Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1897-08-13

OF Self-COntrOl anu Vloleuoe 10 lAo S'AAn
ers dreaded foe.
Therefore, the admirable patience anc
self-control of the coal strikers under
most aggrevating circumstances is {
portent of success. An outbreak of VIC
lence would bring to naught all the
efforts of the strikers to alleviate theil
lot, to exact justice from the coal oper
ators, to secure rise in wages And the
strikers know it, Therefore their deter
mination to avoid all violence, theil
earnest effort to keep within the law.
For the courts to loan their power to the
operators by issuing uncalled for in.
functions calculated to goad on the
strikers to violence is not fair. If vlo
lence does come the responsibility will
rest in great measure with the operators
that have moved for injunctions pro.
hibiting the strike leaders from the ex.
ercise of undoubted rights and with the
courts that have granted such iniunc.
tions.
1t has been evident from the beginning
of the coal strike that it could not sue
| ceed unless it could be so extended as to
make veritable coal famine. And this
has demanded most complete tie-Lp,
| for the reason that half the coal mines
and half the coal miners of the country.
working full time, can supply the coun-
try with all the coal it needs. Therefore
it is apparent that more than half Of the
coal miners must be brought out on strike
and more than half the mines closed to
make the strike in any way effective,
and that much more than this must be
accomplished to insure success. For this
reason. the reason that there is not de-
mand for the output of more than half
our mines or the product of half our
miners working on full time, the strikers
have worked under serious handicap.
The task they have undertaken is colos.
sal, and they can only succeed by de.
termination and earnestness that will
support them in the face of discourage
ments and unity of action that will
enable them to overcome the disadvan.
tages under which they work.
AS it is well-nigh impossible to get the
miners of West Virginia and the south to
join in the strike with any unanimity,
it is imperative to the success of the
strike that all miners should be gotten
out in the bituminous fields OF Western
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
In the Pittsburg district all mines were
soon tied up save those of the New York
and Cleveland Gas Coal Company, a
large concern. Those mines; commonly
known as the De Armitt mines. after the
president of the company, became the
key to the situation. So long as they
remained in operation the strike in the
Pittsburg district could not be made a
success Moreover, it seemed impossible
to move the De ArmJt miners from their
determination to continue at work by
any ordinary methods. So an extraordi-
nary plan of inducing those miners to
Quit work was determined upon.
1t seems the De Armitt miners have
not been reduced to the same grinding
poverty as the other bituminous miners.
Though they have worked at a lower
nominal rate Of wages than the average
miner; that is, mined coal at a less rate
per ton. they have been paid for the full
weight of the coal mined, which cannot
be SAID of the workers in other mines.
who, by dishonest weighing and check
ing of the coal mined, have often been
defrauded out Of payment for so per cent
Of the coal mined, constrained to mine
5000 pounds of coal to get an allowance
for one ton. Moreover. the De Armitt
miners have been blessed with six days
work week, where the others have not
averaged three, and they have been paid
in cash, not subjected to the fleeing of
company stores.
So it happens that the De Armtt min
ers working superiorly situated mines
and sharing with their employers in the
advantages of that situation, have not
been reduced to the deplorable poverty
of the average coal worker, and they
have not cared to Join the strike on their
own account. Yet by continuing to work
they were eopardizing the success of
the strike, bringing to naught the efforts
of their less fortunate fellows to better
their condition, and this the striking
miners have sought to bring home to the
De Armitt miuers, sought to make them
realize that by continuing to work they
were taking the bread from the mouths
of the miners in general. And to bring
this home to The De Armitt miners,
small armies Of strikers have marched to
the De Armitt mines, not with any OBJ
ject of intimidating those miners to
throw down their tools but with view
of shaming them to quit work, shaming
them by the presence of numbers of
those whom, by continuing to work, they
were condemning to the slavery Of
poverty.
Thus it was that regiments of strikers
marched to the De Armitt mines, marched