The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-04
THE NEXT DUTY.

The right of the coal mine owners to
manage their business in their own way
to employ whomsoever they choose at such
pay and under such conditions as may be
mutually satisfactory-is at last fully and
definitely recognized by the authorities Of
the state; and there is assurance that the
powers of the state will be employed to
whatever extent may be necessary to en-
force this right.
The mine owners have won the fight.
Up 10 this point public opinion has sus-
tanned them-not indeed in all their meth
DDS, for on many accounts they have been
severely and justly censured but the SEN
timent of the people has not wavered in its
support Of the right upon which their con-
test was based, namely, to employ and
discharge IN their own discretion and con-
venience, subject only to the correspond
ing rights of the mine workers, It is to
this support that they owe their easy tri-
umph. Without it, and without the pow
ers of the state which it sent to their de-
Tense, it would have been impossible tor
them to win. They would have been
forced to abandon their properties for a
time. at least. and to have suffered prodig-
ious losses
The public sentiment which has thus
supported the mine owners and which has
brought about their victory in the contest
for legal rights, now appeals in behalf of
the mine workers for recognition of the
moral rights which the situation suggests.
More, ii demands recognition of these
rights and il will not be satisfied till this
demand is answered. 1t is not time for
the victors to teach a lesson to the
miners-this much has already been ac-
complished. 1t is time to forget passion
and TO bury hatreds-to make fresh begin
ming upon the new basis which has estab
lished the rights of all parties beyond
dispute.
The coal miners of this county who
have been engaged in the strikes, with
! their dependent women and children,
number between two and three thousand
| Their trade is mining; as a rule they know
nothing else, and have no other means of
| livelihood; and unless they can find work
| here they must seek it elsewhere-must
| leave the country. The disturbances have
left them poor, so poor, indeed, that at
this time very large proportion are living
upon the charity of their fellow union
men engaged in other pursuits. De-
portation of these people would
be monstrous cruelty. 1t would
be shame upon the mine owners
and a disgrace upon the state OF Washing
ton. The duty OF the mine owners is
clear-they must cast off luminosity and
make fair terms with the miners. If an
agreement cannot be brought about by
direct negotiation then the question
should De submitted 10 arbitration. The
victors in this fight ought to be willing to
coneede this much since their whole con-
tention has been. 10 quote their own
words, "only for what is fair and Just"
II the mine owners fail to answer this
demand it will be at their own peril. for
this community of Washington will not
witness the deportation of the coal miners
and their families without > rage and re-
sentiment that will reflect Itself in the do
ings OF the next legislature. The equities
Of the situation as they present themselves.
quite independent Of the legal rights of the
case already settled, must in one way or