The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-09
CHIEF POWDERLY'S PLAN
HOW THE K. OF l.. ARE TO STOP
THE PAUPER FLOOD.

~AoF w AL opeEQ , lOfOOO al eiDiASu
ing All Over Europe the Truth About
the Situation in the Coal Districts
A Novel Campaign to be Begun
Forthwith.
From the NeW York Star.
WILKEsBARRE, Pa, Aug. 2.-To spend
$4,000 in the publication in European
prints of an account of the true condition
OF the labor supply in the Pennsylvania
coal regions is the scheme which the Knights
OF Labor have hit upon to stem the tide of
cheap labor from Italy, Hungary and Pc
land to those regions. This plan has been
the chief topic of discussion at the secret
meeting of the knights in this city this
week, and General Master Workman Pow
derby has been the chief adviser of the dis
trict assembly in its deliberations. That so
large sum should have been raised for such
purpose need not be a matter of surprise
when it is remembered that almost one
third of the labor population in and about
the wyoming and Lackawanna mines is
composed of non-English speaking people
who have come here in recent years. This
part of the anthracite coal regions has been
especially fortunate in having had work all
through the recent strike, and the miners
here have profted by the misfortune of
their friends in the Lehgh and Schuylkill
regions. The native and English-speaking
miners here sec that unless something shall
be done to check the influx of this cheap
labor, it is only a matter of a few years
when the Wyoming and Lackawanna
regions will have been reduced to the condi-
ton of the Lehigh region. The estimate Of
an old mine superintendent is that the con-
tractors realize enough from their powder
profits and their dockage gains to pay for
all of the outside labor and running ex-
penses at the mines. If this estimate be
true, and 1t is given only as claim of the
miners, the operators can put on the cars,
ready for shipment to tidewater, a ton of
coal at a total cost including labor, run
ming expenses and interest, of less than ST.
Ii this be true, c. al at cost of IS so ton
to consumers must be about the most profit
able commodity to be found in this or any
other country, not even excepting gold mug
gets from California.
The tourist who has seen Wikesbarre and
missed the "Duck Pond" should make the
trip over again. There are no ducks to be
found in this pond, but there is that to be
seen there which is fast making ducks and
brakes of the labor prospect in this coal re-
gion. The Duck Pond" is the home of the
Hungarians who work in the collieries on
the northern limits of Wiikesbarre There
are many duck ponds" in this vicinity of
which this Is a specimen. The hamlet of
miners houses which is thus Familiarity
known to people here was ten years ago in
habited by English-speaking miners, each
house being, as rule, occupied by single
family. There is Il single row of these
houses, ten in all, which to-day is sufficient
for the shelter Of over 100 Hungarians, and
in some of these twenty-five men find cot
and a home.
A reporter of the Philadelphia Record
paid two visits to the "Duck Pondn in the
afternoon and again in the evening. At the
first visit he had an opportunity to peep
into the houses occupied by these men. In
almost every house there are three or four
cots and hunks in each room, and not an
apartment was found in which there was
not at least one bed, even including the little
back shed, which was also used as
kitchen. In each of three of
these houses woman was cheerfully
kneading bread on a table which had evil
IDENTIFY been used by the men at their morn
ing ablutlons, in rooms which were so
numbered up with beds and hunks that
there was scarcely room to move about At
night the inhabitants of these tenements
swarmed out on the little ground in front
of the houses and on the roadway like bees
around hive There appeared to be popu-
latlon sufficient to people small town, and
the single row of dozen houses
Over at Luzerne borough, across the
river, where there are five collieries, this
sort of ssrdine-like packing is even more
striking. There are about 5000 men and
boys employed in and about these five col
leries, of whom nearly 1000 are Hungari-
ans and Poles. Here single house, which
in years gone by furnished room for two
families of English-spoaking miners, shell
ters thirty-two Hungarians. There was
even bunk in the kitchen. An Alaska
street tenement in Philadelphia would
scorn the companionship of such a
rat-pit. Each occupant of this house,
and of others of its kind. fur
nishes his own food, which the solit Try
woman who has charge of the commissarv
department cooks as best she can. How in
the world the poor creature manages to
keep her wits and gets through her days
task without mixing up the rations of her
thlrty-two boarders is next to miraculous
Such settlements are scattered all through
the Wyoming region These people, like
their countrymen in the Lehigh region,
manage to exist on less, in many cases, than
80 a month They save a good deal of
money, because wages have only fallen
in ten years here % per cent, while in the
Length region where the cheap Italian
labor is dore the decline has been almost
double that. Even the boys are driven
from the breakers, and to some extent also
in this region, The Italian adult, if he can
get easy work, will take job at from so to
60 cents day, aud can live on it and even
save few dollars. This is better even
than the lads could do, and they are gradu-
ally surrendering their places to such men
as are too lazy or too ignorant to work in
the mines.
Within bounds, there are 1000 Hungari-
ans and Poles in the Wyoming and Lacka-
wanna region. There are not in this num-
Der 400 women. This is a more serious
social and economic problem than Mt first
appears, 1t shows, in the first place, that
these people come here and leave their
families behind them. They can in a re-
mote Degree he compared in this respect to
the Chinese, and really there appears to be
little less damage from Chinese cheap
labor than from the cheap labor of the
Hungarian and the Italian. The latter
come here and live almost on a crust and
what they save is sent to their families and
relatives in Europe. In the Lehigh region
it is estimated that fully $1,000. 900 is thus
drained from the natural local circulation
into which 1t has been accustomed TO flow
to the continental homes of the foreign
workers in that section. If the entire an
thracto region he considered in such cal
culation it probable that almost 81, 00O, 900
year is thus sent across the ocean from
the Pennsylvania miners.
But it is the vast difference between the
number of foreign males and foreign fe-
males that come here which begins TO attract