Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-02
Tomorrow's Coal Conference.

The President finding himself unarmed
with any legal weapon to train on the war
ring coal factions In Pennsylvania, takes
the direct course toward intervention and
asks the representatives of the contending
parties TO meet him in an effort to avert
the national calamity of total failure Of
the coal supply. His telegram to the op-
orators and to President Mitchell stated all
of his case with frankness and explicit
ness characteristic of the man and worthy
of the Importance of the occasion.
The general proposition which the Presi-
dent will put before the operators and Mr..
Mitchell tomorrow morning rests upon
few evident facts. A great controversy be-
tween the operators and their employees has
now continued for four months. causing
practical stoppage Of the production Of hard
coal Cold weather is about to be felt and
there is no coal in the market sufficient to
meet the demands of the people. The great
majority of the people must have hard coal,
their stoves and furnaces not being fitted to
burn substitutes and they lacking the means
to equip their present ones or to buy other
stoves. Cold. hunger sickness and perhaps
death confront hundreds of thousands of
people. The danger Is even now pressing
in some of the poorer sections of New York,
and it will grow apace as the season adj
Vances The question at issue before the
government is not whether the strikers
should be recognized as union, or the OPP
orators be permitted TO run their mines
Cording to their own Judgment. 1t is
whether the people shall suffer even unto
death because these two great interests are
unable to agree.
Under the circumstances what Is to be
done? The operators declare that they will
ill yHa,, ttn,,
Of the strikers resources Already they are
resuming mining a larger scale each
W eek they declare. But at the rate of the
present increase in the product 1t will be
many weeks before the normal output Is
reached and months before the market Is
supplied to it's proper point. Prices must
meanwhile prevail which will be ruinous to
the average consumer and severe on the
well-to-do. The public must not be forced
to pay the penalty either of a continued
stoppage of mining or Of a gradual resump-
ton. In all equity 1t should be called upon
to pay only normal price for such coal as
may from now henceforward be produced.
Otherwise 1t will be required to bear almost
alone the whole burden of the strike, for
which it is in no sense responsible.
If the operators will not consent to
sumo mining coal. leaving the questions at
issue to be arbitrated. and the strikers will
not return to work in a body, leaving the
status of the union undetermined. what is
there to prevent the adoption of what in
diplomacy is styled a "modus vivendi?"
Many are the serious and threatened dis
putes which have been adjusted temporarily,
preventing war between nations by the
agreement of way of provisional operation.
which involves no yielding upon the points
IN, he tira
dispute over the status of the union could
be formally waived for six months by both
sides in the interest of the public welfare,
now the paramount factor Next spring the
controversy could be resumed al the point
of u temporary settlement and continued,
if necessary, to a finish
BY such a means the public would be
served with coal and kept from serious dis
aster. Neither side would lose its rights.
But whether by a modus vivendi an
agreement to refer the case TO impartial ar
bitration now or through the invocation of
the courts power, or through the tenn
porary yielding on the part of one of the
parties this strike must be ended for the
present Immediately or the country will
suffer as 1t has never before suffered in
time of peace. When the President speaks
tomorrow 1t will be with the voice of the
whole people, and his words will have a
significance which neither operators nor
strike leader can afford lightly to disregard
or obstinately to oppose Concessions by
either of the contestants will not be made
to the other, but to the people of the United
States as represented by the President.
Temporary self sacrifice for the general
welfare will win for either of the adverse
ries public gratitude and sympathy and the
assurance of reciprocal consideration and
enduring support. Absolute refusal to ad
NIT the public necessities as a factor in the
calculation will bring upon the obstinate
and shortsighted obstructionist an over
whelming wave of public resentment. of
whose vast and fast increasing volume
neither operators nor strike leaders seem to
be fully aware