The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-10-07
CURRENT EVENTS THE DRIFT OF THINGS AS
WE SEE 1T.


the country was the conference of coal mine wn-
ers with President Roosevelt and with President
John Mitchell of the United Mine Workers, held
at the White House Friday. Great things were
expected of it and great disappointment resulted
from it. Each side, it is said, went away with
strengthened determination to fight to the bitter
end. Morally, however, we believe it was a victory
for the mine workers. This is the proposition
made by President Mitchell, as their representa-
tive, to President Roosevelt:
Confident of our ability to demonstrate to any
impartial tribunal the equity of our demands for
higher wages md improved environments, we pro
pose that the issles eliminating in this strike
shall be referred to you and a tribunal of your
own selection, and agree to accept your award
upon all or any of the questions involved. IT you
will accept this responsibility and the representa-
tives of the coal operators vii signify their will
ingness to have your decision Incorporated in an
agreement for not less than one year or more
than five years as may be mutually determined
between themselves and che anthracite. coal mine
workers and will pay the scale of wages which you
and the tribunal appointed by you shall award, we
will Immediately call a. convention and recon-
mend a resumption of work, upon the understand
ing that the wages which shall be paid are to go
into effect the day upon which work is esumed.
This and all other similar propositions the mine
owners and mine operators arrogantly rejected.
They belong to a stif-necked generation, these
mine owners, and they have steadfastly held out
against having any body of men, however great
their ability or lofty their character, decide as to
the justice of the dispute between them and their
Iaborers. No. the coal will not starve or rot, and
the people will have to foot the bills in the end;
so they, these modern lords of creation, await
Ill IL IL L. H. -4z--
ton shall force the poor laborers to terms.
X X
SOWING THE WIND TO REAP THE
WHIRLWIND-It is just such colossal impu-
dence and perversity as this that is doing most to
encourage socialism and anarchy in this country,
for Il is as true now as it was in the days of Sol
ONION that those who SOW the wind must reap the
whillwind. Already there is a strong and stead
lily growing demand for government ownership
Of the coal mines. It means something, when a
man of such prominence and influence as DR.. Ed
ward Everett Hale gives utterance to such senti-
ments as the following:
"The strike is bringing nearer the inevitable
solution. This is the control or practical owner
ship of the mines by the State of Pennsylvania or
ultimately by the nation. In a Republican Gov
eminent it is not possible, as it is not right, that
twenty men or $4,000 men shall control a supply
which the good God has given for mankind"
This means something, we say; it means vastly
more when the New York Democratic State Con-
~vention, dominated not by the Bryan element but
solely by the David B. Hill faction, declares itself
in favor of government ownership of all anthra-
cite coal mines.
Undoubtedly the Importance of this matter is
not fully appreciated here in the South "where
wood for fuel is abundant and where ten tons of
soft coal are used for every ton of anthracite
But in the great cities of the North it is a very
serious matter. 1t is said that schools and hos