The bee. (Earlington, Ky.) 1889-19??, 1902-11-20
A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY
or THE"
RECENT ANTHRACITE STRIKE.
c. L. Dsrlns in The Black Diamond.
observation-disclosures

LII you would have an lllustra-
tion Of such tyranny: My COM
pany sent me ten cars of coal to
distribute in small lots, at the
regular price IN effect before the
strike, to such of our customers
as were most urgently in need Of
it, cautioning me to give prefer
ence to families where there was
sickness. Only few days ago a
union teamster with a load Of an
thracite coal on his wagon, drove
back into our yard and dumped
it-refusing to haul it where it
was to be delivered, at 1925 a
ton, to a family where there was
a child sick in the house!
Miners Have Need Of Dictionary.
You say you understand the
miners have expressed a willing
ness to arbitrate, and, further,
"to stand true and loyal y y -
My dear sir, miners unions don't
know the meaning of the words
truth and loyalty. Mr.. Mitchell
himself, gives the lie direct to
their professions of truth when
he has discussed right along the
possibility of calling out all the
soft coal miners on behalf of
whom he, himself, had made
contracts with the operators rum
ming to March 31st, 1908. In
different mines in the state of
Illinois up to a fortnight ago
there hadsbeen 305 strikes since
the agreement with the union
went into effect on the first day
of January. And yet you talk
of such men standing BY their
agreements.
You go on to speak of the suf-
fering from this coal famine.
Who caused this famine? Mr..
Mitchell and the United Mine
Workers Of America, who have
not only refused to dig coal
themselves, but, by violence and
bloodshed, have kept other men
from digging it. Mr.. Schenck,
when asked by reporter for a
paper the other day if he did not
sympathize with the miner, re-
piled: "Yes, ! sympathize with
the miner who wants to work
and who is kept from it by the
threat Of being shot and of hav-
ing his home and his wife and
little ones blown up with dyna-
mite"
Where do you get your deduc-
tion that "the present industrial
system says: Get as much for
as little as you camp" All
shame to you and men of your
intelligence who will give voice
to such absolutely unjust and
unfair expressions, calculated as
they are to inflame and incite
the unthinking and ignorant
You have not an iota of fact to
base them on.
Relates From His Own Experience.
l, myself, have been associated
with and engaged in the mining
of soft coal to greater or less
extent for the last fifteen years.
In 1892 myself and three col
leagues bought grain fields and
pasture lands in central Illinois
to the amount of over a thousand
acres. We built a town there,
with a large coal-mining plant.
For five years we operated it,
giving employment to several
hundred men and their families.
AT the end of that time, having
been constantly menaced by dis
astrous failure on account of the
low prices of coal and the dispro-
portionate rate of wages, we
were extremely fortunate to find
purchaser for our property, and
disposed Of it. When we came
to balance our accounts l had for
my one-quarter interest the mon
ey that l had invested and one
thousand dollars Overcome thou
sand dollars to show for five