The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-10-06
SIDES WITH OW NERS
A Pennsylvania Manufacturer Who
Believes That Striking Miners
Are in the Wrong.
He Says the First Cold Weather Will
Bring the Strikers to
I = Terms.

Nothing will come Of the conference be-
tween President Roosevelt and the coal
barons, says Colonel James Duffy, iron
manufacturer. of Lancashire. Pa. who IS
visiting w. E. Nelson at 1881 University
avenue Sc.
While the president undoubtedly called
the conference from the best of motives.
believing that some settlement might be
effected through an exchange or views
under federal auspices. MIR Duffy Is
confident that 1t will be unproductiVe. or
results.
THE coal operators he declared, ARE
determined not to give in to the strikers
as a body under any circumstances,
When the employers signed the wage
scale last year, a very fair one, l think.
on the whole-they had it understood that
they would submit to no diCtatiOn in the
future. Led on by demagOgues primart-
ly seeking their own advancement, the
strikers are making grand stand play
to the public in an attempt to show that
they are all powerful. They want the
whip hand.
There will be no federal interference to
force the operators to come to terms.
That would be too radical a drift toward
socialism and government ownership-a
body blow to vested interests and private
property rights. I don't believe it will be
necessary to call out the federal troops
Our state militia is amply able to prevent
body Of citizen soldiery in the country.
If the militia had been called out promptly
when trouble seemed imminent there
would have been no bloodshed and no in
cendiarism 1t is question Of politics
with Governor Stone, but his stand will
avail him little. He Is a dead one po-
litically I believe that the great body
of the strikers have refra ined from law
lessness, but we nede troops to keep the
vicious, Irresponsible element under con-
troll
Gold weather will end the strike. The
miners cannot hold out much longer, and
snowfall and force them to terms They
have received liberal outside assistance,
but 1t takes vast sum to keep such ar
army going at average Of 81 q week.
There Is great suffering throughout the
coal region in the families of men who.
If they want to work, can re-enter ono
of the very best paid departments of labor
in the world.
John B. MITCHELL their leader. is a man
Of great ability, but he is not making a
sincere fight. He is after personal ag-
grandlzement. He is a second Eugene ".
Debs. If he loses this fight, the men who
have trusted him with their all. many Of
them. no doubt. having been misled.
which Is largely true Of the foreign ele-
ment, will drop him like a hot coal. 1t is
make or break with MITCHELL but he must
be credited with remarkable generalship.
Looking at the situation broadly, of
course. one must admit that there are
two sides to the question. But I believe
the employers have the most ground for
complaint There are undoubtedly many
instances where the individual is under
paid am convinced that all difficulties
could easily be settled on an individual
basis. The public must not forget that
after all, 1T is the operatives. not the mine
owners, who have stopped the supply OF
coal from the anthracite region. The
operators will resume work the moment
they can be guaranteed sufficient protec-
tion to operate their mines without danget
Of 1mperiling property interests or tho
lives Of men who are willing to work"