The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-08-26
The surplus In Mine Labor.

One of the conditions affecting the BIZ
luminous coal trade which has been for
chilly presented by the miners strike, is
the surplus OF labor when compared with
the amount of work TO be acco plished
or the market to be supplied. 1t is one
Of the laws of trade, unaltered as the
laws Uf the Modes and Persians, that the
ratio between supply and demand is the
regulator Of prices the world over. 1t 10
an indisputable fact that when opera
Sons are not interrupted by strikes, or
otherwise, our coal mines will produce
mere coal than can be proftably mar
Ieted. This has been well esta Dlished by
che experience of the past few years.
The eame condition obtains in regard TO
the miners, The labor market has been
glutted for several years, prices of coal
have steadily fallen, daily wages have de-
cIined in proportion. How is it TO be
remedied?
I'VE fail TO see how permanent cure
is &c be effected, except by the application
Of heroic treatment. Encouraged by our
henefcienr (?) immigration laws foreign
iaborers have flowed into this country.
They have come in hordes-Slavs, Huns,
Italians, etc, finding employment IN our
mines and workshops. They were accus-
Comed to receiving few pennies for a
day labor at home. and were willing to
work Tor com parative pittances here.
TIE Importation OF foreign labor began
during the civil war, when the American
miners laid down the pick and shovel to
take up the musket and knapsack. They
returned from tho battlefield to find their
old places filled. More than this, the for
eigners have continued TO arrive, En-
ployers are but human and they wei
coined this cheap labor. But it drove
the American wage Garner out of the
ma ket. IC has been stated that more
than so per cent of the coal miners in
Pennsylvania are OF foreign birrb. And
&c II this labor that Is now Americanized
sufficiently to be demanding higher
wages when the selling prices OF coal are
che lowest ever reached. The causes
that have brought us TO the present con
dition are too much labor, too much
coal. The strike has not brought about
n coal famine. Competitive fields are
supplying Pttsburg's markets, and az
much the same condition az to surplus
labor exists in other fields as here, they
will be able TO supply even q greater de
mand than the present one.
I'VE are inclined to the belief that q
further restriction of immigration ia ar
absolute necessity. The federal govern
ment has protected the labOrer OF th,
Pacific coast by placing an embargo or
Lee Sing, but the even less desirable i'm
migrant that reaches us from Europe u
dumped on our shores ia steamer lots
IL is time to shut the gates. Unfortun
ately we are obliged to keep those W,
have, but our operators would do wisely
TO strike permanently from their roll,
the name of every man not necessary fol
properly conducting the mining opera
lions and let the surplus take care o
themselves in other channels, II the,
cannot find lucrative employment here
perhaps they may in the lands of thei
nativity"
The above, taken from the American
Manufactures and Iron World, publishe,
in Pittsburg, agrees with the ideas latel
published in these columns. The cope
market. had il not have been for th
wonderful large export OF copper to Ii
rope, would have been ia much the sam
condition az the Iron World says the cot
market is, viz: Too much labor and to