Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1897-07-23
The BIG COAL STRIKE.

A melancholy spectacle is that afforded
by the metropolitan papers in their treat
ment of the coal strike. For months
these purveyors, or rather falsitiers OF
news. have served their readers with re-
ports of assumptions, OF trade revival, of
all those things which are taken as evil
dence Of coming prosperity. They have
made much of the resumption Of work in
this mill and that. they have passed light
ly over the more numerous shut.downs.
They have opened their columns to re-
ports of increased employment and ad.
vances in wages, they have minimized II
not ignored the evidences OF curtailed
production, the throwing Of mill and
factory hands out OF work through shut
downs more or less complete, and the
cuts in wages ever following in the wake
of enforced idleness. Further, we have
been told of a growing demand for goods
of all kinds, of advancing prices, told
this in the face of falling off in demand
and general and marked fall in prices.
And with growing demand for goods
and advancing prices the inference that
the profits Of industrial undertakings
have increased is quite justifiable.
Thus the metropolitan papers have
done their best to instill into wage-earners
the belief that their employers are enjoy
Ing increased and increasing profits.
And if industry has become more profit
able why should not ageearners share
in this increased profltableness? If the
employer has been made happy by an
increase of profits, why should not the
wage.earner be made happy by an in
crease of wages?
Such is the train Of thought awakened
by the studied Misrepresentation OF trade
and industrial conditions on the part OF
our metropolitan press And so has this
| press egged on the men II has wronged
by Misrepresentation and holding
forth Of false promises, to strike IN de-
fense Of their rights, for it is surely the
right of the wage Garner to share in any
increased proftableness of industry He
has borne his share of hard times along
with his employer. he has suffered cuts
IN wages as his employer has suffered
from fall in profits, and this being so,
he is of right entitled to enjoy, along
with his employer. any revival, to par
ticlpate in any increase of the profits OF
industry. So in painting false picture
of trade conditions, of industrial activity,
the metropolitan press has egged on
wage -earners to strike. And when the
wage earners it has wronged, whom it
has egged on to demand an increase in
wages at q time most >inopportune, 90
strike, it turns upon them and showers
curses upon the wage.earners for doing
the very thing it led them into doing.
So we have it with the great coal strike
now on. By cut after cut in wages and
by reduction after reduction in time our
coal miners have been brough., during
the past few years, to point where they
can scarce earn enough to keep body and
soul together. Able to earn but from IS
cents to a dollar day when employed,
and unable to find more than two or three
days work u week. the earnings Of the
coal miner have been reduced 10 a mere
pittance.
1t should be remarked that the coal
miner IS paid not by the day but by a
scale based on the result Of his labor. He
gets so much for every ton of coal mined
and so the rate of wages varies with the
ability, strength and skill of the indi.
vldual miners. But the comparative
rate OF wages is not altogether dependent
on the degree OF skill or the sustained
application of the individual miners 1t
is in great degree, dependent on the
mines in which they are employed. In
some mines the same amount OF labor
will yield more coal than in others. And
so it may happen that the more skilled
miner in less favorably placed mine
may not be able to earn as much as his
less skilled brother in II more productive
mine. more productive compared with
the expenditure of labor.
lncSc uluGEcuCCS alC AOufAAy ohS"SN
for by dividing the coal yielding territory
into different districts and fixing differ.
ent rate of pay for mining ton of coal in
each. Thus the United Mine Workers
Association, now conducting the strike.
demands that the scale of prices be ad-
vanced to 60 cents u ton IN the Pittsburg |
district, 60 cents IN Ohio the same in !
Indiana and SIS cents in Illinois, a general
advance of about IS per cent. over the
present scale. But this rough division of
the coal bearing territory does not, OF
course, put workers in all mines on an
equality rs to earnings, for the produc.
ton OF mines as compared to the ex.
penditure of labor varies not only in the
different districts but considerably in the
mines of the same districts.
So it is that one miner will earn IN the
same time more than another, and this
difference IS not to be attributed alto.
gether to differences in skill or appllca.
tiop Rnt all this aside the hest Maid