San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-08-05
A GREAT MORAL PERsUAoER.

coal district. MOI aDle 10 make money
fast enough at the starvation wages paid
miners, they have lately introduced a
number OF coal cutting machines into
their mines. These machines do the
work OF Il score Of miners each, and
practically abolish the miners as class,
superseding them by steam and steel.
The workmen in the mines have natur-
ally taken up arms against the intro
duction Of these coal cutting machines
and riots have ensued. The owners Of
the mines claim the right to mine as
they please, the miners claiming the
right to live and mine in the coal mines
that they have opened, at regular min
ing rates. The coal company have in
voked the aid OF the state military to
suppress the miners and maintain them
and their coal cutting machines in
peaceable possession OF the shafts and
mines. In a recent interview with a
press reporter at Pittsburg, one Of the
company directors, who had just reached
the big coal city in special car with
some friends, said:
"A number of our miners are strongly
opposing the introduction of coal cut
| ting machines into our mines, and many
people predict that this opposition will
develop into violence and open riot
worse than the outbreak of about two
years ago. Notwithstanding this, we
| mean to put our machines into opera
ton, even though shot and shell will be
naaHa1 IN do We have a OnVpFnOF
now who will fearlessly protect our
rights Of property. He will, whenever
circumstances demand it, send sufficient
troops into the valley to shoot the law
less element there who have made so
much trouble of late. If a dozen or so
of these men were shot, am certain
there would be peace for some time to
come. This will be done II the destruc-
ton OF property is again resorted to by
miners"
This remark opens field for profound
thoughtfulness on. the part of every
American citizen. 1t commends itself
most specially to the members OF all
state and national legislatures, to all
who are in authority, and to those as
we'll who are entrusted with the respOn-
sibile task of forming public opinion and
creating q Just, humane and philan.
thropic sentiment on social and indus
trial questions. Such declarations as
that above reported compel men
to face the problem Of corpora
tion limitations, and form opin-
ions concerning the rights OF the
parties at variance. This question is
coming up In some form or another all
over the Industrial world, and our legis-
lstOrs and administrators OF law cannot
much longer refuse 1t recognition. Is
the right to the soil an absolute right, or
is it Only a right to use? Is the right to
the product of another mans labor an
absolute right, or is 1t right modified
by humanitarian considerations and lin
tied by the influence of the existing Or
der of things upon the life, liberty,
health and moral conditions Of the work.
ingman? Has government, which at its
best estate can only exist by consent Of
the governed, no voice in regulating the
relations between its citizens who en-
ploy labor and its citizens who are en-
ployed as laborers? Are these relations
to be purely and solely adjusted by the
so-called law Of supply and demand,
and has labor no option but to accept
what the greed Of extortionate taskmas-
tership offers, with the terrors Of the
military arm as the only alternative Of
every attempt to assert the rights and
claim the privileges of free citizenship?
Is it an answer, such as civilized, repub-
lioan America should make, to say
that these workingmen are free to 60
elsewhere if they are not satisfied with
the labor conditions offered them Dare
this government face the IL, 600, 600 work.
ingmen Of America with this answer,
and, turning from their dumb appeal,
leave starvation, restitution, beggary,
and the ignorance that follows In their
train to do their work Of decentralization.
The case in Hooking Valley Is case
directly in point. Labor saving ma
chinery is driving the American work
ingman to the wall. Corporate wealth
is enabled to multiply these labor-saving
machines indefinitely, and kill human
labor in the temple OF the nations in
dustries. Must the nation stand idly by
and dumb while this work Of human de-
struotion and pauperiZation and ignor-
ance is consummated? or, shall the ma
tion and state, created for the protection
and defense Of all citizens, interpose Its
barriers, and, laying its restraining hand
upon the enoroschments of greed, say:
thus far shalt thou 60 and no farther
The practical statesmanship Of to-day is
confronted by no mightier problem than
this.
The Nellie-Grant-Sartoris domestic
arrangements come up every summer
for review. 1t IL, a theme that reours
with the regularity Of surf-bathing and
owes Its vitality to the sensationalism Of
present journalism. There is not one
iOta Of evidence anywhere to show that
Mrs. Sartoris Is not happy and in the
quiet enjoyment Of q luxurious, loveable
home. The only real sorrow that has
crossed her life and darkened 1t is the
death Of her idolized father, beyond that
her life has been care-free and sunny.
This playing upon the sympathies of
Americans, for lack Of interesting matter
with which to fill their foreign cores
pondence, Is an old trick OF the thin
hat II