The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1902-09-27
THE DIVINE
RIGHT OF
COAL KINGS
RV HQ1 Scrivor

| George F. Baer, of the Coal Trust
says that Almighty God has given the
mines to him and. his friends, and thai
they have divine authority to regulate
the conditions under which men may
work there.
Many people have protested against
this utterance Of Mr.. Baer as being
"blasphemous." Others-good friends
of his-consider it "tactless" anC
therefore unfortunate.
For us, we are rather glad that Mr.
Baer has so forgotten his customary
tact, has grown so drunk with power
| as to make this astounding claim. The
very insolence and hypocrisy which il
! exhibits make it as pleasing to us as II
is annoying to MI. Baer's more cool
| headed associates.
I For, after all, the claim that Mr.. Bae1
has made puts the whole question in
| it's true light. Somewhere in the Bible
we read of the sins of man being
| turned to the service of God. In this
| case the brazen cant of a despicable
tyrant serves the cause Of truth.
The question is now fairly up to-
| the miners and to all other working
| men. Mr.. Baer has plainly stated one
of the only two possible alternatives.
Shall we accept his statement or shall
we take the Numerically opposite
view?
Shall we admit that the mines right
fully belong to the Coal Kings-wheth-
err by the gift of God" the bounty of
Nature" the necessities of human So
ciety,' or whatever title we choose to
recognize !? If so, we must admit the
right of the Coal Kings to do as they
will with their own, to fix the condi-
tions under which men may work or
to forbid men to work at ALL and, in
general, to control the lives of the
working class. If so, we should not
grumble at the importation of scabs,
the calling out of troops, the issuing Of
injunctiols, and the persecution of I'M
ion organizers and labor editors.
Or shall we, on the other hand, de-
clare that the mines do not rightfully
(but only legally belong to the Coal
Kings-that they rightfully belong to
the class whose labor has made them
valuable or the whole people who need
them? If we accept this view, we must
take some measures to carry it into
effect, to reclaim this rightful heritage
o. the people from the hands of its
present possessors.
If we claim that the needs of the
people and the toll of the miners give
them a right to say that coal shall be
mined under conditions unsatisfactory
to the Coal Kings, then we must ac-
cept the second alternative and alb
sonutely deny the Coal Kings right Of
property in them. There is no tenable
middle ground. And Mr.. Baer, by put
ting the question on a religious basis,
has made this even palmer than it
would otherwise have been. It is not
to be supposed that Almighty God has
given faulty and conflicting moral title
deeds. If He gave the mines to the
people, He did not give them to Mr..
Baer; if He gave them to Mr.. Baer,
He did not give them to the people;
and if he gave them to Mr.. Baer in
perpetual trust for the people (the peo-
ority or wardship) then it is rank
heresy, blasphemy, and atheism-a
sort of sacrilegious contempt of
court"-for the people to interfere with
Trustee I:aer's divinely appointed pow
ers of administration.
It is, of course, the opinion of the
present writer, first, that Mr.. Baer is
a sanctimonious old fraud; secondly,
that he is an industrial parasite; and
thirdly, that he has in this case, prov
en- himself an extraordinary fool (the
editor will not allow us to use the ap-
propriate theological participle before
that word) who does not know that
the world has moved, intellectually
and economically and politically, in the
last two or three centuries.
We might remind Mr.. Baer that the
time when the Stuart kings of Eng
land most loudly asserted their "di-
vine right to govern wrong" Gas his
torian has put it, was just the time
when their power was tottering to its
fall. Caesar had his Brutus, Charles
the First his Cromwell"-and to use
any name in this connection with Baer
might be- considered as introducing
politics, so we refrain.
The movement of history does not
stop, even at the braying of such
colossal ass as Mr.. Baer. Tlme-nOn-
ored divine" rights have repeatedly
fallen before the organized intelligence
and indignation of an oppressed class,
guided and driven on by their material
needs. So it will be again-this time
with the industrial tyrants, as in the
past with the political despots.
Even though Morgan settles" this
strike-which does not seem likely, as
yet-the question. will not down. No
question Of this sort can be permanent
ly compromised. Whether the miners
win or lose, still the question will not
down. Nor is it a question that ap-
plies to the miners alone; it applies
equally TO the steel mills, the cotton
factories, the railroads, the steam
ships, all the means Of production and
transportation of wealth-for we now
have abundant evidence that all indus
tries are capable Of being monopolized,
even without the aid of tariffs or sub
sides, and that the process OF >compe-
tition itself tends to produce monopo-
ly.
Two questions are before us-before
the working class in particular.
r1:~.k el.o1 v~ooore IF nrOfnctjOn