The bee., 1901-08-08

For the purpose of buying up a
fast sinking hulk, the few remaining
members of the L. NJ. w. that still
manage to exist i'm and about Man
nington held a meeting last Satur-
day, and of course the man who
talks only for the money there is in
it was on hand, and IN a wild ha-
rangue urged these half starved be-
ings to stand firm. These fellows
are the once happy miners of the
Empire mines, who threw up paying
positions on the false promise of the
agitator, who assured them of both
good wages and plenty of the ne
cessaries of life. Since then, unable
to pay rent. they have left the COM
Portable hous IS once occupied by
them and have sought refuge in old
abandoned buildings, wherever they
could find them, and we are told
that the people who inhabit the
crowded tenement houses of New
York City are in very little worse
condition than those fellows are and
instead of receiving good wages,
they are not even allowed enough to
keep the wolf from the door. Single
men are now being paid two dollars
per week, when they could make
that much per day at work in the
mine. Men with families now given
in provisions, but a little over one
dollar per week, to the head, moth
ing allowed for clothing. Observa-
ton teaches us that such a condi-
tion of affairs tend to cultivate
crime, for the reason that those who
are not provided with a sufficient
legacy to supply their wants,or with
labor whereby they can make a liv-
ing, necessarily feel compelled to
appropriate to their own use such
things required by them, that they
may find, while prowling around by
night.
For the last few weeks many of
these fellows could be seen scanning
the woods in that vicinity for ber-
ries sufficient to make out a scant
meal, and many of them we are told,
were sadly disappointed when the
funds necessary to purchase a ticket,
as they had been promised, for a
trip to MadisonvIlle to attend the
picnic, was lacking, and manv a
poor fellow could be seen walking to
that point, tired and weak, but en-
couraged by the hope, that he would
for the first time in months get one
full meal. Such is the life now ex-
perienced by the union mine work.
ers of Hopkins and adjoining coun-
ties
1t is said that the great Wall
Street financier, Morgan, is at the
head of a syndicate to control the
entire output of the soft coal region
Of west Pennsylvania, West Vir-
ginia and Ohio, with capital of
s50, 100000.
The Ohio coal miners now threaten
to aid the striking steel workers In
their fight, and if they do, some men
think that defeat not alone for the
steel workers, but the destruction
of the Miners Union will be the
final result. 1t has almost come
to the point when capitalists would
about as soon close down their
works as to be deprived of the con-
troll of same, as the unions now at
tempt to do.
Although extreme warm weather
has been with us for weeks past,
there is scarcity of coal cars re-
ported. The summer demand for
coal seems to be on gradual in
crease, showing the popularity of
the Hopkins county production.
Miners should bear in mind that
the question of politics has been en-
tirely eliminated from the election
this fall. One side favoring the
present prosperous condition of af-
fairs, while the other side has in
many ways allied themselves with
that class, who by threats and 9TH
erwise show an antagonism to the
coal mining industries of county, to
which is largely due the prosperity
now enjoyed.
We hear on every hand many ex-
pressions made use of by the X. p.
A., that they were utterly surprised
to find among the miners here such
They had been In
formed and had formed an opinion
quite to the contrary, which was
upon their recent visit here entirely
changed.
Geo. G. Atkinson made trip
South last week as far as Columbia,
Tenn. George has made it custom
to call upon his friends and patrons
when time will permit, hence his