The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-10-09

lie, such would have been the result.
There is nothing further that the pres
ident can do at present. He is not
clothed with any power to adjudicate
the vexeds question, and will now use
his influence with the miners in an
effort to have them resume work pend.
ing an inquiry by the government into
the whole, affair and guaranteeing the
miners a fair and impartial investiga-
ton. ~. /
| The operators and coal carrying
roads do not want to treat with the
miners union as the operators are en-
gagged in a most desperate effort to
break up the organization, and they
want the militia of Pennsylvania and
the federal troops to help them do this
The miners are simply asking for JUS
tice and are willing, to arbitrate the
whole matter, but this the operators
refuse to do. The situation is fast
reaching crucial stage. On the, side
of the miner there is public sympathy
and sentiment. Labor organizations
in the country are contributing weekly
thousands of dollars to aid the strikers
in their battle, not because they all
agree with the miners in all of their
demands, perhaps, but because of the
great underlying principle of justice
and fairness. It is in very poor grace
for half dozen men who through con-
solidated railway and mining interests
virtually control the output and price
of hard coal in this country--it is with
very poor grace for them to demand of
the chief executive of the nation that
he use the bayonet and ball to arbitrate
the trouble with the miners.
What the people are interested in
just now is not so much the matter of
trying to bridge the gulf between the
miners and operators, but coal-fuel
that must be had and is necessity,
and unless had soon in the larger cities
there will be untold suffering and mis-
ery,- to say nothing of the grim spectre
of pestilence and death that will stalk
through the abiding place of the poorer
classes. ""'"'''
The question is one of the gravest
that has confronted the nation for q
long time, and the fact that this alb
normal social condition comes at
time when the country is passing
through an era of great prosperity, is
a sufficient one to cause serious and
sober reflection. The strike that has
dragged along since last May occa-
stoned no alarm until the public was
face to face with fuel famine. There
is hardly time now to say who is right
and who is wrong. n. Want has taken
the place of tardy wisdom, and demand
has displaced desire. Away inv the
distance may be seen small speck on
the tranquil horizon.' That faint out
fline Of thin, gray color which is rap
idly exp6aaahdinng and obscuuring the blue
ofthe heavens and which will form =
mighty chariot in which will ride the
storm king-that is public sentiment,
the Alpha and Omega, the giver and
the taker.. 1t is supreme. Itrocks the
cradle of liberty and reason, and
clothes law with righteousness and
power. It scatters with lavish hand
grants, franchises, charters and con-
cessions, but when the great scales of
justice hang low with corporate greed
and nd power, and fYil whenn ot the <peoplle, are
refused share in the distribution of
the necessities of life, then this great
human agency becomes an avenger and
destroyer and adopts such course
as necessity dictates.
| A great crisis like the present one
brings out the man for the time, and
President Roosevelt is that man, and
there are plenty of others who are
brave enough in their convictions to
| follow him.
Pennsylvania and Philadelphia have
| long been the hotbeds of political COR
ruption, and there is a tightly laced
boot in which is showed foot, part of
which is in the Keystone state, and
part in New Jersey and New York, and
were it not for this the state Of William
Penn, and the citv of American Inde-