Amador ledger., 1906-04-13
Washington
Letter.
(From Our Regular Correspondent. }

Washington D. e., March 81, 1876.
For the moment at any rate, the
question of the coal strike has taken
precedence even of the rate bill dis
cussion. 1t is not that Washington is
any more directly affected than any
other city in the country, but it is
the city where a great many legis-
lators are directly Eaffected by the
threatened change in prices. There
are two classes Of congressman, one
which is affected by change in
prices and one which is not. All
congressman are not rich, strange as
it may seem to the outsider. Some
are even dead poor and live in board
ing houses, where they are not direct
ly affected by the change in the price
OF coal, but where they will have the
subject dinned into their inner con-
seriousness by the lamentations of
their landlady. Others who are not
directly affected are at the other end
of the social scale and do not parti-
cularly care whether coal is four
dollars ton or eight dollars. But
there are great number of repre-
sentatives and sprinkling of senators
who live in houses of their own, and
who are affected by change in the
price of household commodities. 1t
Is these gentlemen who more than
any others will have to do with legis-
lation, if it comes in connection with
the coal situation.
Thus Washington is good place to
look for the cry of the householder
to take definite form. Congress has
its eye on the situation in the coal
regions, and while it is not imminent
that legislation nationalizing the
fields will be passed or that there will
te any other radical move, it is quite
possible that congress will begin to
"make motions" that will bring the
senseless fight OF the operators and
the labor unions to an end. The
threat to take over the fields and
operate them as government mono
poly is probably the form that the
first agitation Will take. There is no
likelihood that this will be done. But
it is a play that will appeal to the
public, and as soon as the susp ension
order of April 1st goes into effect, 1t
is safe guess that some member will
be introducing a bill of that sort into
the House.
The president has very wisely re-
fused at this time to take any active
part in the discussion. He has been
appealed to both by the miners and
the operators to nominate commiss-
ion as he did in the case of the strike
two years ago, to inquire into the
whole question. But the president
has said that if he appoints a CON-
mission it will have to be one with
power to do things. He has had
enough of investigation and he thinks
that both he and the rest of the
country know about the whole of the
coal situation. If he appoints COM
mission, which he has no right in law
to do, it must be one to whose find
lngs the miners and the operators
pledge themselves to submit. The
commission conclusion is probably
what the row will come to. Neither
the miners nor the operators dare
again to plunge the country into the
misery and expense of a prolonged
strike. Both sides would be glad to
be helped out of their quandary by
the action of commission, which
they could blame safely for not get
ting all they had promised their
followers they would get. So that is
about the outcome that the country
may look for, submission on the
part of both employers and employees
to the DEGREES of a commission and
then the appointment of the commits
sion by the president with the know
ledge that the coal question will be
settled for perhaps two years more,
leaving coal no more than half a
dollar ton dearer than it was before
the threatened strike commenced.
Both the miners and the operators,
which is only an other name for the
coal roads, are squeezing the con-
sumers of the country to the last
ounce of fluid in their bodies, and
they probably think If the house
holders get used to eight dollar coal
in the next two years that they can
be trained next to pay for nine dollar