The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1897-05-01
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COAL MINERS OUT.

camp has been supplying a vast
amour of fuel for the Northern Pa
cifc railway, for the East Helena
smelter, and for general consumption.
The direct cause, as reported, leading
to the strike is the refusal of the
company to employ any member of a
miners union. A district organizer
recently went to Horn and within a
few days organized over 200 of the
300 employed miners into a local I'M
ion, and when news of the movement
reached the managers ears, he i'm
mediately ordered the discharge of
every man participating in the organ
ization; hence the strike.
1t appears that the union was not
for the purpose of demanding higher
wages. 1t had no demands to make;
though there did exist some dissatis-
faction because the company physic-
ian, who it paid by a monthly assess
ment upon the employees, resides at
town and not near enough to the
mines. A result of the union might
have been the demand that the doc
tor reside nearer the mines.
But it matters not. The company
will not employ union miners, and
there the controversy would end
if other miners were ~obtainable; but
the altruism of humanity shines
bright, and the chances of such an
outcome are not to be considered.
The entire Western Federation
will back the Horr union in it's strug
gle for popular rights, and it may be
many moons before the works reopen.
This difficulty presents the ques-
ton of labor unions in it's fullest gen.
eral scope. We at Neihart have
witnessed the operations of labor un'
ions over a period of seven years
We have observed their causes, theil
objects, and their multiform effects
and everybody recognizes the salut
airy, healthful character of the latter
Compare conditions in the two towns
Had Neihart no miners union, thu
town would be like Horr. Wages
instead of $3.50 a day, would be s.
or ever less. Instead of American
employees, of superior physique an
intelligence, we would have, Ink
Horn, a Dago camp, pure and simPl
mot very pure, but extremely sim
pie. Social conditions at Neihart ar
remarkably good; but at Horr, dec
dedly tough. Neihart, with 200 en-
ployed miners, sees thriving MERCK
ants and business men of every cal
ing. Horr, with 300 employed min
ers, sees nothing but company stores
company boarding houses, compan
doctors,-nobody doing business in
dependently. Nobody but a suck'
can live at Horn!
Let MS now examine the company
exercise of rights. The smeltin
company, which denies its employ
the right of mutual union for mutu
protection, is a member of a coloss
combine which fixes smelter charg'
as high as the mine wner can pa
1t is not a question of how reason
bly, a the ore be smelted, to retul
a fair margin of profit; but how mus
can the mine owner afford to pa
The smelter combine of the we:
like the oil refinery of the east, h
things generally its W way, al
deals a brace game from start to Fl
ish. Being we'll able to protect
self against losses, it denies its ell
ployes the right of a similar prote
ton.
The economic doctrine of "laiss
f%aire," or hands off, which means
allow every industrial element to a
just itself as best it may, is knock
out by the trust or combine. 7
miners at Horn might afford to 60
single handed, if capital were not
ready united against them. If ever
thing we consume were not the su
ject of speculation by a mammc
trust, if capitalists would take "ev
chances with the rest of mankir
so that the law of supply and dema
could be resurrected from the vail
of dry bones, then might labor sta
unguarded by unions. But CAPT
is always united. The t~entacles
it's octopodal form are around us
erywhere. If such a thing were Pr
sible, a meter would be fastened
l. l. -I-~