Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-11-23

Some Strange Discrepancies.
The following United Press dispatch
appeared in Thursdays EVERY EVEN
ING and in other afternoon papers tax
ing the telegraphlc service:
ALLENTOWN. PA, Nov. 16.-The wages OF
the iron ore miners at Minesite have been
reduced 10 cents per day. The miners now |
get 70 cents for days work.
In an editorial reprinted from the |
New York Press, written to show how |
the wages of miners must suffer if the |
wicked Democrats abrogate the 75 cents
per ton duty on bituminous coal, we
find the coal miners credited with the
receipt of $2.19 per day, or, by the ton,
$3.50 per day. The infinitesimal diff
ference of one cent per day between
regular labor and piece work is, obvi-
ously, sufficient in itself to discredit
these figures, without the Allentown
dispatch regarding the 70-cents- per'day
iron miners. AS it is, no rejecting
reader will believe that the bituminous
coal operators OF Pennsylvania are pay
ing their miners over So per day while
iron miners in their immediate neigh
borhood' are working for 70 cents per
day. The assumption is absurd.
The keynote of the Press editorial is
that, II this 70 cents per ton duty be re-
pealed, "the soft coal industry is
doomed" 1t processes to fear that such
action by Congress would wreck
bituminous mining and manufacturing
interests and bring ruin and desolation
to the homes of hundreds Of thousands
of our wage earners who are engaged
in mining coal" 1t also processes to
believe that the duty simply enables
the bituminous coal operators to pay
higher rate of wages to the laborers who
mine the coal" Bearing in mind the
frequent strikes in the mining regions
of Pennsylvania, the many stories of
privation, destitution and suffering that
come from there, the well-known fact that
in many districts the mines are run with
the cheapest of European "pauper
labor" Hungarians, Poles and Italians,
to the practical exclusion of men who
cannot or will not live as they do, we
are sure that it needs no argument to
demonstrate that, no matter what this
rs cents of "protection" may "enable
the bituminous coal operators" to do, as
matter of fact they pay no more for
their labor than the lowest market price.
There is a similar protection" of rs
cents per ton on iron ore, yet that has
not prevented the wages of the miners
falling to 70 cents per day. Are the coal
operators any more philanthropic oil
considerate for the welfare of "American
labor than the iron minersp
Now, we do not know, nor does any
body else, excepting perhaps the mem
bers of the committee on ways ant
means and the few in their confidence
whether that committee has or has no
decided to put bituminous coal on tht
W free list. But we do know, from evi
dence furnished by the Harrison admin
istration, that the doing SO would mo-
enable the coal operators of British
America to compete with the domesti
product, except in the nearby market
of New England and along our norther
frontier, for the simple and suflicien
reason that it costs less to produce a tot
of bituminous coal in this country thai
in Canada. We quote from the 1s9
report of the commissioner of labc
under the Harrison administration,
document transmitted to Congress wit
the personal endorsement of Mr.. Harr
son himself, page 224:
They (the tables given in the repor
cover averages drawn from AZ establis
mcnts in the United States for run
mine, from 90 establishments in the Unit,
States for lump bituminous coal, from
establishments in the Dominion Of Canal
for run of mine, from IL establishment
in Great Britain for run of mine, and fro
0 establishments on the continent
Europe for run of mine. The ayera
cost per ton, as derived from these esta
lishments, for each district is as follow
In the United States for run OF mine, Z.
cents, with an additional theoretical &C
Of So cents; for lump bituminous coal
the United States, 92.5 CENTS with an adj
tional theoretical cost of 6 cents; in h
Dominion of Canada for run of mir
Sl.044, the additional theoretical cost bel
% cents; in Great Britain for run OF mil
Sl.004 with possible additional theort
cal cost Of lag cents; on the continent
Europe for run of mine the average C
is 67.2 cents per ton, with an addition
theoretical cost of 40 cents.
And it is our impression that at I
date of this report the miners of Per
sylvania were receiving at least as nu
as they are now. From which it folio
that the American coal operators G
snap their fingers at foreign compe
ton, without one cent of "protectiol
AS every one knows, the competit
which the Pennsylvania coal operat
will have to hustle to meet, in the NJ
future, is not that of Canada, but tina
southern States-and no tariff can h
them there. Alabama is already sh
ping thousands of tons of bitumint
coal to foreign markets-to the W
Indies and elsewhere-and is reach
out for such improved transported
facilities as will enable her to v
largely increase these shipments. I
CRITICALLY, there is no more need fc
protective duty on bituminous coal h
there would be for similar duty
anthracite; practically, the main ef
of the duty appears to be to place
manufacturers of New England at a
advantage. That the duty has anytt
to do with the "protection" of Ameri
labor is nonsense; there is very i
American labor left IN the mir
regions to be protected-it has been