To save the trade.
The miners fifteen cents seems to be
the only life-boat visible; the twenty
nine cent preserver is too tightly
buckled around the railroad to save
anything but the railroad. But,
Cassius, bring your life boat here and
help me or Isink this fifteen cent
affair is quite large enough to saue as
aU-bring it here, or accept the con-
sequences.
AS president of the Consolidation
coal company he is in bad way as
president of the Cumberland ard
Pennsylvania railroad company he
is all right. OF the forty-four cents
worth of life-preservation locally
needed he has two thirds; if the mi
ners will yield the other he will have
it all.
1t is fact vel, established that
the Cumberland and Pennsylvania
and Baltimore and Ohio railroad
have made large fortunes every year
upon coal carriage from this region.
Dead water and iron have earned
fabulous wages, while hving human
bone and tissue have merely kept
their organisms together. Still the
latter with life and health at stake,
are asked to relinquish twenty-three
per cent. of its earnings that the iron
horse may be able to turn his daily |
hundreds into the treasury, already |
colossal, of his owners. The vast
amount of money thus squeezed out