The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-04-14
OPPRESSION" Is INDUSTRIAL KEYNOTE,
SAYS LEADER OF MINERS, JOHN P. WHITE

Al 4 Gdfei around i ma ptoPiS cd8cr
for change not OF government, but OF
business. As business becomes more ana
more conferred IN a few hands and prices
50 soaring upward. the people feel that
| something Is wrong. Everybody Is rest
less, and large part OF the population
Is running around like mad Go to New
] York and sit for half an hour In bis
hotel and watch men ripping up one cor
ridor and tearing through another.
Whittier are they boundg Nowhere They
| are just walking. merely pretending that
they have deal on In room upstairs
And their tramping to and fro Is iilustra-
tive OF the temper Of the whole land
Those OF us who are too busy earning a
-iiving to gallop around like crazy men
are doing a lot Of thinking.
How Better Tfmes May Come.
aThe worker, and possibly the walk
err understands that the butter he eats,
together with his eggs. potatoes. and
fruit, aceumulates half dozen profits
from the producers 10 his own table.
And every man handling an article OF
food wants to live in fine house. ride
in an automobile and go South in the
winter and to the mountains or sea-
shore in the summer. To me. change
| seems impending. It can be stopped by
wise, magnanimous men. by men who
are willing to take their minds on
themselves and acknowledge that
prosperity IL not q matter for classes.
but must include the whole nation.
The people are ready for experiments.
Some Of the experiments may be revo-
| lutionary. experimentation. however,
should be undertaken carefully. We
can go too far. to the wreck Of our
ideas and ourselves"
How many coal miners are there in
the United States?''
About 10000. Half Of them are
known as nonunion men. They SYM
pathize with us. however. and most of
them are willing to quit work when
we call. There are fields In Pennsyl-
vania, Southern Colorado and Utah
where the miners are not organized.
Nor have we been permitted TO union
lie West Virginia and certain States
OF the South. II we send men into
those regions they are promptly and
thoroughly slugged. One of our agents
in West Virginia was beaten up horri-
bly,. Both his legs were broken and he
was pitched onto a railway track dur
ing the night In the hope that people
would believe he had been run over by
a freight train. He recovered con-
sciousness. and, through the interven-
ton OF Divine Providence. rolled on the
track. lit a piece OF paper that he had
in his pocket. and was found by the
crew of a switch engine. He was per-
manently disabled and we are paying
him a pension for the support of his
family. Professional sluggers watch
all the trains in nonunion coal fields.
and II an organizer appears he is as
saulted and driven away. We hear
about the violence of strikers. but
nothing about the violence OF capital
lists"
Mining Villages without Laws.
TN what ways has the life of the
miner been changed since you were a
boyg"
There is less powder smoke than
formerly. 1t was extremely Injurious
to health. Miners place the charges
in the coal, as has always been Gus
tomary, but the firing Is done after
they are above ground. Conditions
have been improved in other respects.
but they are bad enough even yet
Thirty thousand coal miners lost their
lives while at work during the past
ten years. There Is human blood on
every ton Of coal that Is mined. From
1889 TO 1910. both years included. 6,553
anthracite miners were killed and H.
931 were injured. The families Of the |
men who die in the mines never receive |
y
is brought, and then many a Judge |
helps the operator. Consequently there |
are Americans who doubt the integrity |
Of some OF our courts. Men who are |
injured get nothing except what is |
given them by their union. In the old |
days the miner had to look out for |
himself and he endured all kinds OF |
oppression--that's the word use, and |
Il is applicable to-day in various coal |
AL 0N MAJ ~t sa.I
at the beam by the company's weigher.
In fields that are not organized he is
cheated now, being required to bring
out $500 pounds of coal and call Il a
ton. We are paid by the tom Is a
expression, but dig 1t by the
acre
IT am trying to bring our people
around TO the idea OF hiring an able and
lawyer in -eachs mining dis
trict to represent US in all accidents and
on every other. occasion requiring legal
advice or court action. The operators
employ attorneys TO counsel them IN
matters Of business. We should meet
lawyer with lawyer. Then when rotten
timbers break and men are killed their
families would not be left destitute.
Miners houses are gradually getting
Anything was good enough for a coal
digger. But the old tax-dodging prac-
tees of the operators still work hard
ships on the miner and his family. VII
lagos spring up around coal mines, but
frequently they are never Incorporated.
A village with a government has schools,
sidewalks. street lights, and police and
FIRE protection. These evidences Of CIV
Ilization cost money. A village without a
government Is simply a cluster OF houses
In the country. Such a village costs
practically nothing. The mine owners
also own the villages and they are usually
opposed to Incorporating them. AS result,
the children OF the miners are often de-
MED school privileges. The quality Of
their future citizenship is never con-
sidered by the operators, who are busy
thinking Of themselves and have no re-
gard for their country.
Illicit saloons creep into mining set
Elements where there IL no local gov
eminent And yet for most part such
are orderly and decent
know OF an unorganized settlement In
Iowa. inhabited by 1000 men,, women,
and children. They live with less fric-
ton and with less sin than would
village Of bankers, manufacturers. or
lawyers. Nevertheless permanent mining
settlements should be erected into gov
and taxes collected from op-
orators and workingmen to maintain
schools and other instrumentalities OF
H. H.