The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1903-02-06
THE COAL STRIKE VERDICT.

The presentation of testimony to the
Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, says
the Baltimore Ame1 ic,tn, has been con
cluded. Only the arguments now remain
to be made before the commission may
| begin to deliberate upon a verdict. The
tedious, thankless work Of weeks and
months is almost at an end, ami the next
few weeks will mark the final end OF the
great coal strike of 1902. That end will
come when the commission makes known
the arbtral verdict Operators and mine
workers are solemnly bound to accept the
decision to be rendered by the members
| of the commission-men who have labored
| faithfully for weeks, we'll knowing that
| the result of their efforts would be unsat-
isfactory to one or the other of the two
parties to the a: bitration. In the fact
that acceptance of the verdict was guar
anteed before the commission began its
sittings is the most pleasing phase of the
matter in its present stage. 1t means that
an agreement is certain to be reached, and
now that the danger of famine is past and
prices restored to nearly normal the pub
lie asks only that the incident may be
finally and completely closed.
What the commission will ask operators
and minew orkers to agree to no man can
say. 1t is, however, safe to predict that
the verdict will be as near an exact inter-
probation of the relative rights of owners
and miners as human intelligence can &C
cemplish. The members of the commits
sion, gentlemen of exceptional ability,
have gone into every phase of the subject
with painstaking thoroughness. Person
ally they examined the physica conditions
under which the mining of anthracite is
carried on. Sitting as a court they have
listened to voluminous evidence touching
all of the conditions of employment under
which the strikers have been wont to
work. There can be few facts connected
with the business of anthracite mining, in
its relation to the pay and employment Of
labor, that arc not now before the COM
mission. The work becomes, therefore,
one of assembling and weighing fact, and
finally striking balance, which balance
shall be the milk in the cocoanut of the
commissions verdict-the terms either
party is pledged to accept.
From the information given in the re-
ports of the commissions investigations
the beliefs, apparently common among
all classes Of people, has been that the
miners have proved the larger portion of
their case. A verdict is, therefore ex-
pected which in the main shall be favor
able to them. AS wages go in the various
trades the miners seem to have establish
ed their right to an increase. They have,
too, proved most clearly that they are en-
titled to be paid according to the honest
weight of coal mined by them. These
two points the commission can hardly
fail to decide in favor of the miners, and
should such decision be rendered, the
miners will win under third one of the
five points claimed by them-the right to
representation at the weighing scales.
Two other alleged grievances do not so
clearly appear as having been established
These are the right Of day laborers to a
shorter working day and the justice in
recognition of the union. The day labor
ers, according to the testimony. do not
work a sufficient number of days in any
one year to make long working day
especially burdensome, while it has not
been shown that, as at present organized
and administered, the union is able to
protect any of the rights of the opera
tors.
These, however, are immaterial claims
when compared with the more material
ones, which, if upheld, will put more
money into the pockets of the miners.
These may be ordered by the commission
without any injustice being done the
mineowners; and if the verdict should be
as We indicate it there will be no reason
for either employer or employe to object.