The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1888-02-03

iN e""nlN' His father was
lawyer, who gave his son
plain academic education. The son
taught school for time-thcn
himself studied law. When he was
graduated from the Harvard law school
it was with the highest lonors. He prac-
ticed first at Newport, r. l., and then at
Davenport, III. Soon he went into the
land and loan business. In this he made
money last and then determined to 20
into railroadinS. Before anybody sls-
pected his Intentions he had obtained con-
troll of the Long Island railroad system.
also securing large holdings of l. B. & w.
stock. His connection with the Reading
companies is OF recent origin. He has
1000 acre farm at Islip, L. l., and
manages it, as he does his railroads. per-
sonally, and with great shrewdness.
MIR. Corbin's mode of life and appear.
ancc We're thus described last summer by
4 New York correspondents:
''He lives ON Fifth avenue since his re-
moval from First place, Brooklyn, but
ono night he is apt to sleep at his 1000
acre farm at Islip, the next in Philadel-
pllia; and then for a week he will seek
..lumbcr in his private car, whirling from
one o.. 10 the other of his Reading sys-
tai. This car of his is the handsomest in
this country, not even excepting the new
one the Pullmans have just built for Jay
Gould, and cost something like $35, 900.
1t has bedrooms, dining room, kitchen,
bath and library, where, on his well bal
lasted roads, he sits at his escritore and
transacts business with the ease that he
could do here in his downtown ofice-he
has IL prodigious capacity for work. His
six feet of gauntness is as strong as q
whipcord and us elastic as steel. His Sc
years of life show not q faculty or muscle
awry. He has blue eyes, brown hair and
ruddy complexion, and is 1.-THE of move
ment.'' ----,.---~-
Turn from the picture of success,
luxury and confidence, presented by the
foregoing to the condition of the coal
miners i'll the anthracite regions of Penn
sylvania. Perhaps the cut of the interior
of q miners home-taken from an actual
instance and not by any means an isolated
case-will tell better than words can, the
squalor and misery they are afflicted
with.
The American miner was once a
splendid fellow. This was before the in
PRODUCTION Of Polish and Hungarian cheap
labor. Then his wages were good, better,
in fact, than that of most lab0rers. The
the work was hard and trying mine
owners were anxious to get good men and
willing to pay good rates for the work
when it was done. But as the operators
waxed rich they cast about for all sorts of
devices for increasing the per centage of
proits. Whether the importation of
foreigners, who could live OH far less than
/. the American laborer required, was be-
fore the days of the ''pluck me'' store or
not the present writer knows not, but
both these devices We're resorted to.
There is some semblance Of excuse for the
former-nolle for the latter. That's to say,
capitalists justify the use of cheap for
eigners OH the ground that the labor mar
ket is an open one and the employer has
the right to get his work done by the man
who will! Go it cheapest. In other words,
to buy labor of the man who will sell it
at the lowest figure.
But many operators in adopting this
course failed to accord their employees the
same privilege They established the con&
pany store Here is a description of
one Of these institutions, but it should be
prefaced by the statement that they arc
more common in tho bituminous than the
anthracite region, where the trouble is now
located.
There is q law of Pennsylvania prohibiting the
company store; but it is tlisobeyed by one device
and another Through this engine Of torture the
last cent is wrung from the miners and the lc-
borers.
The money ell goes back to the employer.
When O miner goes to work at rev place, live
weeks pay is withheld as guarantee OF his con-
duct During this time he must live on credit,