Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-11-26

Coal Dear in the Cities, and Restriction
of Mining Keeps Down the Earning
Power of the Miners.
From the Wilkes Barre Telephone.
We are prompted to direct the atten-
tion of our readers to the oft-pubiished
misleading and false reports that appear
in our metropolitan and local daily papers
concerning the causes of the long con-
tinued restriction and unsatisfactory CON
dltion of the anthracite coal trade. 1t is
generally known that the trade journals
and special writers, who furnish public
information in regard to the anthracite
industry, prepare only such reports as
may be satisfactory to mine owners, rail
road companies and sales agents. As
consequence the public is continually
misled by these untruthful statements
showing that the coal trade lis utterly
demoralized owing to excessive produc-
tion," and that it is necessary to keepup
the system of limiting shipments from
the mines in order to maintain prices
that will enable railroad companies and
mine owners to reap fair margin of
profit over and above wages and operat-
ing expenses.
Now, as matter of general knowledge
1t would be interesting to know whether
advances in the wholesale price of coal
are followed by proportionate advance
the nf fhn
During the past summer about 10000
miners and laborers throughout the an
thraclte region were restricted to less
than half time work at the collieries.
Under the low rate of wages they did
not earn sufficient to provide their fami-
lies with enough food-to say nothing
about clothing and other necessaries of
life.
10 make their condition more wretch
ed, we find that during the past four or
five years the operators have greatly
overcrowded the mines with cheap la
borers. Against this growing evil the
mine workers, whose forefathers settled
IN the anthracite region many years ago,
dare not protest under penalty of being
wholly deprived of employment, and
right here we desire to point out how
the corporations find it profitable to en-
pIoy a greater surplus of labor than is
necessary to produce and prepare the
amount of coal that is being shipped to
market
In the first place, while the breakers
work only two or three days a week
under this plan of restricting the output,
the force of outside and inside employees
is at all times larger than necessary. In
the mines two or three miners and three
laborers are allotted the same number of
cars to load per day, as was formerly
allowed for one miner and his laborer.
This naturally reduces the earnings of
each individual miner and laborer about
one-third less than before the great trust
came into existence. 1t may be asked
how such iniudicious policy can benefit
the companies, as it does not seem
reasonable that they should employ
more labor than is needed to mine and
prepare certain monthly output of coal.
The reply to this queer problem is
found in the fact that fully nine-tenths
of all the collieries in the anthracite re-
glon are owned and operated by corpora
tions who either directly or indirectly
own what is known as pluck-me COM
pany stores. Hence, the greater the
number of employees in and about the
mines, the greater must be the aggregate
amount of profits realized by the pluck
me stores.
The introduction and employment of
the hordes of cheap laborers to replace
intelligent labor in the collieries has
from the first been part of a systematic
plan carried into practical effect by the
mine owners and railroad corporations
to get coal produced at the lowest possi-
bic cost. 1t is enough to assert the sim
pie truth, viz: They have ground wages
| down to the starvation point, at the
same time limited the output of coal to
keep up the price to consumers. In this
way we find that the present demorali-
zation of the trade is not due to excessive
production as metropolitan newspapers
tell us, but to the fact that the policy of
the anthracite combine and its purpose
is to let millions of people throughout
the country freeze or burn cordwood, if
they are unble to pay from 81 to IS per
ton for anthracite coal at retail, and the
miners must be content to work half
time and cut coal for 10 cents per ton, as
they are doing in the mines of the Wyo-
ming valley at present.
1t requires no argument to prove that
restricting the output and exacting high
prices from consumers is not for the pur-
pose of paying high wages to mine
workers. Wages in and about the mines
have not been advanced to our knowl-
edge even per cent during the past five
or six years that the trade has been