Evening journal., 1889-01-07
osss 2z.,.e~sM

a rule, unfit for farming, and the rela-
tions Of operators and miners have by
long usage settled down to O regular eys-
tenn. A strike is still q serious thing,
because there is no third party to appeal
to; the operators must either come to
terms with the men, or the government
must expel the latter en- maHse, or work
must stop. And the stoppage Of mining
produces a complete commercial and in
dnstrial paralysis,
In Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, on
the contrary, the most valuable coal
seams lie under the most fertile and often
the best improved farming lands; there
70 an old established society of the agri-
cultural type, and in no county are the
miners and those directly associated with
them a majority. Indeed, they are but
a small minority in most of the best coal
counties, and the mining vote" 10
makeweight which local politicians have
TO handle and study with good deal of
care, as it may be nullifled at any time
by hostile feeling in some other section
of the county. If there is trouble, the
grand jury that investigates it is COM
posed of old farmers, who. Of all men in
America, have the least sympathy with
professional agitators and mako the least
such an organization as that Of the
'Mollie Maguires" would have a short
run in such a county, even If it could
get established at all
Southwestern Indiana, as an illustra-
ton, contains some 0,000 square miles of
the great Illinois coal field. SO called, vet
Brazil is the only place where the min
ing interest can be sHid to predominate
and in that county, Clay, as well as the
adjoining counties of Parle, VigO and
Sullivan, the eastern visitors attention
is constantly drawn away from the min
ing shafts by the vast stretches of level
or but gently rolling land Of a fertility
amazing to the stranger. The highly
cultivated farms produce corn to an ex-
tent unknown cast of the Allegheuies.
and nearly a third of the country is still
covered with valuable timber. In all
the Illinois coal field, covering pagts of
three states, there is not hill which
would attract the attention of Penn
sylvanian, or a square mile of land which
would not seem fertile to a New Eng
lander.
In Missouri the topography is much
the same and the old population much
moro conservative. The fertile valley of
the Missouri from st. Louis TO st. Joseph
die class people from Kentucky and Vir-
ginia, and of the later emigrants from
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the great
majority were but one remove from
southerners. To them were added but
a few eastern men. II would not be
possible to find more conservative set
of men than tho middle class from the
old border states, both slave and free.
To them law and gospel seem made TO be
obeyed, and strike" accompanied with
violence is a criminal absurdity. If two
men or two families, or even two neigh
borhoods, have a difference and fight
it out like men" whether with shotguns
or otherwise, they appreciate the honor
of the proceeding; but ''for a lot of hired
men to quit work an 60 to shootin' at
the other men," as they express it, is an
intolerablo nuisance. Ii win be many
years before the rural population Of
Missouri learn to look with favor upon
labor war" x%x
The contrast between one Of these sud
| denly improvised mining towns and the
surrounding country is striking in either
OF the states west of Ohio. In Mis-
souri, it is ludicrous The traveller
| through rural Missouri is everywhere
struck by the abundance Of room the
people have allowed themselves. The
country roads ere 50 wide that the poor
mans COW finds sufficient pasture on
their margins; the fields vary ssCm
twenty to sixty acres each; the dwelling
Is often in the center of the farm, in the
timber, as far as possible from the road,
and the porch and middle hallway are
q amazing breadth, while tho rooms,
though lew in number, are 'old Eng