The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-13
THE COAL STRIKE AND POLITICS.


THE COAL STRIKE AND POLITICS.
a paper which does not publish the news
has an obvious advantage in being able to
misrepresent IL in editorial comment.
city contemporary which professed to be
very anxious for the publication of the
report OF the Hon. Carroll ID. Wright on
the anthracite coal strike. and which, when
the report was given out, published just
twenty-one lines of il, has since had sew
eral editorials disappearing its contents
and character. This Misrepresentation was
necessary in order to further the attempt
TO make political capital out Of the strike
and to create the impression that the pub
LEGATION of the report delayed for po-
litical reasons. So. after printing only
twenty-one lines of the report, it was stat
ed editorially that ut is entirely too IA
vorable to the miners to be acceptable to
the Republican managers" that If Presi-
dent Roosevelt could do nothing else he
could have given the report to the public,
and that 'for three long months the miners
were denied the benefit of Mr.. Wright's
finding in their favor" The journalism
that substitutes editorial comments for
news and Misrepresentation for facts
may fool a few people for a short time,
but 1t does not win in the long run.
Commissioner Wright's report was no
more favorable to the miners than it was
to the operators. and there is not the
slightest ground for the charge that it was
suppressed or it's publication delayed for
any such reason. The statement that Mr..
Wright found in favor of the miners" is
not true. For the most part his report was
an impartial statement of facts, presenting
the claims of both sides. 1t showed that
were probably right, while on other points
the operators had a good offset. Thus 1t
said:
The reduction of time is put forward by
the miners and backed by the statement
that their work takes only about two hun
dred days in year, and for the remainder
or the time they are practically idle The
operators meet this demand with the state
ment that they are able to market only 60
per cent. of the capacity of their mines,
and that their fixed charges. including the
pumping, care of the mines. etc, go on
for twenty-fOur hours a day and every
day in the year. They insist that the in
crease of 20 per cent in wages which the
men demand would mean about 46 cents
ton increase. The total amount of wages
paid In the anthracite coal fields last year.
Ii Is stated by the operators, was about
s66.OO0,O00. The increase under the original
demand of the miners, the operators state,
would be about S2O,OOO,O00.
This Is no more in favor of the miners
than it is of the operators, but it was not
included in the twenty-o lines of the re-
port printed I'm the paper referred to-
Neither was the statement that Nearly
all of the operators have no confidence in
the ability of the miners union to control
its own members to such degree as to
assist in maintaining proper discipline. >
Neither was the statement that 1.-The ope-
of the methods adopted by the union. and
they feel that when asked to make con-
tract with the unions the latter should put
themselves in a position possible for carry
ing out such contracts" The most i'm.
portant recommendation in Mr.. Wright's
report was that there should be organized
joint commission on Cancellation com.
posed of representatives of the operators
and of a new union of anthracite employees
to which all grievances should be referred
for investigation. and that their decision
should be final and binding upon all parties
and there should be no interference will
nonunion men," This was included in tn,
twenty-one lines, but 1t was not a findins
in favor of either party. 1t is a recon-
mendation for adoption by both, looking t.
| the prevention of future trouble. The sug
gestion that there should be no interior
ence with nonunion men, is plain con
| demnation of the odious and indefensibl
conduct Of union men towards nonuniol
men.
There is no politics in the strike, and TIL
attempt to use if for that purpose Il
| despicable. President Baer, the head an,
front of the railroad coal operating com
| bination, is a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat
and j. Pierpont Morgan, who, some claim
could end the strike, is sound-mone,
| Democrat. There are Republicans an
| Democrats among the miners and ope
rators, and there is no politics in tn
strike except what is dragged into it b.
| demagogues. The false representatio
that Commissioner Wright's report wa
suppressed by the administration becaus
it found in favor of the miners is of thi
| character.