The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-09-10
STILL OUT.
Miners Refusing to Work.
A Comparison OF the Wages Earned
Here and i'm the EASTMAN Unset.
tied Condition i'm the Upper
End OF the County.

with the strikers civilly, refuse to accede |
to their wishes, claiming they are unable |
to pay cents bushel tor extracting the |
coal at the present price. On Tuesday it
was stated in the ARGUS that the only
mine in operation in the upper end" was
that of the Silvis Bros, but such press
sure was brought to bear on their men,
that all but one had quit yesterday. The
men refused to strike, but simply stopped
work, and took their tools home. They
feel that their employers have treated
them fairly, giving them work all the
year around. and allowing them sufficient
to make a comfortable living without
any particular exertion. They have
received their wages in cash on
the 10th of every month, and are
allowed the privilege of drawing
whatever is coming to them at any time
during the month. The firm supplys
them with powder at a moderate price
simply keeping it as an accommodation
for the miners The other mines are ops
Grated on about the same plan, the men
making anywhere from So to 81 per day.
In the present quiet and depressed cons
dition of every class of trade, the action
of the miners seems to be unfortunate.
| If, as it is claimed by the proprie-
tors, the miners can make very COM
Portable living at the prices now offered,
we think it would be far better for them
to go to so to work, at all events for the
present. Winter is rapidly approaching.
and unless these men take the opportuni-
ties now offered them, it is much to be
feared that we shall see considerable
amount of suffering among their fami>
lies in the very near future. As matter
worth the consideration of miners in this
district, we publish below an account of
the pitiabe condition of the miners and
their families in the great coal region of
Pennsylvania. When tempted to grumble
at his own hard fate, it is we'll for man
sometimes to look around him and cons
pare his condition with that of some of
his fellow men.
The causes of this poverty are happily
of a nature which render it improbable
that the workers in our coal fields are
likely ever to be afflicted in the same way
or to a like extent. Thank God, the time
is very remote when dweller in this
state will have to work and support his
family on IS cents day But if reckless
strikes are INDUCED in the average earn,
Ings of a man who can, when at work,
easily make So day are very quickly
pulled down to 20 cents and less. We
do not mean to say that our miners have
struck recklessly, but We do desire to raise
a warning voice against this constant
tendency to strikes Small points of diff,
ference can so readily be settled by arbi'
tration or mutual agreement that we hopt
the day is not far distant when these
petty strikes may be looked on altogether
as things of the past. The story of thu
Pennsylvania miners and its causes il
given as follows in the New York Sun:
1t is unnecessary to search long OF
r deeply for the cause of the discomfort Of
r the labOrers. In the coal and iron re,
giOns a mans wages range from $14 tt
t $50 a month. The best paid iron min er.
are making about S14, and the best paiC
coal miners about S35 The prevailing
rate of wages in the iron mines is seventy
!. cents a day. The amount of money
which each individual has for food, cloth
ing, medicine, and all necessaries, count
ing three adults to a family, man, hi.
wife and three children, ranges from ter
to thirtyfOur cents day. A miner has
/ worked for from ten to twenty days il
, the iron and anthracite regions, and it il
,, the half or the two thirds time which
- makes the rate of wages meaningless
Rents are high A man whose monthly
income is $40, pays 81 for rent, and il
n some places rents run up to $15 and $50
Five dollars a month is the amour
charged generally by the companies fol
d. the tenements which they own.
e What ten cents a day means is showr
all over the mountains of Pennsylvania
The houses in which the miners live are
: usually no better shanties than are to bt
: found in the outskirts of any one of oul
e great cities. They have two or three
D roOros each. The front one is literally
the living room. There are done thu
cooking, washing, and eating, and often
: the father and mother occupy it for 8
e sleeping room. A rag carpet is rarely
, seen. The houses are almost never
painted, but are left to blacken with the
accommodating coal dust of years. There
+ are, of course, model villages, like Sena'
e tor Coxs, at Dauphin, where the houses
are white and where there are gardens
But in such town as Scranton, tn,
workingmen's houses are built in long
, ugly rows. Dirt prevails, for to keel
|, clean seems a hopeless task The dwell,
ings have no gardens, the streets are no
shaded by trees. The houses, some o
them so wretched in appearance as to in
cite unthrift, crowd upon roads that are
: black with coal dust. Scranton and al
most every other large town in the Goa
regions has plenty of ground back on tht
hills, where the werkmen's cottages nigh
be built, and where each house NIGH
; have bit of garden, but either the work
q. l..
a town, or else the operators find it NOR,
convenient to have their miners live to
gether in barraca. Almost every min
ing community nle 'shanty town" ant
it is there the laborers and miners are tt