United labor bulletin., 1912-04-11
DENVER. coLoRADo. APRIL II.
COMMENT ON TIMELY TOPICS

The article in The Bulletin was printed in oppos-
ition to resolution introduced in the Trades
bly, asserting that coal could not be sold in Denver
at 49, at profit In another column of this issue
will be found bill which to be initiated by the
Trades and Labor assembly, the Farmers union
and the Direct Legislation league, which, if passed
upon favorably by the people at the fall election,
will authorize the state land board to mine coal
state lands and deliver the to the consumer at
cost, cost the investment of the school
fund will permit. If the contention made in the
resolution had been approved, then the assembly
would have given the lie to the argument and the
wel-known fact that coal can be mined by the state
and placed in the bin of the consumer at $31 a
ton and pay union wages to the miners beside the
interest on the money invested and the royalty
the coal. The Bulletin merely used the 1895 coal
illustration to show that the Review must be
in the employ of the coal trust it would not be
endeavoring to uphold coal trust prices.
If the position of the three large organizations
that initiating the proposed Legislation is not
correct and coal cannot be mined at less than trust
prices then terrible blunder has been made in
initiating the coal bill, for if coal cannot be mined
less than trust prices the mining of coal by the
state would certainly be failure; but TO illustrate
that the Review working in the interest of the
coal trust The Bulletin got the figures published in
the issue of March % from people that know and
printed them for the information of readers.
When a newspaper that claims to be the off
cial paper of the L. NJ w. of A opposes the min
ing of coal by the state it has blundered beyond
redemption. Organized labor the world is in
favor of municipal. state and federal ownership of
all public utilities and while coal mining is not
public utility in the legal yet it is great pub
lie service that will sooner later be classed a
public utility. Should the state enter the coal min
ing business-which it will after January lit will
only be matter of time until the operation of coal
mines by private corporations will be thing of the
past The state will operate all coal mines. Then
but union miners will be employed the day
of strikes, stockades gunner and bullpens will be
at an end, and the people themselves-of which the
working people are in the majority say how
the mines should be conducted.
The state can mine all the coal that is used in
the state and it do it far less than the trust
is charging for coal When the bill is voted upon
by thepeople the.mining of coal will be in the hands
Of he state land hoard i VIII be business en-
eprise for the people, and 1t will not be necessary
To send committees to ask that union miners be
ployed. That will be President Keating's first
thought
The coal mine bill will be on the street in less
than two weeks. and the Trades and Labor assembly
expects the undivided support of the United Mine
Workers of America Notwithstanding the position
of the (coal at $3.50 "A tom Review Let everyone
help get the names for the coal bill and boost
for its adoption by the people at the fan election.