The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-11
WHITE SLAVES OF PENNsYLvANIA.

" SLA v Is OE GEIAAS lt ANA.
If many more such stories as those
told on the witness stand on Tuesday
in the coal strike investigation are
brought to the attention of the Coal
Strike Commission, it will be safe to
predict that the commission will re-
port in favor of an increase in the
wages of the miners. There would be
a general feeling Of relief if it should
turn out that the cases of inhumanity
mentioned in our dispatches on We'd
nesday were isolated ones. If II should
appear, as the investigation proceeds,
that such cases as those of Henry Nc
Coll and the widow Burns. employees
of the Markle Coal Company, are of
frequent occurrence there would be a
feeling of profound indignation against
the coal operators throughout the en-
tire country. Even the outrages al
legged to be committed by union men
against non-union men in the coal re-
gion would be regarded as being of
minor Importance.
Henry McColl, according to the tes-
timony, together with his family one
member of which was his mother-in-
law, who was a hundred years of age,
was thrown out of his house in stormy
weather, because he had failed to pay
his rent. 1t was known to the company
that he was an invalid, he having
been severely injured in the mines.
With great difficulty he got his family
to HaZelton, seven miles distant,
where his mother-in-law died, presum-
ably from the effects of the exposure
to which she had been subjected. The
husband of the widow Burns was an
engineer in the mines, and was killed
in an accident. The compay gave her
no assistance, but the miners helped
her a little. There was some rent due
on the house which she occupied and
it seems that this debt accumulated
because of the interest charged on it.
AT the time of her husbands death her
eldest boy was s years of age, and
for six years she managed to make
living, such as it was, somehow.
Among other things she scrubbed out
the Office of the Markell Company once
in awhile, but for this work she got
no cash. The amount was credited to
her on the company's books, and was
held as an offset to the rent she owed.
When her eldest boy was fourteen
years old she sent him to the mines to
work, and then the second boy, as he
hnCaran nj oh h,,t %
them got cash for their labor Their
earrings were taken for the rent which
the widow owed. The widow and the
boys toiled thirteen years to pay off
the debt to the Markle Company. 1t
| is not strange that such stories as
these, as stated by the dispatches.
caused members of the commission to
express surprise.
We venture to say that nowhere in
the South are the negroes the victims
the most worthless of them would meet
with condemnation. And yet, it is the
Republican North that is all the time
calling attention TO what it is pleased
to call the inhumanity of the Southern
people in their treatment of the negro.
1t may be that now and then a negro
is lynched in the South for a crime
that arouses a cry for vengeance
wherever it is committed. but the
Southern people do not turn negroes,
infirm from age or injuries. out OF
their cabins for non-payment of rent
to find shelter wherever they can or to
die from exposure. nor do they insist
that widows and orphans shall labor
for long years to pay on debts con-
tracted before the period of widow
hood. Such instances OF inhumanlty
are 10 be found. IL seems, only In the
North, and II is 20 be hoped only IN
the coal mines OF that section.
What seems strange 20 US is that
these people Of the North, who pose
as philanihropisls. are not disturbed
In the least by the wrongs Of these
white slaves Of Pennsylvania, but ara
Stirred "a pity and anger BY tn aiieg-
20 inqignitiss put upon tle negroes %
The south. " they would take the trou-
pie ~ make themselves acquainted
1 Win the facts they would nna that