The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-10-03
WHILE COAL MINERS STRUCK.
CNew Ynrk World.l

CNew York World.)
/ World correspondents at the centers
of the strike region in Pennsylvania
we're asked to obtain statements from
the average miner on the following
points:
! 1. His gross income from his labor
for the past year
g The amount of rent which he paid
TO the mine owners out of his gross in
come for his home
s. The percentage in excess of the
/ market price which he was forced to
pay for his provisions at the company
stores.
The replies so far received show that
the average miners gross income for
the past year has been about $500, or
$25 a month, out of which he has been
forced to pay from 81 TO So month
rent, an average of IS, to the company
With the $40 a month remaining he
has done the best he could to buy his
provisions and clothing for himself and
his family, in many instances being
forced, under pain of discharge if he
should trade elsewhere, to pay 20 per
cent above the market price at the
company stores.
Here is a sample statement from
James Williams. He said:
Il am employed by the Black Dia-
mond colliery, the Plymouth Coal COM
pany. My earnings for q year were
about $3.50, when you include the past
month or two. Not every miner gets
that much. but every one of them has
to buy his groceries at company store,
rent from the company and stand 10 20
II per cent oiOckage. I worked four
months at the Black Diamond, and in
that time was locked thirty-seven and
one-haf cars. If a man wants to stand
in he must rent a company house and
deal at the company store. A man who
doesn't deal at the store and rent one
of the houses can't get a good breast
in the mines. The houses are not worth
much Some of them are only sheds.
but they come as high as any good
house in the outskirts of the town
Rent is 81 a month and it's kept from
your pay with the store bills. When
the people of Wilkesbarre were paying
81 for flour We had to pay $3.50 and So
for it at the company store I had to
pay 81 for sixteen pounds of sugar at
the company store, while across the
street at a little store L could get
twenty pounds for the same amount,
but then il dropped the companyS
store I'd hear of it in a day or two
and lose my place To be docked
twelve to fifteen cars in 100, pay S1-S5
profit to the company on powder and
nearly so per cent on the groceries isn't
bad enough; the company makes it
worse by keeping your pay for a month
or two. Not a miner under the COM
pany has received a cent for work
done during Jaly or August. If we have
$40 coming in the month the store bill
eats it all up and we generally get the
cash for a month or fifteen days. and
that doesn't amount to much when
the company doctor gets his share out
of ii, too
In most of the young miners homes
the pictures were beautifully painted
the sta lwart, muscular father, clear OF
eye, with an honest, truthful, fearless
air, surrounded by his little ones. proud
of them, loving them, and they in le-
! turn manifesting by innocent acts their
love in return for all that Pap was TO
them; the wife looked up to her hus-
band and with pride looking down on
( the children with a solicitude of a
fond mothers heart All the homes 1
saw We're neat and tidy, and the chill
dren were comfortably and fittingly
dressed. They looked well fed and
nourished, and said palmer than words
could say, Father and mother look out
for us while they have anything and
deny us nothing to strengthen our
young bodies, so that we may grow up
strong and be healthy boys and girls.
We must be made strong. Father and
mother may have to take us from
school and send the boys into the break
ers when they are 10 or Ii
THANK God the little ones cannot
think this out, but the agony is al
ways at the thoughtful father and
mothers heart. 1 have been in no
Squalid hAmeS of miners, and the Ipin-
( ers do not like to have 1t said that they
L
were the Engksh-sp speaking homes of
1 Catholics, Irish and Americans.
/ Remember, these homes were not
/ put IN order for my eye; these people
/ had no knowledge OF my coming until
l arrived at their doors. This is sim
/ ply the picture of these miners homes
/ today. They have had a prosperous
/ season; they have tried to clear up
/ their arrears. They have given their
families every necessary comfort in
!. =,
This is the picture of their homes now
/ "a picture of decent Christian poverty
But If the coal barOns and the coal
/ railroad kings will not listen to the
voice or justice and righB in a few
weeks all will be changed. GaunC GSS-
! titutiOn will enter these homes; the
/ smiling, happy, innocent children will
j be crying with hunger; their heart
/ breaking sobs must drive their parents
! TO the verge of madness. Let the rail-
road kings and the coal barons, If they
call themselves Christians, think that
/ the Holy Scriptures and the Divine
/ Master teach that one of the sins cry
! inS to heaven for vengeance. on a plane
! with willful murder, is the depriving OF
/ the iaDOrer of his hire 1t is a grave,
! moral sin crying to heaven for VEN
! seance as loudly as wiliful murder.
If the laborer is -defraudsd of all his
! hIre the sin is graver, but ii Is also
grave and cries 10 heaven for ven
I
| per living wage to care for himself and
/ his family
/ How can men of millions see their
families daily clothed in purple and
| fine linen, feasting sumptuOusly. know
/ ing that the wives and children of their
number brethren are chilled and
/ starved to death? Is it not enough to
/ orlng the vengeance of God sooner or
later to these men and have them see
their children drunkards and debaucn-
/ ees and on the road to death AMI dis
4 grace before they are 5o2 Have we
not many such examples in all our
I large cities today? Is this Gods retri-
Dutlve Justice, a rich man died and vas
/ buried in help
May Gods mercy touch the hearts
OF al, and may just arbitration bring
! speedy peace and Joy into the homes
ana hearts of those who are now fear
| ing for the worst"
Threat to Enforce Laws.