The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-10-23

| their purpose they accompanied 1t with
q declaration that it was designed to
promote uniformity of wage scale in the
anthracite mining industry. The action
| has not been concurred in by other Of
the interests concerned, and the public,
from present appearances, is not unlike
! ly to find its expectations of settlement
| disappointed.
! The latest press reports show on the
surface at least that there is no present
| intention on the part of other operators
| to concur in the settlement thus hap
PLY arrived at. One of those interests
is represented by the Union Coal COM
pany. The position which it occupies is
set forth in these reports in the SEN
fences following:
"a prominent local official of the Union
| Coal company says the company posi-
| lively refuses to concede to any OF the
demands made by the Scranton conyen-
ton. The company claims that their
| busy season has been ruined by TIE
strike, and they don't care when the
strike is settled. feeling positive that they
| can hold out much longer than the Str-k-
! ing miners. The company Controls Tour
! large collieries in the Shamok1n region.
This statement fairly represents a
condition of opinion prevailing among
class of men charged with the perform
ance of at least partially public duties,
who are apparently entirely dead to
any sense of duty toward the country
or toward the people upon whom they
depend for the success of the enterprises
! in which they are engaged. The Union
! Coal company so we are told, "does not
care when the strike is settled" because
| it can hold out longer than the miners
can!
It is useless to carry on negotiations
! in the public interest with men who take
| this view Of their obligations. There can
be no settlement save such as comes
| from the test of physical endurance if
this sort of doctrine is to prevail. When
the miners formulated their demands
they showed that the influential leaders
among them were ready to compromise
and to make concessions which would
ance of their proposals by the COM
panies which have already acted shows
that those concessions were material
and satisfactory and were made and &C
now made to stand on this absolute de-
NAL of any right or interest on the part
| of the public sufficient to influence mu-
! tual concession, it IS not unreasonable
! to believe that the public will feel called
on to inquire before long whether those
who have control of the nations fuel
supply should be permitted to continue
| to control their possessions In any such
spirit.
The men are justified in insisting that
/ no mere partial settlement shall eventa-
ate from the action taken by them. They
had reason to believe, as the country
| has had, that the acceptance of their
| terms was general. In the interval that
has elapsed nothing had been said which
would indicate that such was not the
| fact. To insist at this time that only
| individual operators are bound by what
| has already been done is equivalent to
treating the men and the public alike in
| bad faith.
| Whatever the motive be which under
lies this tardy acceptance of conditions
of settlement which the country was led
to believe were generally accepted by
the owners of coal mines in Pennsyl-
vania, it is bound to go a long way In
| rendering public opinion more bitterly
hostile to those interests than 1t mas
| been at any time in the past twenty
/ wears, and toward forcing into existence
/ n1t7TIc convictions which will sooner OF
| later put an end to such pretensions as
tbe representatives of this particular
company commit themselves to-