Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-12-03


work on that end of the line. Il is mat-
ter of common talk that these people have
thought better of their course and have
generally agreed 10 arbitrate the points at
issue between the railroad company and
themselves.
The Alarming Reports era
of lawlcSsness in fhe Kanawha mining re
giors that have been lately telegraphad to
the papers, led Your correspondent to make
a special visit TO the scene OF action. The
facts NAV be summarized: At Coal Valley
about 500 men employed in soft coal mines
have been on a strike They would not
work themselves, sand did all they could,
short Of violence, TO dissuade others from
doing so. The operators brought negroes
from Virginia TO take their places. The
first batch were dissuaded from work by the
striking miners. The troops were then
called for. The peace was not broken nor
was there any sign OF trouble beyond the
power of the civil authorities " control.
The officers themselves admitted this, and
think the people generally regard the
calling for troops as premature and
serious mistake on the part OF the Fayette
authorities -The demand once made, the
Governor could do,nothing but comply.
The Question at issue
between the miners and their employers IL
one not easily settled. The operators sell
their coal to the railroad company, getting
nincty-fve cents per long ton, or less tnan
three and half cents per buShel. They
nav the miner sixtS-two and a half cents
Der ton and to the land owner royalty Of
fourteen cents per ton, besides ordinary
running expenses, making the coal stand IN
the cars nearly what they get for II,
and leaving them as marg n nothing but
the profits on the goods sold to the miners
Io tn the increase
fifteen cents demanded by the miners is
impossible unless the railroad should con-
cede an advance on the price paid the oper-
ator The miner OH the other hand, claims
that he cannot live at sixty-twO cents per
ton. When employed he can make, one
day with another, about one dollar and fifty
cents per day net Out OF this he must pay
six dollars month house rent, and provide
for his family. This he might do If the
work were constant, but the railroad viii
not furnish cars TO the operator more than
half the time.
So the miner must live year on the pro-
ceeds of six months work. Lately there
wasan advance OF fifty cents per ton in
market and the miners insist this advance
should be divided between the railroad, the
operator and the digger. The I. d .. rail-
r1ud insists, however, upon taking all, on
the ground rs alleged that heretofore it has
been carrying coal at a loss in order to keep
the mines running and give the men work:
think this railroad should be relieved
from duty as philanthropist. law re-
strictinr railroads to their business rs CONF
mon carrier, preventing them from specu-
| loting in the industrial products along their
| line and requiring thelu TO furnish cars for
! oil freight that offers, w0uiI seem TO be
! about tne proper remedy. 1t would at any
rate simplify matters by eliminating the
railroad from the complication, allowing
the operator to hunt his own market and
| make his own contracts, and leave him and
| his miners free to adopt a sliding scale
adjusted with reference to the market price
| Of coal Such scale is adopted at camp
| bells Creek, where millions OF bushels ol
coal are mined without a word ot dispute
and without days strike.
Politics.
| You hear more of politics i'll thi, connty
! than anywhere else in this section. In
! former years the Third district hal no other
interest save i'll politics, parties, Conven-
tions and candidates. e.
From every neighborhood the small fry
politicians went out 10 disp0rt themselves
in the pool of which Charleston was the
| center, and the DISTRICT the circumference
| Ii Is not so now.
At college the class in rhetoric used to
have as an example uf anti-clima1 the fol-
| lowing pOctical lines:
"Roll on, thou Connecticut, long hast thou ran
! Bringing shad to Soath Hadley and freedom
10 man.
Still roll the Guyandotte and Kanawhs
as of old, from the solitude of sang-bearing
! wilGcrnesseS, and the sublime mys
tcrious realms whence come forth
vast Democratic maiorities, dread,
fathomlcss, inscrutable. But ststesman'
ship now seldom troubles thesesf ftse wsterS
with lis canoes and kecls. = ~ z. -
"Shad to South Hadley and ffeedom IA
man." no longer form the sole burden OF
the CountrT's business, The talk is of trade
and tclcgraphS: mines anu mills timber and
tobacco, and railroads and the restless Gle
mcnts OF practical civilization. Here in
Mason the idea that oilicc-holding is the
chief end Of man still has its tenacious
hold upon the public mind, but even here
can see something Of an abatement Of the
! rnpular passion. Time WAS wien Mason
| county could furnish the material for both
State tickets and have surplus left for
Congressional purposes
Now, If she can have Barbce on the In
dcrcndcnt ticket for Congress, with Hog
or Schon Ia oppose him as the Democratic
! nominee, with the understanding that some
| other Mason statesman is 10 succeed Davis
| in the Senate. and John English can have
reserved for him a seat on the supreme
! Bench, | think even MaSOn'S appetite
| would be stated. HANPToS.