The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-12-06
HALLS FROM
WELLESLEY
MissComanBefore
Research Club
Audience.
ADDRESS ON THE
BIG COAL STRIKE
Clear Cut Economic Deductions
Drawn From the Industrial
Battle Just Ended.

/ Miss Catherine b. Conan, ProfeSso
of Economics in Wellesley College, VIII
is spending a portion of her years va
a most delightful impression upon he
| first Honolulu audience last evening il
an address before the Research Clul
on the Economic Aspects of the Re
cent Coal Strike" The club ana it
distinguished visitor were the guests o
Mr.. A. r. Gurrey, Dr., at his studio
lowing the address social half hour
was spent in meeting Miss Conan anC
in partaking of lemonade served BY
Miss Caroline Haskins and severa
young ladies. Nearly all Wellesley
girls of Honolulu were present and hat
an interesting chat with their formel
clear, crisp style, and her arguments
were borne in terse sentences that gave
her auditors a clear idea of the sub
ject matter. Her pleasing personality
combined with perfect enunciation ad-
ded to the effect of her discourse
She said she took courage in present
was not entirely connected with condi-
lions here. The eastern labor problem
was different from that in Hawaii. She
said: Yours is how to get the work
1o% IoI III RI
sell your product in the market In
the East it is how to get that labor,
cheap or costly. 1t is a question of how
shall we secure a man and citizen. Our
laborers are almost without exception
voters and make up a large part of the
voters in the counties in which they
live. That, as I understand it, does not
obtain here. The problem there is to
make citizens out of our common labor
ers. We cannot solve the community
problem by machinery. Very often the
interests of the community are diamet-
rically opposed to the employers. 1t is
without question to the advantage of
the community that the laboring COM
munity are able to buy themselves bet
ter clothing. better food, than the
cheaper sort. The lettering of the
physical is to the betterment of the
moral man.
Trades unions are organizations of
laborers for enlightenment, and are
distinctly uncomfortable to employers
But they are becoming understood as
being most effective in training men
for citizenship. The general objection
to trades-u is that the non-union
man is hampered in his freedom, and
the argument is used that a man ought
to have the right to work for whom he
chooses and that no one should have
right to say anything about it.
1--WE are no longer industrially free
The individual worker is not a creator
He is only free when acting in such
numbers as to make his voice a thing
of moment. When acting as an in
dividual he is not on a par. When
acting with the trades union that puts
him on par. Fifty years ago the man
was industrially free. We have now
another regime of great organizations
of syndicates."
Miss Conan then sketched the COM
mencement of the coal mining industry
how the original mine owners fell g
prey to the railroads. the merging OF
properties under railroad management
freight rates as factor of disturbance
and the organization of trades unions
among the miners in 1870. The scale O:
wages, false returns for master min
ers' outputs and the cost of powder
were given as the reasons for various
strikes.
The fundamental difficulty, irregular
ity of employment throughout the year
was not remedied among the anthracite
miners and in the spring of this year
the strike was ordered. The strike, as
distinguished from previous ones, was
conducted with a remarkable freedom
from violence and disorder. Mitchell
preached obedience to the law, saying
that the man who did not obey the law
was an enemy to the country and to MS
own interests. Miss Conan said that
the amount of violence was grossly ex-
! aggerated and all the men held well &c
Mitcheu's fiat of keep the peace" The
despised foreigners, nearly all of whom
came to this country with a general
grievance against all governments, were
controlled with extraordinary wisdom
by Mitchell and conducted themselves
in an orderly manner. To Miss Conan
Mitchells replies before Roosevelt We're
far more dignified than those of the
operators.
| She said it was an Anticipated idea
| for employers to hurl themselves
| against trades unions. The operator:
were themselves a union which was in
| defiance of the law, for they were pro
| ducers, while the miners were a union
within the law.
She also said that the idea thai
workers have no right to arbitrate then
own interests is Anticipated. The re-
| fusal of employers to arbitrate ques-
tons of industrial measures is no long
| er considered heroic. The strike wa:
an event of great Importance in the in
| dustrial history of the United States
because of the education of public opin'
ion. Men who had given little though
| to the subject before, came to under
| stand that the trades union after all /:
| a conservative force, and that il is fal