Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-21


Fear him as they unquestionab1y do IN
their hearts perhaps with a touch OF per-
sonal hatred. even the mine owners nave
today wholesome respect for John Mitch
ell. They know him to be capable. ana.
above all, they believe him to be honest.
1t was Mitchell who brought about a
union between the miners organizations
of the east and the west. of the hard coal
and the soft districts. This was OF itsslf
a tremendous achievement 1t was Mitch
ell again who at the psychological moment
yielded to the suggestion of president
Roosevelt that truce be called. Thus the
man is known for his diplomacy as well as
his ability as organizer. And today.
when the question is asked of the workers
of the mines. whether contract miners or
breaker boys. whether there VIII be a
strike, the answer almost invariably Is that
it will be John Mitchell says.
This is remarkable degree of power for
one mana power for evil as we'll as 1or
good of the mans followers-and 1t Is in
finitely to Mitchelrs credit that in these
days of anxiety there Is practically no APP
prehension that he VIII employ 1t selnShly,
corruptly or with the end of advancing his
own personal aims. Fearful as they are of
the results of strike. the business men OF
the hard coal district agree that if John
Mitchell nstructs his followers to strike
he will do so because he sincerely believes
that they are justified in blocking one OF
the most vitality important of this country s
industries.
1t should be noted here that one of the
first things to be seen by a visitor to the
house of worker in the mine regions Is a
portrait of John Mitchell hanging in the
place of honor on the wall of the best room.
And it is significant that balancing it in
most cases is a portrait of Theodore Roose-
welt These two men are constantly coupled
in the miners mind He regards the Pres
ident as his good friend and benefactor. H S
action in 1902 is accepted today as indicat-
ing that he will be the miners friend in the
approaching crisis. In his speech at Wilkes
I,,,- ts,ld
his hearers, chiefly mine workers: Il am
with you as long you are in the right.'
1t is an unfortunate fact, perhaps making
for trouble next spring, that the majority
of these men have failed to appreciate the
Presidents condition. They believe they
are right in demanding recognition of the
union, and they are likely to expect and to
rely on the Presidents partisanship in case
they strike for that principle.
The Chief Opponents.
Thus on the one hand stands John Mitchell.
backed by an army of miners aggregating
many hundreds of thousands. Opposed
to him stand the seven presidents of eight
officially separate corporations, closely
allied and intermmgled in relationships that
it is not easy roughly to divide them into
their distinct entities. These are George F.
Bacr, who is president of both the Philade!-
phia and Reading railroad and the Cen
trail Railroad of New Jersey; E. b. Thomas,
w. II. Truesdale, president of the Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western railroad; T.. d.
Underwood, president of the Erie railroad;
David Wilcox, president of the Delaware
and Hudson railroad; y. J. CasSatt, pres-
dent of the Pennsylvania railroad and c.
s. Mellen president of the New York, On
tario and Western railroad. These men
represent sum of money so vast that
can be stated only in terms of billions in
the aggregate Reduced to its lowest terms.
in round-number approximation of the cap
ital stocks of the corporations actually en-
gagged in coal mining and coal hauling. the
net total of capital banked up behind them
is vast a sum that the resources of the
miners seem like the penny of the poor boy
at a picnic in contrast.
There is something dramatic in this align
ment of the workers against one of the
most formidable aggreSat1onS OF capital the
world knows today. There is something in
eXpressbly menacing in it. and withal some
thing pathetic. And as the days pass be-
tween the present and the December meet
ing of the miners the dramatic and the
pathetic aspects merge with the menace to
become a spectacle of the keenest most
vital interest TO every citizen.
Railroads and Mine Companies.
1t is technically incorrect to mention the
coal barons' of the above list in their ca
pacities as presidents of the railroad cor
porations. for there Is law on the books
in Pennsylvania strictly forbidding the own
eTSnlp OF coal mines Dy railroads. IHlS law
is the deadest of dead letters in practical
effect, because there is such a slight diff
ference between the coal mining companies
and their respective coal-carrying railroad
that II calls for the ingenuity
of wizard to detect it. Everybody frankly
the fact and valves the fiction.
Thus, the Reading railroad is known and
mentioned by all concerned as a coal min
ing company, even though there does hap
pen to be a different set of books and per-
haps few scattering stockholders in the
railroad may not be stockholders in the
coal mining company. And when this has
been said of the Reading it has been said of
all, for the Reading is the archetype of all,
even as it is the biggest of all. Thus Pres
ident Baer of the Reading, standing for
the mining and carrying of about one-thrd
of the total hard-coal product of this coun-
try, is, in the popular mind, set off against
John Mitchell.
But there is a marked difference between
John Mitchell and George F. Baer in this
connection. John Mitchell is more the mas
ter of his side OF the case than Baer is of
his. That is to say, Mitchell reigns over the
miners through sheer personal force and
the influence of individual character, as well
as by reason of his title of president of the
United Mine Workers of America. Baer
dominates, in the public mind the coal min
ing and carrying situation on his side be-
cause of the fact that his two roads, the
Reading and the Jersey Central, are the
heaviest combination. Yet in the councils
of the coal roads presidents, held once
week in New York city, it is not President
Baer whose word carries invariably. For
behind this group of presidents loom large
the men of more numerous millions, the
j. Pierpont Morgan, the
Goulds, the Astors, James J. HILL Edward
Hartman, with occasionally glimpse of
the Rockefeller family and their associates
in business. Corporation organization do
not count for everything, and the policies
of the railroad and mining companies are
dictated as rule by men whose names do
not appear on the list of officers or direc-
tors. Hence the difference between Baer
who may be merely carrying out the orders
of a higher authority. and Mitchell, who is
unquestionably subject to none other and
whose courses, If modified at ALL are bent
by the advice of his followers and subordi-
ma ties.
President Roosevelt's Influence
And just here must be stated a fact-if
ii is indeed fact-which is likely to have
the greatest possible influence upon the
strike situation and which modifies the pre-
ceding statement to some extent
1t is matter of common statement in the
hard-coal regions that John Mitchell Stands
oil tn ic no