The Indianapolis journal., 1889-06-16

did not hear after the food. of any great
suffering at Johnstown, but the conditions
were there to make 1T had not relief come
promptly"
Let us return to the question of wages.n
remarked the interviewer.
Every man / asked" resumed Mr. Nc
Culloch, said the same thing, that was that
the average worker had not for years had
over ~ or % aweek. Amember of one of the
committees said be made the third largest
output IN the Nickel mine;' that he and
son raised fifty tons of coal in two weeks,
which amounted to $40, less expenses. That
comes pretty near representing four weeks
work for one man. for the boys are put to
work when they are fourteen and sixteen
years old"
What else do you know on the subject of
wagesf'
4 collected a lot of pay envelopes, and
April last, i found that in
one instance they ran as high
as S6.43 week and as low as 1923, the
average wage being about s. a week and out
of that man paid for his pO wder and pick
sharpening. One man gave me an account
of his wages for three and a half years.
He received 800 for the four months of
1889 just past; s297 in the year 1888; 1851 for
the year 1887, and about 1927 for the year
1886. One man who had been in the mines
there for eighteen years said he had not
averaged over "a week for the past year."
Did you hear any account of high wages
k8ll come to that presently. want to
saythat no money is being spent in the
saloons, and every one says, in the
towns through which / went, that
it is the quietest strike they ever saw, and
every one acknowledges that the reduction
meant practically starvation. BituminOus
coal has face of five feet and over, and is
easy TO work. At 60 cents ton, a reduc-
tion of cents on ton, there is still
chance for a man to make good wages. Not
| so with block coal. The latter runs from
| four feet six inches down to two feet two
! inches. which is about as low as it can be
worked. On the old scale this low coal.
it is called, was paid an advance of from Is
TO 80 cents ton. because of the greater
difficulty of working it. At the time of
the reduction the operators refused to
make any allowance for low coal.
rate of 20 and 20 cents"
What was the effect of that?'
The men say it would be utterly impos-
Neible to live on the pay offered by the OPP
orators. If last year the wages on the old
scale average only 50 a week. they certain
.1y could not stand any reduction, they said.
Another thing. the miners say the operators
Will not reduce their rents. most OF which
are returning an interest of . per cent. on
the investment; neither will they reduce
their price for gunpOwder or pick sharpen
ing. 1he get two cents on every dollar for
sharpening picks. and the miners say the
smith who does the sharpening for the OPP
orators. and is paid by the operators for his
work, makes $40 day for his employers"
Mr.. McCulloch will preach this morning
at Plymouth Church on the distress of the
miners.
The Miners Strike.
Terre Haute Express.
The Express Will take no part in the dis
cussion of the merits of the question in
volved in the wages dispute between the
block-coal operators and the miners. The
operators have declined to submit their
sside of the case to arbitration, and conse-
quently third party has no standing in
any such discussion, however clear and
strong might be his views on the issue
between these employers and their
employees, but the Express does de-
sire to repeat that the starvation
talk is all bosh. When we say this we do
not mean to be understood as advocating
that doctrine which actuates an employer
to buy his labor where he can get it cheap
est, or of taking the undue advantage of
capital over labor, ignoring the truest of
ali doctrines, that the laborer is worthy of
work upon the sympathies of the people at
large shall not be based or false pretcnses
of political demagOgues.
No one fully acquainted with the facts.
and who is not wholly given to lying, will
assert that the rates of wages which pre-
vailed up to the strike were starvation
wages" at elghty-flve cents a ton an
average miner, working eight hours, would
tmake more than two dollars a day. The
statement that they made but s. week
has gone broadcast with the other one that
there are 1900 miners out of work.
If a miner made but s. week it
was because he did not work much more
than a third of a week, and for this lack of
industry there are two reasons: Either he
would not work more hours. or there was
mot work enough for all at full hours.
Suppose we give the miner credit for the
utmost industry, and accept the reason
that the demand for coal was no6 sufficient
TO employ all the miners all the time. We
find. therefore, that it was n question of
one-half the miners earning all the
wages. or dividing the work among all
miners. Eighty-ive cents is a, higher
rate of wages than paid during the many
years when the blOck-cOal field was devel-
Oping, drawing to it miners from all direc-
tions and making of the county and its
Ichief city a model of blooming communi-
ties What nonsense it is, then, to assert
now that this rate of wages brought on
starvation. Isn't il plain that it is ques-
tion of supply and demand for coal! AS to
whether the block-cOal operators can afford
TO accept a compromise rate, should one be
offered by the miners. we do not propose to
express an opinion. 1t is not our province
to pass upon the management of another
mans business. but we desire to have out
siders understand the facts, as miners and
all others here do, to the end that all may
mt he misled