Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1888-07-07

knights of Labor organs, tie CumbCr-
land Times essays to draw sharp con
trast between 1881 and this age. The
Times does this with Il zest which i'm
presses the careful reader with the
question whether it is Il democratic
paper, 4 mouthpiece of the School
Board, or II newGedged labor organ.
For instance, it says:
If memory serves rightfully or eyes can
read Alright, there was paper published not
many hundred feet from Frostburg, in 1851
50, that "fawned" to the verge of anarchism
upon the knights of Labor to secure their
votes, that the thrift might follow the
'iawning." The votes came not forth and
right about face was the order. And in 1887
we see the 'fawning' transferred to the
"bloodsucking corporations" of 1882 and the
object of its fawnng then now denounced,
Admitting all this to be true-true
without abatement or quaifcation---it
is to be stated also that the Times in
1882, then under far ADLER and bet
ter auspices than now, supported the
gunner "|nt be uHdFtHtSC -lnlS dllef
doing the same thing on nearly the
same conditions in 1877.
But, the Times says correctly" the
votes came not FORTH" and, Incorrect
ly-''right about face was the order.n
After the "fawner' and "anarchist"
was defeated in the preliminary battle
at thepolls, in less than six months
the vietors began war upon wages
which lastled nearly six months.
During all that period the JOURNAL
championed the cause of those who
who had slaughtered it at the polls
with an ability which the Times of that
ADLER and better day of its career
characterized as great" For this
1t lost all the patronage of the com
panies it had ever enjoyed and
hundreds of citizens who disap-
proved of its course quietly dropped it.
We could wish this were all.
At the close of the trouble the last
and worst boycott of all began. Not
content with the slaughter at the polls
the men whom we served with so
much strength and at so much cost
began to have no further use for the
JOURNAL. A few paid and stopped
hundreds discontinued it, but never
paid. Some of these worthless went
so far as to put all the blame of the
strike on the JOURNAL, and used it as
plea for reinstatement in their old
| places. Two men whom we know as
now working in mines near FroStburg
who were among the foremost and
lOudest in the strike, who 'hurrahed
for the JoURNAL"-sought re-employ-
ment particularly because they chad
stopped that id JOURNAL"
These are facts which in general
way are well known here by all. The
JOURNAL found at length that it could
not rely for support upon people at once
SO ungrateful, treacherous and base.
1t did not make sudden turn, how
ever; it drifted noiselessly and grad
ually--not to the corporation side, as
the Times insists. but to the side of the
people and region as whole. Here
we stand-with the people, in whose
interest we are debating no~ the man
agement of the schools.
In condemning this "change of
base" we understand that had the
Times been in our place it would still
"fawn" upon the Knights of Labor;
it would still lick the hands that smote
)" it would still endeavor to live
upon a precarious and scanty crumb
fall from the table of its heartless and
constituencies masters. The Times
would learn nothing from its ex-
perience as two-fold recipient of in
gratitude, that crime ''abhorred by
God and man :" or, learning, would not
profit by the lesson. 1t would con
tinue in a service undera regime which
compensates the best effort with de-
traction, fidelity with desertion, and
toll with blows.
But it is needless to elaborate. The
case is, however, Just as we put it, and
it is hopeless There is nothing in
therapy that will cure chronic
newspaper prediction for dirt-eating
Lastly:
As to the ''fawning," there is on record in
the files of that paper an assertion that it sup
ported the coal companies because it paid to
do so.' As to the thrift" ride a new press,
gas engine and the declination of an 81 800
office. The dwelling place of this "fawner'
is so transparent, such film of glass that he
should not fire pebbles at his neghbors from
the bean shot of his wrath.
Had we not already committed the
Times to officiating, we should say
that nothing but a ghoul could be the
author of a paragraph like the one
last quoted.
However, there is no trouble about
differences here. 1t does pay better,
even to Support the coal companies"
than to support the Knights of Labor.
1t pays still better to support all in
terests than either of the two named