Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-07-04
PROTECTED COAL MINERS.

Men. Willing to Work Hard, Unable to
Earn Enough to support Themselves.
The operation of protecting the in
FAINT industry of mining coal in Illinois
has now reached the stage of starva-
ton at the Braidwood district, at
Streator, Spring Valley. LaSalle, Peru.
Oglesby, Roanoke, Minonk and Morris.
Unless the charitable of Chicago shall
give, the men who, for years. have
dug the fuel of Chicago must starve as
a reward of their labor.
In a time OF regular seasons, of sue
ceeding harvests. of copious rains, of
gentle winds, of general health-with-
out National ills-the farmer of Da-
kota or Nebraska has suffered because
his supply OF food was inadequate. and
the Woodworking miner starves be-
cause he can get no bread. First and
foremost, therefore, we have the stu
pendous crime of governmental inter-
| vention in the ordinary business affairs
of private citizens. 1t has turned out
that the Government in 1888 collected
Is cents a ton on about So, 900, 900 of
foreign imported soft coal, while the
Illinois miner, if we reckon all the
robberies of his employer, received not
over 80 cents ton for digging screened
fuel
Protected against the better soft
coal of Nova Scotia, the American
capitalist has proceeded to fry the fat
out of our people. As more capital
lists have scented the gain in that
form of business, the domestic compe-
| tition has increased, and every cent of
diminutlon in price has first come out
of the wages paid to miners. Once
81. so was offered for ton of I'M
screened coal. To secure the present
| result, practices have been Instituted
| that shame humanity as far as greed
| can shame it.
As protection does not protect, the
mine-owners are now engaged in eat
| ing each other. During this contest
| the miners. on one reason or other,
must starve, or be fed by the philan-
thropic. This is the lesson at hand.
and this is the exigency. Unless those
| who have bread shall give of it, about
1000 miners with their families. in
Illinois alone. must starve. These H.
900 miners voted for protection, be-
cause their wages of 30 cents were
paid with that understanding, and as
the voters ballot is marked by a num-
Der, as in Chicago. it would be a fatal
| mistake to attempt to vote for escape
from false system.
Wherever in America protection has
established an infant industry there
FL Al l. L
slave system, the company govern
ment and the characterization of
! that region. The Americans have fed
| and foreigners have come in. When
Americans have been seen in the
blasted district it has been on the call
of the Governor for militia to effect a
lower scale of wages. As at Johns
town. Pencoyd, Brazil. Hooking
everywhere-the friend of man has
looked on the scene. and has wished
that manufactures and mining had not
| come into the world to make the
| drama entirely hateful. While the
workers have silently metamorphosed
from Americans to Irish. to En-
glish, to Germans, to Italians, to Mag
vars, to Huns, to Scythians-the great
American millionaire has passed
away and the Millionaire corporation
has taken his place. At last men. con-
templating the work of protection,
close their mouths and grow afraid.
Now let them give, in order to save
these worthy miners from death, for
of late the labor problem has got to
that stage where the strike and tho
militia can no longer be used to con-
fuse the promptings of charity or to
conceal certain hypocrlsies Of our CIV
ilization. Chicago Herald.