The representative., 1900-09-27
THE COAL STRIKE.

The articles in this issue bearing upon
the great coal strike in Pennsylvania
should be read very carefully as they
furnish very valuable illustrations OF
the position Of the respective political
parties on the question Of trusts.
Here are some of the salient and i'm
portant facts shown in these articles:
First-This entire coal region is con-
trolled by nine railroad companies with
their grip of greed 80 fastened upon
this nations fuel supply that they can
starve the miners and their families,
numbering over SOC, 900 people. and raise
Minnesota from $e75 per ton to $3.50,
and If they dared to do so 1t would 90 to
312 or $13 per ton.
Second-The strike is struggle be-
tween nine railroad corporations on the
one side and 100000 miners with their
families on the other. The railroads
are fighting for profits and the miners
for bread.
Third-Nine railroad companies own
II per cent of the coal mines and control
the other % per cent by fixing their own
rates for transportation Of coal mined
by the Independent operators.
Fourth-When coal is worth So deliv-
cred at the seabOard or on the lakes, and
the railroads both mine and haul the
coal, it is plain that they can figure this
coal worth 81 at the mines, with trans
portation charges figured at 81, or they
can figure the coal worth 80 cents at the
mines and charges $210 for hauling
These companies figure by the latter
method, as these articles show, with the
double object of robbing the independ
ent operators of all their profits and
pushing the wages of miners down to
the starvation limit of 80 cents per ton.
Fifth-This coal and railroad COM
bination has starved native American
born miners out of the mines, and sub
stituted Slavs, Hungarians, Russians
and Poles, and while this blow was
being struck at American labor by these
corporations the price of coal has been
enormously increased to consumers
everywhere.
And now we come to the politics, phil
osophy and remedy involved in this sit
uation.
Mark Hanna, mouthpiece of the Re-
publicans, says there are no trusts, that
fc
and that these large combinations of
capital are necessary to the development
of industry, and the latest Republican
platform sustains his position. For 90
couraged these combinations and today
the party leaders laud the prosperity and
growth of trust industries and in their
platform promise the people relief from
In few hands. These Republicans
passed the Sherman antitrust law -
years ago and have ever since ignored
it. These nine railroads own and con-
of Pennsylvania; and in the present
strike the governor is sending state
troops to help the railroads and shoot
the miners down, and the latest press
dispatches say Mark Hanna is now in
New York city pleading with these nine
railroad companies to fix the strike up
till after election. If these combinations
are a good thing and necessary to de-
velopment of industry, why does Mark
meddle with a good thing? Why cant
Mark let we'll enough alone. A good
thing ought to be recognized by the gen.
eral public and if left alone by Mark
win out on it's merits. We fear that
Mark is getting foxy
1t was Mark and Rockefeller who re-
tired Attorney General Merritt from
politics because he insisted on enforc-
ing the Sherman antitrust law and
meddling with the Standard Oils good
thing, another combination necessary to
industrial development
AS usual, the Democrats are demand
ing that they be permitted to deal with