Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1896-02-22
\ MISnOncr.

/ llOu Vi iHe movement on lne StdDOdlu
to obtain paying price for coal.
! The single fact that there are over 100
producers, corporate and individual,
to bring together and weld into honest
cooperation suggests enough to CON
vince even shallow observer of the
uphill work of the scheme.
And yet it is only upon the assured
success of this work that any expecta-
ton of better wages can be based.
There is no other way, we insist, by
which even g,0and for hope of even the
smallest advance in wages can be
/ reached.
One would imagine. therefore, that
everybody in the coal regions in in
| tcrest, like the JOURNAL, would be
watching intensely the ups and downs
which mark the plans career, be-
wailing the one and rejoicing over the
other as each comes in sight
1t would be bad enough to be com
PEELED to admit that this is not the case.
1t is worse to announce that the
| difficulties which bcset our interest in
market are in danger Of aggravation
/ by interfereuceS here az home.
Bat by that strange faulty which
frequently inspires and directs the
affairs # men there is impending some
sort Of All invasion of this region by
two men from the Clearfeld region.
They are coming, or have come,
freighted with a proposition of
apocryphal origin and mschievous i'm
port, nominated somewhere, by some
body, for some purpose, as 1.-THE
Osceola plan.' All we know of it is
II proposes
in peaceful way to increase the rate of
mining in all the regions sending coal to the
eastern seaboard market.
1t will be seen that this is the self
same mission to which large number
of those who come in actual con-
tact with the buyers of coal have
dedicated themselves. The only diff
ference, therefore, between the two
is one of propinquity-the employers
baslng their advantages upon personal
knowledge of the men with whom they
have to treat and of the coudi-
tons with which they have to
deal the employees, on the other
hand. founding their ipSe dirH upon
their final ability to intimidate their
employers and to bulldoze the whole
coal consuming world.
This plan has been carried to Poca-
hontas, and it was due here this week.
1t cost $70.lG freight to land it at that
place, and FS0.G3 to unfold it,
What it costs f. o. b. at Osceola is
not stated, but $40 was the sum named
to set 1t down IN the original package
somewhere on Georges Creek.
The funny part Of the whole scheme
is 1t comes I'm u peaceful way AS
! though all strikes are not so intro
| duced. The JOURNAL has never heard
of a strike that was ushered IN bv a
thunder storm. No, no-the walking
delegate lights light in the centre of
! things like a snowflake, and he is gen
orally with US several days before it is
noticed that he is not Il drummer, il
book agent, nor Rev. Sam Jones.
Bat peace conveyed under such
auspices is a Greek gift. 1t is the
same deadly force which arms itself
with tlattery and seeks its first victims
among the most ignorant and least
responsible. AS the illustrated syn
onym Of falsehood it is naturally the
apparent foreruuner Of deviltry. In
deed, peace is the pretense which pilots
every Satanic enterprise.
The gentlemen who etnploy it in
connection with the new evangelism of
/ labor as Il cover for another revival of
| club law are more candid than they
| intend. a number of the classics. it
Is true, proclaimed that ''peace is won
| by war; but that was during DAYS
when there was some thing to be had
| for war. Now, when wars are for the
most part causelcss and objectless, it
| is meet that the rule should be re-
versed that when trouble is wanted
the curse of labor as well as the
scourge of nations should go blasphe-
mously masquerading through the
assemblies of professional workmen
clothed in spotless white-the sword
less uniform of peace, the vesture
chosen from the sun by the angels of
Holy Writ to dimly forecast to human
sense the regaha Of heavenly royalty.
II, as the latest politicians would
say, this 'auomaly-this misuse of a
term divine "be keyed too high" let
it be remembered that vast number
Of the men to whom the Clearfield
eVangeliSts are commissioned to come
with IA message whose salutation is
peace be unto YOU" are already
disciples of Il gospel Of Ieacc They
are members of churches who ought
not to be deceived by specious sounds,
swerved by plausible statements and
at last mesmcrized by suggestions of
club rule.