St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-26
THE MINERS STRIKE.

There are many deplorabe features
attendant upon the strike of coal miners
now in progress. 1t is, perhaps. one OF
the most extensive ever known in this
country, and affects directly fully a
hundred thousand workmen. while it
indirectly Injuries the business of the
entire country. 1t now looks as if the
movement will be failure. and that the
men will resume work soon without
having accomplished their purpose.
The coal miners of the country are
not, as rule, forehanded. Their wages
are small, and it requires every cent a
man can earn by constant work to
keep himself and his family from want.
Not one in thousand has anything
LAID by for a rainy day. Their credit is
not good, and merchants will not trust
them for provisions or clothing. When
their money gives out they mast Starve.
And their money is now gone, and Suf-
fering is wide spread among them.
Although still defiant, they are care
worn, and plainly show the effects of
anxiety. Hunger is gnawing at the vltals
of the men, and tears dim the eyes of
the women and children, for the pros.
pect is cherries, almost hopeless. The
men can turn to no other occupation for
subsistence. As a class they are igno-
rant. and know nothing but what they
have learned in the pits. They are
easily provoked to violence by their
schemins or hot headed leaders. and
from various quarters we have reports
of riot and b!oodshed. They may force
the authorities to extreme measures,
when the consequences will be too ter
rlble to contemplate.
1t is the opinion of competent judges
that the strike cannot last ten days
longer. Before that time the strikers
will be compelled to resort to work or
pillage in order to sustain life. AL
though generally an ignorant class, they
dislike to provoke disorder, and will
suffer much before attempting it. But
they must live. 1t is probable that as a
last resort they will return to the mines
at the old rates. Instead of having
gained by the strike, they will have lost
immeasurably. The money they could
have earned during the months of idle
ness will be lost forever. and it will take
them a long time-perhaps years-to re-
gain the positions of comparative COM
fort they lately enjoyed. Many Of them
will never recover from the losses they
have sustained.
No one pretends to say that the
strikers had no grievance. Their wages
are shamefully made quate. The cor
porations that command their services
have grown enormously rich from the
product of their toll. They are OPP
pressive to the last degree. caring moth
ing for the welfare of their employees.
but only for their stock dividends. They
know that the miners are at their mercy.
aud for years they have been grinding
them down from depth to depth of
squalor. until it would seem that the
lowest point had been reached. Work
men have been imported from Bavaria,
Italy and Hungary-the most ignorant
of their class in the world-to take the
places of American citizens, and they
are powerless to resist. Pitiable as is
their plight, there seems to be no remedy
for it, The law favors the monopoliSts,
and they will do what they will with the
poor wretches whose fate has been
placed in their power. They waste little
sympathy upon the workingmen, but
use them only to advance their own
selfish purposes.