The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-31
BIG rRUsTs MEAN Brc sTRrKrs

BIG TRUSTS MEAN BIG STRIKES.
VIII the number of strikes increase or
decrease in proportion as the railways
and industries OF the country are com
bined into great trusts?' This is a ques-
tion that is entitled to very thoughtful
consideration.
| A few days ago 1t was thought there
would be a great strike in the coal re-
gion of Pennsylvania. Father Philip, the
! little priest of Hazelton, with a delega-
ton composed of representatives Of the
coal miners went to New York to see
Mr.. j. P. Morgan. the head of the an
| thracite coal combine. Mr. Morgan re-
fused to see the representatives of the
miners, but he had a talk with Father
Philip. The latter told the financier that
his only interest in the matter was to
prevent a strike and consequent misery
to $4,000 workers in the mines. Mr.. Nor
gan assured him that there would be no
strike.
How Mr.. Morgan knew there would be
no strike, except that he had already
made up his mind to grant the demands
Of the miners, is not known. but 1t is
apparent now that he was justified in
saying what he did There has been no
strike and the fear among the mine work
ers that there would be mas disappeared
But times in the coal and steel business
are now prosperous. and the great coal
trust is not disposed to have any differ
ences with the mine workers, but how
will it be when depression comes-when
the conditions are such as require a re-
duction of wages? Win the coal trust then
promptly yield to the demands Of the
miners?
The probability IS that there will be
fewer strikes as the trusts increase in
size, because it will be to the interest of
the trusts to prevent them, but there will
be strikes and when they come they will
be Of far greater proportions than those
that took place before the combinations
We're made, and as they will be larger
they will be more dangerous to the coun-
try.
1t will be recalled that the great rail-
road strike at Chicago when Mr. Cleve-
land was President created very general
alarm. It was thought by many that
the country was on the verge of revolu-
ton. What the outcome Of it would
have been If there had not been a strong
man at the head of the government no
one can predict with any degree of GER
tainty. And the famous Homestead
strike had far reaching political conse-
quence. 1t has been claimed that It
caused the Republican party to lose the
presidential election.
And the fact must not be forgotten
that tho industrial combinations at that
time were small compared to those of
the present time. There were COMPARE
lively few great railway combinations,
and the industrial combinations were In
their infancy. 1t was therefore not so
easy a matter as it would be now to in
volve vast bodies of workmen in a strike.
In the Chicago railway strike, for in
stance, 1t was a difficult matter to get
railway employees who had no grievance
to join the strike. Now, however, pretty
nearly all Of the railways of the country
are combined in a few vast systems, and
a strike on one of them would include
hundreds of thousands of men and affect
a region Of country extending across the
continent. A grievance of railway en-
ployes in New York Is a grievance of
railway employees in San Francisco, and
of thousand intermediate points. A
railway strike now therefore would be
a much bigger thing than such a strike
was a dozen years ago.
The same is true in respect to industrial
strikes. At the time of the Homestead
strike the Carnegie plant was a small
affair in comparison to what 1t SUISSE
quently became, and even the Carnegie
plant, big as it got to be, was not han
the size of the billion-dolar steel trust
which Mr.. Morgan has organized. So
the strikes of the employees Of these great
trusts, when they come, will be away
beyond anything this country has yet
seen. And will the danger with which
they will threaten the country be pro-
portionally great? 1t is a question for
consideration whether this matter was
not in the mind of those who insisted
upon having the army raised to 10000
men.