The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1888-02-04
THE READING COAL MINES.


The Reading, Pennsylvania, Goa
miners have been OH strike for som,
time because their wages did not sui
them. They met in macs convention
and gave expression to the following
Then the speaker went on to arraigI
the Pinkerton detectives. Ho was fol-
lowed by f. A. Herwig, who said the
railroad is run by foreign capitalists
contrary to the laws of the United
Staten, and concluded by advising
WOrkLDen to cooperate at the ballot.
box, which would avert all strikes
Labor comes first, capital next, and
when we come to understand that we
| shall have Il better system of govern
ment."
The following resolutions were
adopted enthusiastically:
Whereas, The Philadelphia and
Reading railroad in the present diff =
Guilty which they have forced upon the
employees, are employing immigrants TO
iill the places ofthe employees they have
forced to vacste, and,
Whereas, The company is projected
from foreign competition by a protec-
tive tariff on coal, which we have for
"ears fondly believed was intended to
benefit American labor, and,
Whereas, We are citizens of this re-
public aud believe the laws should be
impartial, and that no laws should be
enacted which confers special benefits
upon any class of citizens; therefore
be it
Resolved, That in coming elections
Tor congressman, we shall support only
lnIf to. -. 4.
tariff on coal.
We have but little sympathy with
the Reading strikers or other strikers
who have been working in these pro-
tectad coal mines, factories and mills.
Democratic ne wspapers and democratic
stump speakers have for many years
made known to them the identical
facts set forth in the resolutions, and
still they have persisted in going to the
polls in Pennsylvania and rolling up
republican maiOrities as high as
fifty and sixty thousand, year after
year.
It will not do to say there are no
Intelligent men among the miners and
other operatives; men who can appre-
ciate an argument and who have
capacity to reason for themselves
During the many strikes they have
time and again seen the mine owners
and the factory lords send to Europe
and supply their places, but they have
gone on piling up majorities for the
party that favors monopoly of every
thing from the manufacturing of a pin
TO that of locomotive.
These men claim that the Reading
mlnao ntunoH on1 -,
foreign capitalists. The ownership,
whether at home or abroad, amounts 10
but little, if anything. 1t is the pro-
tective feature that strikes the masses.
The coal is protected for the benefit of
the pockets of the oonerS, and not the
miners or consumers of the coal.
The consumer has to pay the amount
OF tariff on foreign coal, and any price
in addition that the mine owners NAV
see proper to charge, and the man that
digs the coal has to take what he can
get for his labor, or run the risk OF
being superseded by scab labor at
home, or the importation of foreign
paupers to take his place.
The coal roads and mine owners are
leagued together. and have been for
years. This league has grown out of
the policy of the federal government,
and the laws made hereunder by the
republican party. Whenever corpora
tions have demanded it, congress has
been swift to enact laws for their bene
fit under the guise of "protection to
American industries This is the
baue of the Reading miners; 1t is the
Dead Sea fruit that has been commend
ed to the lips of the whole people not
concerned in these highly protected
industries.
The Reading miners have at last had
1t battered into their heads that the So
called protection to American labor
affected by the war tariff was never
meant for them. What is true of the
mining business is true of everything
else. The present tariff is a blight OH
everything and everybody not directly
engaged in manufacturing, aud is a
drawback upon many of them.
The Reading miners had better send
in their grievances to congress, and not
wait 10 get whack at congressional
candidates next fall.