The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-31

There are three parties to this great
coal strike, the miners, the operators
and the Forgotten Man; the first two
are clamorous and their disputations
fill the public ear; the last is silent, I'M
heard, but nevertheless the one i'm
portant factor, for it is he who buys
and pays for and uses the coal. Both
parties appeal to him; all this noise
of injunctions, marchings, conferences,
conventions is to enlist his sympat hes
on one or the other side; but while
each wants his support, neither pays
the slightest regard to his interests in
the case, which relate to the supply
and price of his fuel. All he can do
is to pay and growl and submit But
he is not an uninterested spectator He
reads and listens and makes up his
mind as to where justice leans. He
finds the scale tipping downwards or
the miners side. not as a matter of
concrete justice but a question of rel
ative right and wrong between the
contestants
He goes to the bottom of the case,
gets behind the scenes. He finds that
congress increased the tax on imports
of bituminous coal, and of anthracite
carrying less than 80 per cent of fixed
carbon. from 40 to 81 cents a ton, upon
the representations of the employers
that it was absolutely necessary in or
der to enable them to raise the "star-
walton" wages they had been forced
to make their miners take by reason
of the reduction of the tax from rs
cents to 40 cents a ton. He knows
that whatever share of this the min
er gets, he will have to pay it all, and
he has seen the operators utilize their
opportunity by promptly raising the
price Of his coal Having it to pay in
any event, the Forgotten Man nat
urany rebels against the evident in
tention of the operators to appropri-
ate the whole of the increase, and his
sympathies go out to the striking
miners. Having learned something of
the tricks by which our fostered and
bounty-fed captains of industry play
their game of fleeing the Forgotten
Man, he does not reject as at all i'm
probable the report that some of the
strike leaders are in the pay of some
OF the operators, fomenting discomfort
and strikes in order to bring other op-
orators to satisfactory terms with
their fellows
He finds nothing convincing in the
statement put out by the operators. It
contains much information that is in
teresting to him, but it does not i'm
press him as having any bearing on
the case. He is surprised to learn, for
instance, that there has been no such
thing as starvation" wages during
these years when the operators or
gans have been painting the destitu-
ton of the miners in gloomy tints as
reason why the gospel of the Grea
Apostle of Protection should be made
the religion of the nation. He is rather
glad to have the assurance of these
gentlemen that even at the pauper
wage forced by Democratic free
any AiAuuSlIlOuS ullHer IN the
Pittsburg district daily earned. under
the 54-cent Ohe "Democratic'O rate. q
higher wage than is paid to a major
ity of the mechanics in the mills and
factories in Pittsburg, and that the
mining laborer received a higher wage
per day than is paid for common labor
by any railroad or manufacturing
company east of the Rocky noun
tains." He is glad to learn this be-
cause it is such a complete recall of
the talk he has been hearing for three
years.
But, grant it, what of it, in this con-
test of miner and operator? Suppose
the miner is earning big wages at the
54-cent Democratic scale; was not the
tax increased to 67 cents a, ton so he
could earn higher wages, so the old
e9-cent rate could be restored? And. as
mere matter of common honestv-
the interests of the Forgotten Man
being, as usual, set one side-should
ne not receive it? With what grace
can these operators, taking to them
selves the increased price of their coal