Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-10-05
WHAT NEXT:

The Presidents efforts to bring about
a friendly adjustment of the differences
between the coal operators and the min
ers having come to naught, what next!
That is the question the eighty millions
Of American people are asking to-day,
and they are asking it with significant
impotence. The proceedings OF the con-
ference Of Friday have awakened them
to a lzeener realization than ever before
of the situation and what it portends
unless there is immediate relief, and the
query on their lips or in their minds
carries a ringing demand for decisive
action.
Friday nights dispatches intimated
that the President would probably call
an extra session of Congress to take the
tariff Off anthracite coal. But yester-
days Washington advices denied that he
had any such intention. The abolition or
reduction of the coal tariff would go
long way towards securing the public in
future against such thraldorn as present
conditions have placed then under. But
there is no certainty that t.I-s Congress
could be depended upon to abolish or re-
duce it without protracted debate, II in
deed it could be trusted to interfere with
il at all. In the meantime the situa-
ton would continue to pinch with in
creas;ng seyerity-continue to grow moro
desperate The necessity for resumption
of mining is instant, imperative, and press
ing. The failure of the conference has
developed the fact that the crisis is more
acute and it's effects more widespread
than had been thought. It has caused
a closer scrutiny OF local conditions and
prospects throughout the country, with
the result that communities which had
rested in fancied security, comparatively,
stirred with apprehension of terrible sui
fering among the poor, the shutting down
of industrial plants, upon which thou
sands depend for livelihood, the stop
page of street-car transportation, and the
cutting OFF Of light supply. It is not go
ing too far to say that the death of the
hope that President Roosevelt would sue
coed in settling the strike has thrown
into panic almost the people OF many
cities and towns, who up to that time nae
not appreciated the seriousness of the sit
ua ton, and the extent to which it bore
upon them and their interests.
What IS needed, therefore, is that
short direct cut to relief be taken, ana
taken at once Considerations Of human
ity and of domestic and municipal con-
yeaiencc and the industrial interests or
a large part Of the land call for this.
The coal baro11s made it clear that arbl-
traticn is impossible. In reply to the
Presidents appeal to their patriotism they
insulted him ana insolently upbraided him
for not supporting their cause by DEFY
ing the Constitution. To his reminder to
them Of the rights and interests of the
public in the premises, their response was
Virtually the brutal one William H Van
derbilt is said to have made to some
what similar reminder. In all the cir
cumstances, it was infinitely more brutal,
more OF q defiance to the public. and more
calculated to excite just resentment than
Vanderbilts alleged utterance.
And now the point. is, who and what
powers are to grapple with the intolerabl.
and menacing conditions and end them,
for they must be ended? President
Roosevelt has admitted that he has no
| power, and that there is no power IN the
| Federal government to do this He has
done all he could without violating the
| Constitution and setting precedent the
consequences of which might prove ia
tai to our institutions. While. as our
readers know, the Dispatch and President
| Roosevelt are politically as wide apaS-
! as the poles, and while there is little ~
his general career which we can COM
mend we would say that he deserves no
| less credit fer resisting opportunities 10
| interfere by using Federal power than
| he does for having tried to adjust the
| trouble by using his good offices person
| ally. But this is apart TO come back TO
| the point we have just stated, who and
| what powers are to grapple with the con-
ditions and end them? The proper man
and proper power are Governor stone,
| of Pennsylvania. and that State. Ihls
we have maintained from the first, ana
the DEVELOPMENTS OF Friday but fort1ty
| the contention. The American public look
to the one to put in motion, and that
| without further ado, the machinery Of
the other, and bring about the desired
consummation Immediately. And it is
safe to say that whatever course may be
| resortcd to under the authority Of Penn
sylyania, no matter how summary, viii
| be justified by the masses. It's the duty,
Iof Governor Stone TO act vigorously. The
position taken by the coal operators in
replying to the President when contrasted
wit the tit1It1e S OF Iitchell has In