The bee., 1902-07-03

altogether willing slave; in many
cases he can refuse to wear the
badge of servitude only by risking
his livelihood and the peace and
comfort of his family. And his
organized master is n>apable of
making legally binding contract,
either with him or his employer.
OF all conceivable systems of in
dustry, this is the worst. And one
OF its worst fe eatures is it's deliberate
denial of Any obligation towards the
employer, ss regards the efficiency
of the employee.
1t has been my chief occupation
for thirty-five years to promote,
both in professional practice and
through technical literature, the
improvement, in economy and in
safety, of American methods of
mining; and have yet to hear Of
the fret instance IN which Miners
Union has not opposed such an i'm
provement, or in which such q
Union has given the slightest atten-
tion to the instruction of it's own
members in their professed business.
Their Lecturers" lecture on strikes
and bOycOtts, not on drilling and
stopping; and their one eternal
theme and purpose is, how to get
more and give less for it. They pro-
hibit the training of apprentices |;
they fight trade-schools; they Op-
pose benefit-funds and reading
rooms because, as one of their men,
bers once frankly said to me, "such
things tend to make workmen con-
tented, and disinclined to strike
and that is what we do not wantw (;
and they maintain throughout the
, nation that, as between ''labOr" and
"capital," the period of a strike is
war, justifying all the ethics OF war,
while the period of peace is simply
, an armed truce, during which pre-
paration is to be made for another
war.
What wonder that, IN those min
ing camps in which such unions are
absolutely dominant, mining prac-
tice is cOnspicuously bad? What
| wonder that, in British Columbia,
the largest mines of the ROssland
District were closed, not on account
of the "eight-hour day." but because
it was impossible to get an honest
days work of no matter how few
hours? What wonder that, in the
anthracite regions, since the "con-
cession" of 1900, the average days
work of II man (then already small
enough, as all mining engineers
know has been still further reduced
! by II per cent? During this period
of peace" over 100 strikes (Which
Mr.. Mitchell is understood to say
he had no right to prevent, because
they were "local'D have emphasized
the fact that no wOrkman-not even
IL breaker boy could be DISCHARGED
for inefiiciency or disobedience OF
orders without incurring the instant
wrath of organized labor The
reply, made to a distasteful Order:--
go to -; you amt my boss
John Mitchell, of Indianapolis, i,
my BOSS" is not an imagined situa.
tion.
Yes, Mr.. Mitchell, this is "lntoie,i :.
able -
.. Hypocrisy is intolerable. The
deliberate attempt to prevent the
simple protection of property against
fire and Hood, and the brazen an
peal to persons not members of the
Mine Workers Union to betrav
their trusts, and abandon the IN
terests in their charge; the threat
of coercing the innocent public into
an alliance with lawlessness by de-
priving it of any other fuel than that
which mObs will not permit to be
mined these things agree but poor
ly with the disapproval of disorder
ed and outraged professed by the
men who practically invited such
results. The tardy arrival of Union
officials, to persuade a mob mot to
do so any more, this time; :" the pre-
tence that assassins are going to be
vigorously hunted up, or down; in
short, all the highly decorous pro-
tests of the ringleaders of the trou-
BILE dncluding the chief who tried
to prevent it, but couldn'D are some-
what nauseating to those who re-
member how the "Molle Maguires"
a simular bureau of con-
demnation for crime, until the gal
lows put an end to their interviews
and speeches and proclamations.
When II criminal has once been
caught, through the efforts of the
Union, expelled from their ranks
for his crime, and thereafter black
listed. as people are who have COM
mittcd no crime, it will be time 10
recognize the good faith-aS iistin- |