The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-10-30
To rine.WOrkerS.

~ ESPERATG attempts are be-
ing made by our Demo-
.A cratic opponents to preju-
dice the mine workers of
our valley against the Republican
ticket. Before election time, the
Democratic party is always a great
friend of the laboring man. 1t can
shed more tears and make more prom
ises than any other political party of
which there Is any record. The
trouble with the Democratic party's
tears is that they are shed for cam
paign effect, and the trouble with the
Democratic party's promises is that
they go begging for redemption after
election.
What has Democratic administra-
ton ever done to earn the confidence
of the mine workers? When it last
had control of our national affairs, 1t
managed things so badly that the
country was submerged in a tidal
wave of business depression, which
deprived from two to three million
men of employment, reduced the pay
of the men who were successful in re-
tanning any employment at all, and
caused n loss to the business interests
of the country estimated at more than
$4,000, 900. 900. The present Democratic
nominee for the presidency, Mr..
Bryan, was one of the architects of
that panic, and four years ago., in
order to divert attention from it's dis
astrous effects. had to raise a new is
SUE in politics. the issue of free and
unlimited coinage of silver at 16 to /.
He went about throughout the coun-
try procaiming many times day
that if his new panacea was rejected
at the polls, much greater depres-
sion would follow. Working men
would be forced into idleness; their
families would suffer for the neces-
saries of life: mortgages on farms
and homes would bo foreclosed by the
shylocks who control the money mar
ket and the country would swiftly
descend into the lowest depths of gen.
eral distress.
The miners of our valley know very
well that these predictions of Mr..
know very we'll that even before they
won the ten per cent. advance in
wages. the average time worked in
the mines had, under the general pros
perty occasioned by Republican adj
ministration, been steadily increasing
from what it had been during the per-
iod of the free trade panic; and, to
oil
in securing for themselves an increase
in wages, estimated by one of their
leaders, Mr.. Dilcher, at $4,000, 600 q
year. Does any sensible man, famil-
lar with the industrial conditions of
four years ago, believe that such an
: increase could have been secured un-
der the circumstances then prevalent
in the business world? Does any re-
fecting citizen suppose for moment
that our mines could be worked at
full time, or anything like full time,
when the industry of the country is
stagnant; when furnaces are shut
down; when labor in great numbers is
unemployed, and when under the
stern necessity OF compulsory econo-
lily tAe houoShollo VI TIC IouHlIy,
which in times of ordinary prosperity
burn anthracite coal for. fuel on ac-
count of its superior cleanliness. are
substituting the dirty soft article be-
cause of its cheapness.
There is one law which Mr.. Bryan,
with all his cleverness of speech and
sickness in appeals to discomfort.
cannot repeal. and that is the law of
supply and demand. Everybody
Knows what the supply of anthracite
coal is. 1t is a fixed quantity. easily
computable. The number and capac-
ity of the breakers are facts of record.
1t Is the demand for the prepared
coal which constitutes the one great
factor of uncertainty, and the miner
who wishes to cast h ballot one week
from today in such a manner as to
better his condition in life will be
slow to cast it for party under
whose administration the demand TOR