Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-09-26
PROTECTED SLAVES.
THB STARVATION WAGES OF PBNNsYLsA.
MA MINERS,
Whose Employers are Becoming Hilionsirss Ten
Times 0vG-Paupr Labor Imported 70
Take the Places Of Honest Amer
lean Workmen.


PHILADELPHIA, September 25. A
special correspondent of the Record, writ
ing from Pittsburg, says: In industrial
activity there Is scarcely rival anywhere
in Pennsylvania to the great bituminous
coal interest. No protected industry in
the State shows more clearly the insin-
cerity of the protectionists' plea for q
tariff to protect the wsges and interests Of
the workingmen. With tax Of seventy
five cents ton on bituminous coal, the
wage worker, taking the region over, OBJ
tanned for his hard and dangerous toll
scarcely enough to provide for the bare
necessities of life.
Last year there was mined throughout
the entire bituminous coal fields of the
State 80, $50, 900 tons, which was worth on
the cars at the mines fully $50, 600, 600,
and which, shipped to destination was
worth more than $50, 1000, 900. This en-
nous wealth was produced by As, 900 of the
poorest paid and most carefully protect
cd" workinguen in the world. The
miners themselves are not as we'll paid as
the same class of labor in the Euglish and
Continental European mines, and they are
compelled to pay extrayagsnt rents for
poor houses, which are furnished to the
English miner for nothing; and in order TO
hold their places ct the mines must submit
in almost every district TO the exsctions of
the company store.
In 1885, when the State Department of
Internal Affairs gathered some valuable
statistics bearing upon labor compensations
In the bituminous coal fields, il was found
that the $4,000 persons employed in the
region were paid in wages $l4. A9, TIA,
when tie output was 20,647, 720 tons Of
coal and 3, 588, ,816 tons Of coke, the value
Of which, at the mines, was not less than
$26, 900, 900. This shows an average for
the region of about 1924 q year, or le,s
than $6.2 week. In tie same year the
average for the anthracite region was
So 81 per week. Last year there were
mined &c, ,s66, 600 tons of coal, which was
dug ont by $1,000 miners, who in some
places were daily in peril of their lives.
The average yield per miner was e34 tons,
and the average price paid throughout the
region was not more than As cents per ton,
which shows an average weekly wage Of
less than 7.25 for the miners who are sup
posed to do the skilled work of the coal
production,
It Is not extravagsrt to estimate the rem
oyerchsrges and the ''pluck-me" store
oyercharges at 10 psr cent. Of the wages
paid throughout the region. The Bureau
of Statistics of the Department of Internal.
Affairs in 1885 declared that the result Of
the ''pluck-me" store system amounted to
a reduction of Is par cent. in the mems
wages. The exacticDs of these establish
ments have been toned down somewhat by
the results of strikes and other recent
events, but only percentage Of the evil
which existed in 1884 has been Topped of
There is scarcely mine or coke plant IN
the entire bitumInous coal coantry where
the company house is not a feature,
and there are very few instances where the
rents are at all reasonable, and at most OF
the operations the rentals demanded al
most amount to robbery. The average
rent throughout the region is above Is
month, or 500 year, and the average cost
of the house is not above 5000. Where,
then, is the protection for wage workers,
who average less than 81 week, and who
are compelled to pay S. month for the
rent of two-hundIed-dolls house? These
men must also buy at the company store,
and pay az much for coal, freight deduGt:d,
as the coal is worth in the market.
It has been shown that nearly 40 per
cent, of the labor in the coal fields in such
districts as Clsarfeld, Beach Creek and
Ga.litzin consists OF the cheap living and
cheap working foreigners who cannot
speak the English Language, and who have
flooded to coal fields in recent years, and
that fully 65 per cent. Of the miners and
coke workers in the Copnellsville region
are of the same class. Statistics from the
other districts indicate that over ope-third
of the workers to-day in the bitumirOus
country are HuIgarians, Poles and other
recently induced" immigrants from Con-
tinental Europe.
This entire element could be eliminated
from the labor supply Of the coal fields,
and the English speaking workmen who
would remsin could handle the output OF
coal az at present restricted by the trans
portetion companies and tie operators. 10
addition 10 the evidence of the mining in
spectors themselves, that il the miners
were supplied with care millions Of tons in
addition to the supply now sent to msrkes
could be shipped, the Western papers al
most daily contain pertinent information
AZ to the method BY which the supply is
limited, which indicates concerted pur-
pose on the part of the transportation COM
D ,nies TO keep the coal back by refusing
cars to the miners: The result Is that the
mines are running on short time,
that they are overcrowded with men,
labor is cheapened, and the foreign miner,
who can live on $125 q year, crowds the
Euelish-speaking miner to tie wall, and
the tariff. protected operstor and monopoly
prot ected transportation companies grow
richer and more prosperous every Gay,
while the workingmsu, for whose sake the
Government is asked to keep mp the tariff,
ia left to his hovel and the tender mercy
of the "pluck me" store. Within week
two Pittsburg papers have published ar
t;cles complaining that the railroad COM
panies are not furnishing cars ID tne
miners, although tks coal trade Is brisk
and the prices are stiff. One Of these
articles tells the story in its head line,
which reads: "Cosl and coke men COM
planning of scarcity Of cars" and the
other declares thst the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company is not furnishing the
necessary number Of cars for Western
shipment.
| This state of affairs throughout the bitu.
miuoue coal country but increases the dif.
ficulty Of the Epglish-speaking miner and
coke drawer to cope with his Hungarian
competitor. The Hungarian is glad 70 gei
q place IN the mines where q native mine'
would starve, and IL he can make $3.50
wear begins TO become customer at thu
nearest hank of deposit. SO bumerou'
and 90 greedy are these people, and %
sharp their competition, that tn some O.
ses they actually pay the mining bosses O
superintendents 10 give them places already
fiIied by American citizens Charges, with
affidavits to sustain them, have been pub
lished in the labor papers Of the region
showing that this has been done, and IL bu
sdds another to the evils of tho chesp for
s;oo labor coupetition. A Hungarian