The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-02-13

I
Peses with the hundreds of laborers and
drivers around every colIierv.
:, lake as an illustration of how cheapiy
tnese men live the half dozen alluded TO
above, who suhsist on s. month each. The
total expenses of the combine is SIS a
month. An American miner with a family
Oh slx VIII have store bill twice that sum
as general thing. The six foreigners who
were alluded to paid s. month rent for
lnelr shanty. Their coal amounted to 81
iney slept close in their hunks aud
ai1 not yentllate the shanty so they
ald not burn much coal. They did
their own cooking and their own
washing aud their soap bill was the
smallest item Their fare consisted, as TO
meats. OF salt pork and bologna. This
cost them for the month $3.50. They ste
a great deal of cheese, which cost 81 for
the month, and their bread cost them
sl-D. The rest of their diet consisted of
Deans, cabbage. molasses. and these ar
ticies, together with other necessaries pur-
chased at the store, took the remainder of
tne Viz Of course they spent much more
IMAM this at the store Tor tobacco. etc, but
these were the actual necessities of life on
"hich SIX men existed at the rate of 10
cents a day each.
If the mines shut down these men
would probably go to the bitumin-
Gus region OF Pennsylvania or further west
lhey would be especially likely to go if
the English speaking miners were on
strike Should they remain in the region
they might IN time become timbermen
anu eventually miners. They would con-
finue the same manner of life. most likely.
would remain about as foreign to Ameri-
can customs and American government as
they were the day they landed in New
York or Philadelphia. There are many
foreigners who are already miners
These are the people who are taking the
rFfear. IL.
ing miner. In a great region which en-
rtoys over 100000 people about the mines
they have come within a few wears TO
furnish from 30 TO 40 per cent OF them.
There is mine employing 100
men and boys, and so are
representative of the operator. There
are other mines which employ a
majority of this class of labor, most of
whom do not know anything of the En-
giish language.
Polish independence and Hungarian
supremacy has been spoken of as d pos
sibiiity in Shenandoah by coal region
wag.
THE foreign element said coal oper-
ator To the writer, who are coming in are
willing to work cheap. bur at first they are
only good for outside work. Some of
them will work for 81 .35, for 81, and even
for 90 cents day. Then they become pro-
good miners. Some of the English miners
who go back to the old country remain
there, and some of them do as well there
as here. They despise the Hungarians
and Polanders, whom they generally des-
ignate rs Hunks and will not work with
them IL they Tan help it,
The above statement came frankly from
man engaged in the mining of coal Let
a Catholic priest who has been in the coal
regions for six or eight years speak. He
positively declares that he is unbiased and
feels very seriously on the question
-. mo years ago." SAID this gentleman,
Il came from one of the largest mining
towns In Pennsylvania. / had been there
four years, and knew nearly every
soul in the place. A short time
ago / went back to pay a visit
and | was shocked. The entire class Of
population seemed to have undergone a
change. The streets were thronged with
newly arrived foreign labor | scarcely
saw a soul | knew. The Americans, the
English, the Welsh and the Germans had
gone.h
do you think the tendency of the man.
ner of operating the mines is TO drive the
English-speaking element away and I'LL
their places with cheaper class?" -
THAT may not be the object. 1t is the
tendency. The men make less each year
Hardships seem to pile up. They get dis
heartened, and those who can go elsewhere
go as quickly as they can. OF course do
not wish to attack the operators. They
are very humane an some instances. I
have known where they have even assisted
in various ways men who have been on
strike. They donate ground on which to
build our churches, and. If the men desire
4, make our collections for us at the Office
Yet there is no Disgusting the fact that the
number of Engiish-speaking miners and
laborers is slowly decreasing, and the num-
Der of foreigners who are not desirable in
community and who will not become citi-
zens is increasing in the same ratio. You
ask what would remedy this. | do not
know. A barrier TO immigration of this
kind would do ii. But would that be in
keeping with the spirit of the American
out. Is Il not likely that the cheap for
eign labor question here will become as
serious as became the Chinese labor ques-
ton on the Pacific slope?"
The priest shook his head sadly. 1.-THE
man who solves this question, :" he con-
cluded, twill be doing a great and good
work. think it would not have been so
bad if the men had not been improperly
advised and struck the last time. Yet if
the operators are Furnishing them it seems
TO me horribly cruel"
The fact that many anthracite miners
have ceased to mine or have gone 10 mine
elsewhere cannot be denied. Ii is difficult
to get names of those who depart. One
man is known TO have gone from Stockton
to Cornwall, where he is doing better
Two families are known to have gone from
Upper Lehigh, and are living on Welsh
wages more comfortably than here.
A man named Gillespie went not
long ago from Jeddo. Scores of young
Irish-American miners are at work in the
West. An Englishman not long ago went
from Coxes' at Stockton where there is no
compulsory store system and pay is cash.
He could do as well with pay IN the Eng
lish mines.
Here aud there they are dropping out.
Scores of them have been forgotten in a
month or two and may never be heard from
again. A few may come back. but they are
never likely To find the wages they made
ten and twenty years ago, or the class of
work. for with the influx of foreigners has
come stripping industry, and simultane-
ousiy with that seems TO have come
marked working out of the larger veins.
1t is not TO be wondered at that discon-
tent stalks over the treeless hills, and that
these men who were practically born in
the breaker" refuse TO be reeonciled TO the
new order of things.
Nor is ii TO be wondered at that they one
by one give up the fight and make way for
the man who can if he makes up his mind
to it, live on 10 cents day
.sOuR POOR OLD MOTHERS DEAD"
Lines. on the deash OF Mrs. Mary Miller,
written by her absent son.