The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1897-10-05
ri th8 World Of Labor.
REAL CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE
AT HAZLETON.

The mine owners Of Pennsylvania
have as a class never treated thelr MIN
or folk with tender indulgence; and rain
or than concede much, if any, 10 the men
on the ground, they adopted IN an ev-i
hour the plan Of supplantlng their Old
miners with new material brought from
Poland. Hungary, Italy, Bohemia, and N
general from Southern and eastern Eu,
rona This new labor could be employed
for much lower wages then the old- Il
could also be exploited-throuSh com
pany stores, company ~shantles, ana otneT
methods well understood by coal-mlhe
oWners-in a manner that the old miners,
who were s~elf-respecting, Englsh-speak-
ing citizens, would not have endured Tor
a moment A score Of strange IAN
yuages and dialects were soon heard n
the mines, including Russian, Polish
Magyar, Czech, Croatian, Htuthenlan,
Slovenian, and numerous others besldes,
s,,ch as Roumanian and Servian, not to
mention Italian. For a while the sup
planted men of the old regime fingered
sullenly on the scene, chnglng TO their
little homesteads and hoping against
hone for the work that was not destined
to be theirs again. They have for the
most part been dispersed throughout the
country. Their houses are now occupied
nv the newcomers from the polyglOt pro-
letariat or southeastern Europe; and I'M
der the roof where one miners family
formerly dwelt in humble decency there
will now be found four or five families
huddled together after the manner Of
the slums of Polish and Hungarian
towns. 1t all means a startling social
change
T. -o& - 10 r,rpncnI that thnCn now
corners would in any case have been Ik-
ed or welcomed by the nOn-minlng pop
ulation of the Pennsylvania towns and
villages Of the coal regions. But the
prejudice against them was aggravated
by the fact that many Of the miners or
the former period had drifted into other
occupations in those towns, while still
more of their friends and relatives llVed
thereabouts. These have been accus-
toned to look with extreme aversion up
= on the unattractive population that has
- monopolized the work Of mining. When
it is remembered that the deputy sfer-
=, ifs are drawn very largely from this
class of village or town dWellers who
hate the foreigners" and 1-erIde Their
7 filthy habits and queer languages, It
: Ill he seen that the strong prejudice
! might easily heI@hten the danger OF a
: misunderstanding under Renaissance OF
g pT0V0c3tI0n. Inc very ldCt, IlL 1ItI
more. that the new miners as a rule
> cannot yet understand English or make
', their EngIish-speaking ~neighboTs unde-.
: stand them. also increases the risks. IN
u Questionably, these people from south.
eastern Europe are strangc-mannere'
II and turbulent. extremely eEcltable,and &c
IL outward appearances an intractable ans
ucIv lot of peon1e to deal with, though
), it is alleged, they are easily man'Se1
q nv superiors who understand them an.
70 are gratefully resi- onsive to klndRes9
ne The mine owners Lnyc seemed : ~
D. liberate intent 10 a9STt The r-~ng
+ ing more Of these people into the coal re
40 gions than were actually needed. TIL;
en- has helped to keep wages close t
Us the starvation point, While obviousI
10 rendering it more difficult for the miner
e to assert themselves. The present al
I'd thracite strike has come about as
M postponed, but inevitable reaction. Like
MS ly enough, it found some occasion IN tn
le- great bituminous coal strike of th
Ike West. 1t is the result of a bad polio.
TT, adopted years ago by the operators O
to the mines. We do not mean to asser
that all mine owners are alike culpable
lg- Some Of them have u~nwillingly adopte
at methods which We're forced upon then
)e- by the harsh laws of co1npetition.-Fron
[ 1.-The Progress of the World" in Am
nd erican Monthly Review Of Reviews TO
ut October.