The representative., 1900-10-04

can aford to choose and have released
thes poor and dfshoueat miners. The
dishonest miner causes . great deal of
trouble in mine administration ana tAis.
riddance is Of impoftancs.z, The worth
less miners migrate 70 the mines opsrat~
ed by men holding individual leases.
The result is that the leased mines have
an exceedingly bad set Of employees.
The railroads, having . superior set Of
! employees, accomplish more with the
same labor.
The man with the individual lease
OF mine Is certain to get hard squeez-
| ing in this strike. The railroads will
make him fight their battles and when it
| is over give him the worst of it. The
| two are apparently on friendly terms,
| but in reality the railroad has 1t in for
| the individual. 1t expects slowly to
acquire his property. My information is
| that u per cent of the mines are now
| operated by the roads. Intelligent men
in the district are still hammering away
at the poor operator and he has hardly
any more to do with the situation than
the prince of Wales. A few of them
| are millionaires several times over and
can afford to play horse with their prop
critics, but that does not make the pro-
| critics good.
ARBITRATION TALK MISLEADING.
| Nothing Is more misleading In the
| news Of the strike than the talk about
arbitration. All the proposals come
| from q few individual operators. 1t is
| quite proper to give these men credit
for good intentions. They represent
the best character OF employees In the
| district. They and their fathers have
| been in the mining business for half a
century and look upon their employees
| rs their people. You will find the wives
and women folks OF these operators re.
lievingf the destitute wives and children
! OF miners who are on strikes. The rail-
way agents protest, but little do these
good women care.
Most of these men have spoken
| through Father Phillips, and the propo-
sition Is to have Archbishop Ryan as
chief arbitrator. Now, no matter what
| may be the chief virtue or business of
the strike, it is plain that the officers of
| the miners union, with proper regard
for their trust, cannot take up the cases
! Of few miners and let them settle with
few employers, and permit this to have
the full moral force of basis of settle
ment of the whole question. The strike
! was ordered for the whole anthracite
district, after it had been petitioned for
by the unions. Laying aside the recog-
| milton of the unions, which of course
is vital point, President Mitchell can
not let one set of men go to work, even
on favorable terms, and thus make un-
successful the struggle that is being
| made for all. If one district begins
work, the strike certainly fails for the
others.
Furthermore, these Individual opera
tors who are put forward with their ar
bitration talk are stalking horses for
the coal trust. They can only treat for
a very small percentage of the mines
The trust which stands behind them
will not permit settlement on any
thing like basis acceptable to the
union. The really big operators, who
have say in the trust management,
have not been heard from concerning
fu
lips. who makes the propositions, is
looked upon by the miners as an agent
of the operators. and they distrust him.
Whether he is, is another question, but
that is the feeling.
One cannot measure in words the gain
in confidence of the strikers and their
leaders since Monday. No one here
thought they could get out so many men.
This is very important feature of the
strike. At first they were uncertain
Now they feel that they can win. They
know but little about the merits of the
struggle and the chances, but they feel
that they can stop the production of coal
and that in the end will mean victory
The courage of the men and women is
coming strong. l have visited them
from day to day and can see this Their
courage Is nothing to be spoken Of
slightingly. They are pairing down to
the bone before it is time. The men
give their wives their savings, so that
it will not be spent foolishly.
One hears good deal about miners
savings accounts. The totals are just
as misleading as fancy accounts of the
amounts the operators will show on
their books as the earnings Of single
miners. U will come to a question Of
wages in later letter. There are mil
lions of dollars in the savings banks OF
these large mining towns. The towns
are centers OF great fields Of industry
and half the men there are not miners
Some of the miners may have little ac-
counts, but they are not startling.
BLACK DIAMONDS ARE LUXURIES.
The black diamond is the proper name
for the anthracite coal. 1t is luxury
and daily it is growing more so. 1t j:
better than soft coal and costs a lot
more money. 1t costs more than it did
formerly. This is very important and
entirely neglected phase Of the labor