The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1912-05-16

{ & 1 arbitration, and the demands
a / of the locomotive firemen are
adjusted without tying up the rail
road service of the East, then year
which began with many editorial
forebodings of bitter labor-Wars may
be remembered instead as year OF
industrial peace -sfaking. That the
submission of the railroad engineers
demands to a board Of arbitration
$50 ould have occurred in year for
which the organ of England's Syn
dicalists predicted the biggest and
fercest industrial battles ever
fought, does not lessen the feeling
Of qualification on the part of the
New York Evening Post and many
otter papers. The decision of the
Luminous conferees to settle differ
e2ces without striking, thinks the
Indianapolis News, furnishes an
ether proof that employer and en-
Tloyee can get along amicably when
there is just consideration on both
sides, consideration not only for the
contending parties, but for that I'M
lortant third party-the consumer.
The suspension Of coa1-mining
scems to the Coal Trade Journal mo
more than cleanup time for the
operators and a vacation for the
miners, while the amicable manner
i'll which the conferees met together
showed a commendable state of feel
ing between the parties in interest.
And this trade organ goes on to as
sert that the old-time knock-doWn
and drag-out strike is thing Of the
past in the hard-coal fields" In fact,
though the press welcome the agree
ment most heartily, and praise the
GOOD feeling and courtesy displayed
at the conferences, it seems to the
Boston Advertiser, as to many
others, that there may be rather
too much good humor on both
Sides" The public thinks the Bos-
ton paper, is getting suspicious Of
these battles in which, Gin spite Of
the tumult and the shouting, all the
participants turn up in good cOndi-
ton for the next number" while the
consumer finds the price of coal
raised, out of all proportion to the
wage advances made to the men,
The New York Journal of Com
merce, too, after explaining that the
10 per cent. wage increase with the
abolition of the sliding scale is an
actual increase Of only per cent,
goes on to say:
may as we'll be warned that if the in
crease of per cent in miners
wages is made an excuse for an ad
vance in the price of coal, it will be
received with general indignation,
which will awaken q new agitation
for diVesting this unlawful cOmbina-
ton of it's power over one Of the
chief necessities Of industry and do
nestle life. It is we'll known that
certain railroad corporations have
acquired absolute control over the
supply of anthracite through mining
companies whose stock they own or
have distributed among their own
shareholders and it has been dem
onstrated that they derive a very
large profit from the coal traffic thus
monopolzed The increase in
miners wages should come out Of
these profits and not be made an ex-
cuse for adding to them. Such
policy seems foolhardy, and can have
but one effect, that Of stimulating
the demand for Government owner
ship"
The railroad situation seemed
even more serious than that in the
coal fields, and prospects for peace
until the eleventh-hour acceptance OF
the mediation of Judge Martin A.
Knapp, Of the United States Com
MERGE Court, and Labor Commits
SiOner Charles P Neill