The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-08-23
,ANNoT SAFELY DEF
DEFY THE

Along with this assumption that it makes no difference to those who must have coal whether coal is produced so that !t can be sold at a reasonable price or not, goes a still more offensive proclamation of the belief that the lit tie group of men who control the situ- ation monopOlize all wisdom, and that the rest of us should be grateful that our interests are in such excellent hands This spirit is seen at its worst in the extraordinary letter sent by President Baer of the Reading railroad 10 a we'll meaning person who had ap- pealed to him as Christian to settle the strike. Mir. Baer, after charging his correspondent with a bias in favor of the workingman, proceeds to vaunt the candor, intelligence, and kindliness of the group of operators for whom he speaks. "The rights and interests of the laboring man, he prously observes, will be protected and cared for, not by the labor agitaters. but by the Christian men to whom God in his in- finite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country" In all this there is such a display of ltlAllEl bO PN0hI as has never before been eXibited on | large scale and for a long time by capitalists in this country. We are not unfamiliar with the spectacle of a dictatorial manufacturer who involved | in a. dispute with his workingman, and suddenly announces that he will close his mill and go off on long vacation. leaving the discharged workingmen to
 get on as best they can. The local
 community immediately affected has.
 of course, a concern in such lockout,
 but it does not affect the public at large,
 which can buy smilar products at the
 same price as though the closed mill
 were running. But the production of anthracite coal in this country is con- troled by small group of corporations,
 and if they refuse to operate their mines for months, the public must pay whatever high price for fuel the short
 age may involve, affecting as it does
 the whole winters supply for very
 many.
 When a coal strike has occurred in
 the past, people have tried to get at the
 merits of the controversy and favor one
 side or the other, as circumstances dic-
 tated. but they have for the most part
 treated the dispute like one between an
 ordinary manufacturer and his em'
 ployes, as essentially private matter But as the present strike has dragged
 on from one month into another, as in-
 dustries everywhere have suffered from
 the shortage of coal, as people have hac to pay higher prices for whatever smal supplies they can buy for their houses and as they see the certainty that every week the mines are closed raises th' cost of their fuel for the approachlnl winter, the attitude of the average mal has changed. He says to himself this is no private dispute in the Penn
 sylyania mines. The public is interest
 ed in getting coal at reasonable prices
 Shall a few men deny the people thei right to have a product of the earth oi fair terms?"
 This change of public sentiment , clearly reflected in the tone of the press Conservative newspapers all over tn country-iournals which have alWay |, opposed socialism, and which Woul ,now view with apprehension any at |, tempt to have the state or the natiol : mine and sell coal-frankly conced 2 that the unylelding attitude of the ope
 rators is steadily and rapidly develop f ing opinion in favor of radical action. President Baer and his associate c cannot afford to maintain their presen o attitude. Public opinion is overWhel !. mingly against them, and no lttl f group of capitalists can defy the na n tion.-New York Evening Post.