St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-13
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
BELOW zero.
THE READING STRIKE.

There is more than one kind of dema-
gogy. One exhibition of it is when
some little snipper-snapper of a poll
tician mounts the stump during election
zine and pirates about the oppression of
the wage-earnerS. Another exhibition
Of demagogical talent, and by far the
more contemplate of the two, is where
the capitalist goes around prating about
the evil effects of strikes and endeavorS
TO work up sympathy for himself in the
quarrel he has on hand with the labor
ing men whom he is trying to rob of thier
Just earnings. A fOrcible illustration
Of this latter species of demagOgy is
now being exhibited by the coal
barOnS who are endeayoring to work up
lpopular feeling against the Reading
strikers. In discussing this matter
few days ago the GLOBE refrained from
expressing an opinion as to which side
was right and which was wrong in the
quarrel between the Reading coal bar
Ons and the miners. We did, however,
say that the time was at hand when the
government would be compelled, in
protection of public interests, to take
control of coal mining. Since then
more careful study of the subject has
led us to believe that the Reading strik-
erS have right Oh their side and deserve
public sympathy. We are, furthermore,
strongly confirmed in our original opin-
lOn that the national congress will have
to legislate the coal baronS into subjec-
lion.
When we come to think that there is
coal enough in Pennsylvania to last the
whole world for $4,000 years and that it
costs only 60 cents a ton to mine it
ready for shipping, and then remember
that we are paying $40 ton, with a
prospect of long, hard winter ahead
Of us with short supply in sight, we
naturally feel incensed that the great
Reading strike should have been precipi-
lated in such crisis. At first glance we
were disposed to lay the blame at the
door of the strikers. But upon ex-
animation we find that the miners
are not responsible for the exorbi-
tant prices we are forced to
pay for coal. The miners have been
working at starvation wages. They got
no slice out of the advanced price of
coal. They do all the labor. risk their
lives down in the mines, dig out the
black diamond from its subterranean
bed, wheel it out and lay it down by the
side of the railroad track ready for
shipment, and for all this work of min
ing and breaking the coal the miner
gets 60 cents ton. The coal baron,
who has small capital invested in the
mines, charges the dealer $3.50 for what
costs him 60 cents. and thus realizes a
clear profit of $3.50 on every ton, and
has incurred neither expense nor
risk in mining it. Considering
that many of these mines
turn out two or three million tons every
year, the coal barons have a COM
fortably soft snap of it, but the
miners do not. They are the poor
est paid and worst used class of work
men in the land. The coal magnates
''bear' the markets and ''bulI' the
mines until they have things their own
way, just as completely as If the earth
was theirs and the fulness thereof.
The limit has been reached when a
lOng-Suffering people shall be subjected
to the extOrtiOn of the coal barons. The
people and the miners have a common
cause in bringing the Pennsylvania
coal kings to terms. 1t is useless to
hope for relief from monopoly-ridden
state like Pennsylvania. 1t is impossi-
BILE to get law passed by the legisla-
ture of that state which will put stop
to the outrage. If the people of Penn
sylvania were the only sufferers, outsid-
ers would have no right to complain.
But the people of the whole nation are
sufferers in this instance, and it there
fore becomes the duty of congress to
put an end to the coal monopoly. The
miners are entitled to living wages and
the consumers are entitled to buy their
fuel at living prices.