The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-06-19
TERMS PER YEAR:
WEDNESDAY. JUNE 10.
MANS Inhumanity TO Man

the striking miners of Clay county. This
was to be expected. In every issue be-
tween capital and labor, between indus
trial freedom and industrial slavery, be-
tween corporate rapacity and human flesh
and blood, the Jouirna:: is to be found on
the side of the former. 1t always stands
for the oppressor and never for the op-
pressed. Its columns are always at the
service of the wealthy and the powerful,
never at the service of the poor and the
weak.
Ever since these Clay county troubles
began the Jo,u1,a. has been persistently
incorporating the situation, and has
done its best to convince the public that
the miners, and not the corporations, were
at fault In Tuesdays issue it declared
that there were always two sides
10 a strike, and in a maj ority OF
instances the matter in controversy could
and should be adjusted without resorting
20 that forcible and arbitrary method"
The SENTINEL deprecates strikes, as a rule.
But as to this Clay county strike there are no
''two sides" to it. There is every reason to
believe that it was deliberately brought
about by the operators; that they pur-
posely made exactions of the miners to
which it would be impossible for them to
submit, with view to shutting off the
production of coal for an indefinite period.
They had an eye both upon the laborer
and the consumers. A long period OF
idleness, they calculated, would reduce the
latter to such a condition that they would
be glad of an opportunity to 60 to work
at any terms that might be Of
fered, and the suspension OF pro-
duction would bring the market
into such condition that an extra fifty
cents on the ton could easily be ex-
forted from the consumers to compensate
the operators for their losses-or rather
want of profts-in the meantime. This
wasthe program which was foreshadowed
at the conference in this city last Feb
ruary and more fully developed at the
subsequent conference at Columbus,
when the Indiana operators named their
ultimatum and withdrew. They have
since refused several propositions of arbi-
tration, and some time ago notified the
miners not to send any more COM
rnittees to them unless for the purpose of
accepting the starvation wages they had
offered.
Now when it is understood that at the
rate of wages paid and the amount of
work given them for the past two years,
these miners have not been able to earn,
on an average, s. a week each; that the
proposition now offered by the companies
means weekly earnings per miner of only
from $3.50 to S3.75; that these companies
have not, to anybody's knowledge, re-
duced the fancy salaries of their high
officials; that the leading stockholders
continue to live in magnifcence in
Chicago upon the profits they have accu-
INFLATED from the operation of these mines
during the last few years-when all these
things are understood, every person with
heart and sense of justice will confess
that there are no two sides to this con-
troversy.
Even if these facts were not known, the
refusal of the operators to arbitrate is their
sufficient condemnation. The JournCs adj
mits that it puts them seemingly in the
wrong, but ii adds:
II is presumable, however, that they felt they
had offered as much as they could possibly af-
ford to pay, and were unwilling 10 submit TO an
arbitration which might require them to pay
more. In the last resort an employer must be
the Judge Of what wages he can afford to pay.
In this case the difference between the opera
tors and miners was not great and IL is ques-
fonable whether the miners would not better
have accepted the reduction than to have
struck. Half a loaf is better than no bread,
and reduced wages are preferable to none.
We are not able fifty 10 characterize
this language. We cannot do Justice to
its brutality and meanness. The Jo1tr7ao.
thinks il "presumable" that these Chicago
millionaires chad offered az much as they
could possibly afford" and, therefore, ex-
cuses them for refusing to submit to an
arbitration (which might require them to
pay more" Two of the arbitrators, be 1t
understood, would have been chosen by
the millionaires; two by the miners, and
the fifth by these four. If the company
could not hope to get fair judgment from
five men, so selected, then the whole
principle OF arbitration is false, and there
is nothing for it but that wcrkingmen
shall accept whatever pittance wealthy cor
porations may offer them, even if it is not
sufficient to supply the simplest require
ments of food and raiment. Indeed, the
Journal saws so in so many words. 1t says
that the miners would better have &C
cepted the terms which the Chicago mill
Gonaires offered them than to have struck !;
that half loaf is better than no bread !;
that ain the CAST resort an employer must be
the Judge Of ,etat lrages hecan afford to pay; -
and that miners who are getting in
wages considerable more than one-half
the gross product hare not much cause to
complain"
This is simply infamous. 1t is a dis
grace to those who inspired it, to the man
who penned it, and to the news
paper which printed it. But it aptly
illustrates the spirit and practices Of our
modern slave drivers, of whom the In
dianapolis JOurnas is a mouth-piece. In
point of fact the coal miners In Clay
county and throughout the country are in
a state Of virtual slavery. Their condition
is much below that of the African slaves
in the days of the peculiar institution"
These at least had food to satisfy their
hunger. and raiment to cover their naked
Il.