The evening times., 1900-09-14
Circulation Statement.
The Great Strike.

order goes into effect next Monday morn
ing it will tie up practically the whole an
thracite region. Possibly all the men at
some of the mines may not go out at once, !
but the operators believe that the move
ment will be general and complete within
a few days. This is radical change OF
front on their part Up to the issuance OF
the strike order. they were insistent that
most of the men would decline TO go out,
and that there would be no serious inter
ference with production But now they con-
fess that they expect an entire suspension
Of work during the struggle which will
be long or short, according to the extent
10 which the miners are to have the sym
pathy and help of the soft coal workers in
other fields, of labor organizations gener-
ally and of the American public
The fact of the strike has created
panic at Republican headquarters. Mr..
Hanna is more than alarmed at the OBJ
ject lesson of trusts slavery that will be
taught during the remainder Of the cam
pagn in Pennsylvania. He has several
other reasons for perturbation over the
development. If the soft coal workers
take an interest in the fight and contrib
ute of their earnings to support the strik-
ers. the campaign against the Coal Trust
in the anthracite region VIII rapidly be-
come a campaign against all the coal
trusts everywhere, and that would Be very
serious for the Republican ticket in States
like Ohio Indiana, and Illinois. Indeed.
even before its formal advent this labor
war has set The minds of the American
people to thinking actively about coal
trusts as typical of all trusts. and IL is
not any exaggeraticn TO say that this
thinking is rapidly changing the order Of
issues in the campaign and making that
Of the trusts paramount. That, it need
hardly be observed, is the last ground
upon which Messrs. Hanna and Mckinley
wish to meet the people. The Republican
managers have made a pitiable failure in
their efforts to revive the buried silver
issue. The ridiculous spectacle Mr.. Gage
has presented with his searecrow inter
view and letters is evidence enough on
that point Imperialism. much as they
dislike to face it, is after all something
which the ingenuity Of phrase makers can
turn into more or less OF an abstraction.
and measurably escape being pinned down
by it. But the trust issue is one that
comes home to every American home, and
TO every American man, woman, and child
1t is concrete. It is easily understood and
analyzed. The Republican Presidential
candidate may be driven. as he has been,
TO mildly and platitudinously inveigh
against some trusts which he is able to
conceive might be opposed to the public
welfare; but he cannot successfully deny
that his Administration has been owned
60 fg,a ~
trusts and monopolies from its birth
Neither can he explain away the self
evident fact that the millions of dollars
considered necessary to influence his cleo
ton have been subscribed by the trlsts.
So to him, the trust issue is an uncom-
Portable one TO be made paramount at this
stage of the canvass.
There is another reason why the Penn
syIvania coal strike is a source OF alarm
and modification to Mr.. Hanna and his
coadjutors 1t is we'll enough known that
the influence of the Republican National
Committee has been strenuousiy eXerted
UPON the Coal Trust magnates to induce
them 10 make some concession 10 the just
and reasonable demands of the miners, in
order 10 avert the disaster which a labor
war would probably result in at the No
vember election. 4 very little in the way
of negotiation and willingness TO con-
promise might easily have prevented an
open rupture and both Mr.. Hanna and the
trust people know that anything lost by
concession now can be recouped by fresh
extortions after the elections, in the event
of a trust victory at the polls.
The fact that the coal magnates have
treated the admonitions and P1ead.nss of
the great machine Boss with complete in
difference is perhaps a straw showing a
diminution of that despotie power which
he has been supposed to WELD over the
benefciaries Of his peculiar political
system. Just why the Coal Trust should
ignore the dangers that its present &C
ton involves to the Republican party We
are not prepared TO say. Perhaps it is
because the particular trust III question
Iuonopolizes the only anthracite coal
producing field of the continent; hence is
without competition in the commodity
and therefore independent of any gsV-
erning influence save that of the labor
question to the extent that it may domi-
nate at any time,
The snarI of the trust press and paTti-
sans, that the strike has been fomented
by Democrats for political purposes is
too pueriIe to notice. The plain case OF
the miners as presented in The Times
in its morning edition today, shows
clearly enough that injustice want and
semi starvation. and not politics, are al
the bottom of the trouble And it may
be repeated as an axiom that, If the An
thracite Coal Trust did not want the
strike it had the power and ability to
prevent it by a simple act of common
Justice and humanity. If it be objected
that to redress the grievances of the
miners and to give them the small ad-
vance in wages demanded would neees-
state a rise in the market price of hard
coal. that advance would have amounted
TO only few cents to the ton. while the
price of anthracite in New York yester-
day Jumped seyenty-fiye cents. and in
Boston the increase WAS even greater
We feel as we have always felt, that
this strike is to be depIored That il
viii indirectly aid the political cause to