Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1890-01-16
THE MINERS ONLY SALVATION. =
1t Is Not Yet Too Late to Emancipate
Themselves From the Miseries
That They Now Suffer.

1t Is Not Yet Too Late to Emancipate
Themselves From the Miseries
That They Now Suffer.
One of the writers of the Sunday Neios-
dealer, under the nom de plume of
Hamtown Pilgrim, gives some pertinent
and well-timed advice to the anthracite
miners in the following article:
"Why are the Huns and Poles driving
us out of the mines?" This question
came from the lips of an intelligent
miner who stood outside of the Pennsyl-
vania Coal Company's Office on Main
street yesterday waiting for a notice of
resumption. Well, what of it? Suppose
they do drive you out, whose fault is it =?
Certainly the Huns and Poles are not to
blame. These people must live as well
as anybody else, and if the intelligent
American miner cannot or will not
protect himself against them, then he
must inevitably go to the wall. The cor
poratlons hire them because they work
cheap, and hundreds of miners, l regret
to-day employ them as laborers for the
self same reason. And, generally speak
ing, it is this breed of miners who howls
most dismally about hard times and
foreign competition.
~
What can be expected, therefore in
the way of relief from men who for the
sake of a few paltry dollars, deliberately
drive from the mines, intelligent, capable
men, and fill their places with ignorant
Huns because the latter are cheap? l
tell you, my friends, the corporations
are not the only enemies the miners of
the anthracite coal fields have to guard
against. There are men cutting coal to-
day who do more injury to their fellow
workingmen than do the corporations
with all their greed for gold. The work
ingman expects nothing from the COM
pany that employs him than the smallest
pittance for the hardest possible labor.
Therefore they are, or should always be
on the lookout for every new hostile
move of their conscienceless employers
But there are men who step on the car
with them every morning; who enter the
bowels of the earth side by side with
them; who should always stand ready to
resent any encroachment upon the rights
of their fellow workers; but do they do
it? mol They act the traitors part un-
blushingly and play into the Coal Kings
adrift, and hiring Huns and Poles in
covetous creatures They are unworthy
of the name of men. They are vermin,
and should be exterminated
~
If the Huns are driving you out then
yourselves are to blame. For if the
miners stood together like men and re-
fused to hire unskilled labor to load their
coal, no power on earth could engraft a
single Hun upon the anthracite coal
regions of Pennsylvania. But they don't
stand together. They don't act like
men. They are always trying to over
reach each other, and the natural conse-
quence is that the Huns and Poles are
slowly but surely taking possession of
the coal works in this region. And al
though the intelligent American miner
may stand on the corner and protest un-
til the crack of doom, it won't alter this
condition of things one iota. They may
rail at the corporations for importing
cheap labor; they may protest against
the grinding tyranny of the Coal Barons
until their tongues grow thick, but the
injustice will continue until the miners
wipe the cobwebs of distrust from their
eyes, and come to the conclusion that
there is but one remedy for the deplor-
| dDlc state OI dIlalTS.
~
And what is that remedy?
United action, answer. 1t is the only
weapon left to the toiler. United action
is the handspring of seccess the world
over.
1t is united action that led the armies
of Napoleon to victory over the blood
stained plains of Europe. 1t was united
action that struck off the English oppres
sion from five millions of American
freeman one hundred years ago, and il
was united action that brought the brave
boys in blue honors from the slave-lanC
of the south with victory perched upor
their banners and followed by the
blessings of millions of Gods creatures
freed from bonaage worse than death
~
In tnat period of Frances brightes
glory, when her banners floated from
score of European capitals and monarch.
sued for mercy on their knees, the secre
of her glorious supremacy was uniteC
action, controlled by the genius of {
great leader. In the days of the Revolu
ton the tattered hosts of Washington
looked to him for inspiration when the
cause semmed well nigh hopeless. Wher
the "boom of the signal gun" placed 6
wall of steel between the North and
South it was the stubborn bravery oi
that great captain, Grant, that tore the
vitals of the Confederacy and brought
the great struggle to a speedy end.
Nv
But you may say, where can the
miners of Pennsylvania look for a leader
such as these. Who will lead us out OF
the wilderness of poverty and degrade.
ton into the broad open sunlight of pros
perity? l answer, there is leader, who
is to the workingmen of the United
States what Napoleon was to France
Washington to the Colonies, Grant tc
the Union. His name is a sign-manual
for honor, integrity and truth, and his
record is written in letters of gold upon
the pages of labors' history. He stands
ready to lead you if you will be led
His name is Terrence V. Powderly, and
who can raise whisper against either
his integrity or capability? If there is
one in this broad land of ours let him
stand forth. There is not one. How il
it, then, that you hang back and refuse
to accept his leadership? Has he evei
deceived you? Has he ever misrepre
sented you? Has he ever barted away
your rights when entrusted to his keep
ing? No, you say. Then, if you are
men and deserve success, swear allegi
ance to this leader whom God has raised