Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1900-06-23
An Unsatisfactory Statement.

dressed to it, and comments made by the
editor of the MINING JoURNAL through the
columns of his valuable paper in the issue OF
the 9th inst, and fully appreciates the in
terest taken by him, not only because of the
local depression and paralyzatiOn of business
in that section, but because of his broad
viewed expression ofinterest in the matter as
affecting the who'e State of Maryland.
The editor, however. fails to give the pres
ent Bureau the credit of having made any
investigation whatever as to the cause and
effect of the present deplorable conditions of
affairs which not only paralyzes the business
interests local to the section of Maryland III
which he resides, but to great extent drives
capital and revenue from the State which
legltimately belongs to it, notwithstanding
his personal knowledge of the presence of
both the chief and his assistant in the town
of Frostburg almost imme diately after their
induction into office, interviewing every
available person, from the humblest miner
and citizen to the greatest organizer, as well
as the companies superintendent and the
business men of the community, ending
finally with the presidents in Baltimore city,
for the purpose, not only of getting the facts
to embody in a subsequent report of the said
Bureau, but that we might intelligenty I'M
derstand the cause for the conditions of I'M
rest that had existed for months prior thereto
and had openly eliminated in one of the
greatest strikes that section had known, one
full month before the present administration
had any control of the Bureau whatever, but
also for the nobler purpose of volunteering
the good offices of the Bureau, both to the
miners and operators IN the interest of an
amicable settlement of the existing difficulty
or arrangement and after a full and careful
investigation. not only in the town of Frost
burg but also in Homecoming, the head
quarters of the organizers, our services were
rendered, as before indicated and practically
accepted by the miners but not by the opera
tors, and these facts were tersely stated in the
daily papers of Baltimore Immediately after
our investigation, and have since been public
property.
The failure of the JOURNAL
to give the present Bureau the credit of
having made any investigation whatever as
to the cause and effect
Of the present suspension was be-
cause there was and is no call to find
fault with the Bureau on that score. 1t
was not past nor present conditions the
JOURNAL thought could be rcmedicd by
the investigation it urged the Bureau to
make, but to ascertain the basis for al
legations made by knowing authorities
concerning the origin in other states of
assaults upon the mining industry of
Maryland, to the end that such incur
siOns should in future become unlawful.
We knew as much as the Bureau
could find out by going through the re-
gion, but we did not and do not know
what is probably available to the Bureau
of the genesis of this trouble in Clear
field, Pa.
We could not probably ascertain how
by lar, yet to be enacted, such an in
Threshold, placed under inquest and, if
necessary, kicked back into Pennsyl-
vania, or whether we are PROSTATE and
helpless under such forayS. The Bureau,
ip"tNti, III Vic vi us 'lllllt'S,
may be able to look into the matter and
suggest provisions for it.
Mr.. Smith goes on:
In chapter % of the Acts of the General AS
semby Of Maryland, as passed at the session
of 1892, will be found the law defining the
duties of the State Bureau of Industrial
Statistics, and section thereof refers especial
ly to strikes and disageements between en-
plOyers and employees, and this the Bureau
has not only fully complied with in the case
of the present strike in the Georges Greek re-
gion, but has voluntarily gone much farther
because of the general interest it felt in the
State, and the special interest we always feel
in the people who are least able to stand the
hardships and privations brought upon them
and their families as the result of the strike.
In the above paragraph Mr.. Smith
has practically stated why his Bureau
should be additionally empowered by
the next legislature to look
/, Into the rights of labor 0rgani-
cations, especially if incorporated to loan
or sell themselves to the corporations of
any State competing in business with
Maryland corporations as instruments of
injury to the latter, and
,, Whether competing corporations of
other States have the right to hire labor
organizations to destroy Maryland III
terests of any sort.
These inquiries might have to 90 fur
ther than the Maryland legislature; they
might have have to go to the federal
Congress through Maryland represent
atives. If SO, Mr.. Smiths Bureau is the
institution to set the movement going.
| stated to some of the presidents of the
coal companies that, as a result of investiga-
ton, was firmly convinced that with their
consent and cooperation on line of action
that, in my humble judgment, would not
compromise the manhood, honor or indie
pendence either of them or the legitimate
cdi:e" miner of the State of Maryland, the
Bureau could and would bring about such an
adjustment of their differences as would
practically settle the matter in forty eight
hours, but with the result as before stated.
l do not understand and can not conceive
it to be my duty, and it certainly is not my
intention to discuss the merits or dement's of
the case at this time. The business of the
Bureau is not to lend itself to the stirnng-up
of strife and advertising the same to the
world, but, if possible, to SO regulate the