The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-09-15
F FARLEY REVIEWS
 TIE SITUATION
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THE SITUATION
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 -----------------~~---~ ~---~----~---------~-----,- aided as being committed by the miners on investigation prove to have never happened at all, or not to have been Tn ! any way connected with the strike. AS an instance, l may cite the killing of the brickyard negro at North Birmingham, by deputy sheriffs. Immediately aftef that happened, the city of Birmingham was filled with wild rumors to the eff feet that the union miners had attacked the non-union miners, and had killed one and seriously wounded deputy sheriff, and there was great hurrying to and ITO and arming of posses and scurrying Tor transportation to the scene of the supposed conflict. Investigation showed that the man was killed in his own house. while eating breakfast, and that there was only one of him and two of the officers, so that there was never any great danger of a slaughter of innocent non-union miners.
 At least, one of he dynamitings which was published as the result of the strike proved to have been from the cause which produces so much of both pleas ure and trouble-woman l hardly think the miners with all they now have on hand. care to be charged with all the troubles which result from that cause. As whole, the iliners are waiting with patience, are 1aw-abidlng, good average citizens, about as good as those in other walks of life, and no more to be charge able with the misdeeos of their misguid- ed sympathizers or members than would be the lawyers or doc tors, for there are members of both those professions who do oc- caslonally do things which the good book and the statute books say should not be done.
 Furnac Operations.
 Now what of the furnace operators? Through days and nights. their cry was that they could not spare over forty cents for mining coal and live. To this, the mi ners replied that they paid forty cents anc lived with iron selling at three dol lars a ton less than it was selling for at the time of the negotiations. If 1t could be done then could 1t not be done now? Have the furnace companies not progress ed in the art of making iron? Given the same materials and wages, can they not now make iron cheaper than they did five or ten years ago? Their competitors cai.' and we do not Jelieve the Birming- ham operator has stood still. Have they
 
 earnings to further cheapen the cost of coal ore, coke and iron? Those mill lions have, no doubt, been wisely spent and the result should be much cheaper product. Their published reports show immense earnings, and expenditures for improvement, and it Is but fair to as- sume that they hay progressed in ev- cry branch of mining ind manufacturing.
 But after all the arguments made to haf 10 ch hal his rate of mining reduced to forty cents ton, or see the whole coal and iron in- dustry go to pieces, what did the opera tor do? He at once opened his mines to work and offered. not the forty cents which he said was all he could pay, but forty-five cents, and he offered that to any and all kinds of miners and labor CTS without regard to their ability to mine clean coal or to keep their work ing places in shape. Is not an old and experienced miners work worth more to the operator than the work of man just from the farm or from the other fields of labor? In all other trades the experienced man Is accounted of more worth than the inexperienced, but in this instance, it seems that a practical miner one who owns his own home, who pays his taxes, who pays his debts and who scnools his children is of less worth than the man, who comes to the district with nothing but his hat on his head and his shirt on his back and who will, in most cases, never become citizen of value to the community. All of us have had much to say about tAe pouring loose on this community of hordes of ex-convicts. Are we not importing into the community many men no better?
 Honestly, now, does the great public think highly of the class of men who are coming in to take the places or the citl- zens who are already here? If the opes- ators could afford to pay 45 cents, why in the name of all that is good and fair did not they say so to their old em- ployes? If they can afford to pay it to the class of miners they are now working, with all the added expense in the way of taking care of untralned men, could they not have paid 1t to the citizens and tax payers of the county? Are the new men better than the old in any single par ticular? And one operator has offered and is paying 4712 cents ton, and another offers 1t. since September 1. Why did they not give that to their old men and have no strike? That was all they asked. Is it fair to their old employees to treat them in this manner? What have they done to deserve 1t? It surely cannot be because they have an organization through which they make their wage scales for the op- orators have had that, and this year the
 
 as any miners organization, and it deals through committees and spokesmen. Why may not the miners have the same right? It surely cannot be that the strike is the result of the inability of the operators to pay the scale of wages, for they are pay ing more than the miners asked, all things considered. and it cannot be be- cause the miners are organized, for the operators are organized themselves-and all other trades and professions are or ganized. It cannot be because the miners are a lawless set for the operators have shown no more regard for the law them selves, and while the newspapers do not and probably will not say so, it is well known that the lawlessness is not all con- fined to one side.
 Just as an instance: Did the papers say anything about the operator who forbade his striking miners to move from his prop erty, and who would not let conveyances come on the land to haul away their poor belongings, so that those who did exer- else their free right to move had to carry On their backs what they most cared to take away? One of the newspaper corre- spondents told of it in his letter to the paper. but it did not appear in faring headlines as would have been the cage if the facts had been reversed. But we are willing to concede that there are good operators and bad operators. just as there are good and bad miners, and the great body of both should not be con- demned for the acts of a few. But law