Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1893-09-30
A Disaster Briefly Reviewed.

disagrees with both the Maryland
courts and the Cumberland Neos.
He is reported as saying to the Com
mittee on Ways and Means:
Coal ought not to be classed as raw material.
In the ground it is worth, say, on an average
of Is cents; when delivered at seaboard ports
it is worth, say, 20 times as much, or from
$3.50 to $3.50 per ton; all is labor except
what il is worth in the ground. Btuminous
coal at seaboard is only used for gas and
steam. When coal is delivered at the furnace
or boiler for use il Is, say. Sc per cent. labor,
and is then consumed and at an end; when
ore or wool, etc, IS delivered at the furnace
or factory the manufacturing of it begins,
and the end Is far away.
But Mr.. Davis got his foot in it up
to his ears in the following Dialogue ::
us there not an impression abroad" asked
Mr.. Reed that the consumer pays the tax
on foreign and domestic coal?"
YES" replied Mr.. Davis, "bm ii is entirely
erroneomr'
That's right, Senator. You want to
answer fully all Of these questions to correct
some prevailing mistakes" [Laughter.l
How any man with his wits about
him could make such an answer is
past comprehension. To do so, too,
after showing the committee his
familiarity with coal tariff history is
more than humiliating. No wonder
"the delegation returned home un-
favorably impressed as has been re-
ported.
Again:
when you ship coal West do you meet
any competition with the foreign product"
asked Mr.. Bryan.
NO"
"rhen what you ask for is not protection
for the miners, but for protection against
foreign coal in the seaboard cities?'
Yes, because free coal could not come ten
miles inland"
Saints, ministers of grace and
evangels of all the faiths, defend us !!
"Not protection for the miners'-that peg
on which we have so long and so fond
~ huub Jul bt \ uthCHts, Jul uOpco, Jul
demands and lastly our protests -
Mr.. Bryan probed him still further ::
The protection, therefore, you desire is
against ansportation-cheap ship rates?
Mr.. Davis answered.:
If free coal then free ships, because the
Nova Scotia mines and English mines are
nearer the seaboard than ours in fact border
upon 1t.
To make it palmer, Mr.. Bryan re-
peated:
If the tariff should be removed from coal
the reduction to come would not fall upon
miners, but upon railroads, which transport
your coal three hundred and four hundred
miles to the seaboard?
By this time it had obviously dawned
upon Mr.. Davis that it was necessary
for him to get back the trump he had
thrown away. He replied:
The reduction would fall on both, though |
do not see how either can stand it. Both are
at the lowest notch. The railroads are max
ing no money and none Of them engaged in
coal traffic is paying dividends.
w. de l.. Walbridge, president of
the American coal company, appears
to haye come out of the fire unscathed.
He consistently hung to the conten-
ton
that the removal Of the tariff, or re-
duction, would mean material decrease in
miners wages.
Mr.. Walbridge. unlike Mr.. Davis,
evidently believes the consumer pays
the tax, and that when the tax is taken
off the producer, for whose benefit tho
tax is imposed, will not get it.
Gov. McCorkle, of West Virginia,
was equally candid. Mr.. Bryan
asked:
If miners wages are the same in Nova
Scotia as in Nova Scotia as has been said was
the case, what harm would there be in re-
duction or removal of the tariff?
The governor replied:
To prevent reduction in the present
wages.
1t is apparent, therefore, that far
more damage than good was done by
this missionary effort to instruct the
Ways and Means committee as to the
claims of coal labor upon a retention
of the current duty. Mr.. Davis flew
too high to begin with, and became
Just the game the willy Mr.. Reed usual.
ly wings with his arrows of sophistry.
Then he permitted the more honest
Mr.. Bryan to inyeigle him into con-
fession that the tariff did not protect
trans-Alleghany coal labor, although
Mr.. Bryan knows his constituents are
compelled to pay prices for coal based
on the tariff rate.
The mission was failure.
Moreover. worse than a failure.
1t enabled both insatiate New Eng
land and maltreated West to APP.
parently convict of iniquity even q
revenue tariff out of the mouths of its
friends.
The Better Way.
That was bad affair at Roanoke,
Va.
1t illustrates anew the danger of
men indulging renzy over any prov