The daily journal. (Salem, Or.) 1899-1903, 1902-06-28
In Which Eastern Miners Are
Engaged
And Have the General Sym
pathy of the People


has rejected, with sneers at the civic
federation and at Archbishop ireland
and Bishop Potter all the offers OF
the miners to submit the contest tC
arbitration.
The trust knows that It cannot &c
before a disinterested tribunal, a court
of equity with clean hands.
The coal trust is itself an embodi
ment of the union principle, carried
beyond justice and law.
In declining to recognize the right
of the miners to organize for their
business advantage the trust seeks tc
prevent them from following its own
example, even within lawful bounds
Anthracite mining is a business
and not a religious, sentimental OF
academic proposition" wrote one of
the railroad presidents in refusing to
accept as arbitrators 80 highly res.
pectable body as the civic federation
or Archbishop Ireland and Bishop
Potter
If all the mine owners had taken
that frankly cynical stand, holding
that business is business" and that
private morals and public obligations
have nothing to do with II, the coal
trust would have been in a stronger
position than that in which President
Thomas, of the Erie railroad, places
ii.
1T is the inalenable right of man
to labor" writes this pOlitiCO-eCono-
mic thinker and moral philosopher,
land this without regard to national
ity creed or association. To seek 10
prevent is a crime, and we cannot.
even by implication, sanction such a
course"
So II is the inalienable right OF a
man to work in a coal mine to which
he posses legal title So it is the in.
alienable right of that man TO have his
coal transported 10 market by the
common carrier on the same terms
as are given to other mine owners.
But If the coal trust had gone before
the civic federation TO arbitrate, Pres.
ident Thomas-who is so nobly pre-
pared to make every sacrifice for the
nonunion principle-would have been
obliged to admit that his railroad, in
conjunction with seven others, had
entered into a union whose character
and operations are thus officially des
cribed:
/. BY discriminating against indie
pendent operators the railroads have
forced them to sell their properties.
until at the present time more than
nine-tenths of the anthracite coal de-
posits are owned, and more than three
fourths of the entire yearly product
is mined. by eight lines of railroads
that are substantially in entire union
of interests. Final report of Indus.
trial Commission, p 65i.
2. From the investigation Of the
commission 1t is apparent that the
most potent factor in establishing
and maintaining monopolies has been
of common carriers given by rebates
or otherwise. One OF our oldest mo-
nopoles. though not nominally In
the hands OF a single corporation or
trust. is that which controls anthra-
cite coal This business furnishes a
proof OF the power OF the
railroads through discriminating
rates W i-nlAbilnlA a. ilibiNllNAg
100000 tons OF anthracite coal are
yearly carried by rail to market at
cent per ton per mile
in excess of the rate charged for
carrying bitumlnous coal This Is
1922 500 per mile OF excess charge
for the years product, or S46,762, 800
annually for the average haul Of l45
miles to the general market, or over
81 a ton. This over charge, which Is
greater every year than the interest
on our national debt Is made possi-
ble by the railroad monopoly. ~
Commissioner Phillips, Final Report
OF Industrial Commission, PIP 654-655.
3. None OF the railroads, with the
exception OF the Central OF New Jer-
say. perhaps and the Delaware. and
LacKawanna and Western. Is permit
ted by law 10 operate It's coal mines
directly The latter company Is able
TO mine and ship in It's own corporate
capacity owing TO the antiquity Of
It's charter. The other railroads all
make use OF subsidiary corporations
for this purpose. - Il Is dinicult
10 Justify this system OF indirect op.
Grafton. Some OF the greatest fiscal
abuses OF the time have been asso-
ciated with reprehensible methods
Of accounting involved therein. The
system has also made II possible for
the railroads 10 discourage the deyel-
opment Of Independent coal mining
By individual operators through the
practice OF charging excessive
high rates for the transportation OF
the coal from the mines 10 the sea
board Final Reports OF Industrial
Commission pp. 447-44s.