Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-05-26
0be fanfastcr lntclligcnter.
LANCASTER. MAY 90, 1886
End Of the Clearfleld Strike.

The strike in the Clearfield coal region,
after duration of nearly three months,
has ended with the failure of the miners to
obtain an increase of wages, though their
demands for just weights,and semi-monthly
paymsnt in cash were acceded to. The
settlement was not made, it seems, through
the miners union, but by an independent
conference of the HoutZdale miners, with
representatives of the operators there.
The action of the Houtzdale miners
controls that of the miners of the
whole region, as they are the largest body
in it. They were the last TO enter into the
strike, to which they were persuaded by
the men of other regions, notably those of
Cumberland, who were the first TO surren-
der
The strike has been failure through the
resolute resistance made to it at the in
stance of a few of the largest operators,
who had the assistance of the PennSyl-
vania railroad in holding out against
it. That the strike would be a
failure has been evident, ever since
it was shown, as it has been for
months, that the industries of the country
would not he stopped by the coal that was
cut off from them. 1t was evident then
that the miners did not control the stua-
ton. If they had united all over the coun-
try and had stopped production altogether,
it would have been different with them
AS it was they only limited production and
enabled operators who temporarily yielded
TO the demands of the miners to sell
their product at good profit. Now
that the whole region is in, the ques-
tion is as to what will be done with the
great addition made TO the coal product
The mines that have stolen the Cleariield
trade will seek to hold on to it, and one ap
parently certain result is the Improbable
ness of mining to the operator, unless
he is very favorably situated. The tend
ency which has already strongly set il
towards the extinction of the small opera
tor, will be intensified. The region will
pass rapidly under the control of few
operators, who will be able, by combina
ton, to control its labor and its product.
The policy of the Pennsylvania railroa,
has DeeH 10 encourage SUCn concentration
1t it supposed originally to have been lie,
intoit, because Of the self-intereSt of its Off
cials and it may maintain it for this reason
or from force of habit. 1t is not the best
policy 1t is not its interest any more thar
that of the community it serves, that mon
Opoly should control the production of bi
luminous coal. Its interest in the long
run is always that of the country it trav
erses, and its particular interest in the Goa
region is to deal with many rather than Z
few customers, that it may control insteaC
of being controlled. 1t has 50 long con
trolled that its managers do not seem t.
contemplate the possibility of getting
into.any other position but with another
railroad now tapping the region, and
the certainty that railroad competition is
secured to it by the temper of the people
and their constitution and laws for all time
to come, the directors of the Pennsylvania
railroad should beware of encouraging the
concentration of bituminous coal produc-
ton in few hands, however personally
favorable to them.