The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-22

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THE SEMI-ANNUAL PERFORMANCE.
There are several conditions in the coal
trouble which neither side in the present
controversy seems to appreciate. One of
these is fact which both sides admit,
namely, that the number of men seeking
employment in the coal mines and who live
about the mines is largely in excess of the
number needed to furnish the market with
coal. The miners officers put the number
at $4,000. This number is said to be Sc
per cent. more than be given steady
employment. The result is that the miners
are idle a considerable portion of the year
a fact which embarrasses the situation
since what would be a living wage if paid
throughout the year would be- insufficient
if employment were given only six or eight
months in the year. If the operators were
really sagacious men they would try to
have this extra labor diverted to other
fields of employment. If the officers Of the
miners were wise they would consider some
policy of reducing the number of men to
the level of the work to be done. Instead
they insist upon rate Of SO cents a ton,
as If the difference between So cents and
90 cents ton would make good the loss
by employment not over two-thrds of the
year.
Why cannot both sides to this contro-
versy exercise a little practical sense in
treating this difficulty? The volume of coal
which will be needed by the country sup
piled by the mines now suspended by the
strike can be closely estimated. The num-
Der of men which will be required to mine
that volume Of coal can be ascertained.
These two factors being ascertained the
problem is to secure to the number of men
necessary to put the required quantity of
coal into the cars a living wage and to
provide the others employment elsewhere
as far as possible
Neither of the disputants seems to have
any appreciation of this situation. While
talking of arbitration in Pittsburg, the
mine operators are threatening to bring
more miners to their mines, which will
simply aggravate the evil and increase the
suffering. The officers of the miners while
denouncing the courts for preventing them
from interfering with those who desire to
work, insist upon a rate of wages and have
asked all organized labor in the country to
stop every factory and tic up every rail-
road in the land until their demands are
acceded to. To right the cause of $50. 900
men, or, more correctly 100000, they would
turn all the labor of the country to idIeness
and their families to want In an effort to
secure fair wages to a few men these Of
ficials of the miners associations would tie
up every railroad and thus deprive the poor
Of seasonable food, vegetables, milk, ice
etc, and in a short time of bread The
wage Garner in idleness by the decree of
the leaders, they would force him to paw
exorbitant prices for food if he has little
store of money They would make twenty
million people suffer in the attempt to add
10 cents ton to the price for digging coal
How much more economical it would be
to demand of the people that they make up
the difference between the price paid and
demanded for mining coal, and let the coun-
try's industries proceed without Interrupt
ton.
1t reflects discredit upon both the mine
operators and the men who act for the
miners that they have not been able to
adjust their differences as have employers
the conditions are much more complex.
Every two years a coal strike or a coal
trouble occurs. Heretofore troops have
been called out. and now the courts have
been called to preserve order There can
be no excuse for this sort of thing That
the operators will permit conditions about
their mines which make it impossible for
them to pay living wages as some of them
admit, condemns them That the officers
of the miners organizations can find no
other means to get fair wages but resort
ing to strikes, which often eliminate in
bloodshed and end in greater suffering.
proves their unf1tness to deal with the diff
fculty. The greed and incompetency of
those supplying the country with one of the
great necessaries of civilization seems to
make it the duty of Congress to deal with
the coal supply under the provisions of the
Constitution comforting the control of inter-
state commerce on the federal government.