The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-17

When contracts we're executed they were for the most part faithfully obeyed. This loyalty to contract was made evident at the time of the an- thracite coal strike. Then the leader of the anthracite unions pleaded with the bituminous coal miners unions for sympathetic aid. That sympathy was to take the form of a strike and the anthracite leaders were convinced that if they were fortified by a sympa- thetic strike of their kind their tri- umph would be complete. But the bi- luminous miners pointed to their con-. tracts saying that they could not v1o- late those contracts and for that req son could not give the anthracite min- CTS the active support for which they asked.
 WHEN TT WAS THE OTHER WAY
 Curlously enough this attitude of the bltuminouS miners was reserved soon after the strike which has just been ended began. The bituminous miners sought the sympathetic aid of the un- ions Of the anthracite miners But they were told that sincere as was the sym patny of the anthracite miners with those who worked in the bituminous ileids. nevertheless loyalty to their contracts would stand in the way of sYing aid in the form of a strike. ine surmise IS strong that in due time
 
 was organized some twenty years ago Will be established It will be made in oL the representatives of the miners. the operators, the railroad companies which are occupied with moving bitumous coal and possibly by the addition of re- presentatlves of the public. In that way thefe ray be guarantee reasonable or presumptive at least, that hereafter if there should arise differences. these may De discussed hy mise if necessary be reached and the friction turmoil and distress which would be occasioned by new strike of the bltumlnous coal miners be avoided VT course Tn an arrangement of this Kind the new idea of limited partner ship Of which so much is recently heard whereby the employed would have no ! fiace. Netheless the belief seems to De spreading that as one of the results of the strikes of this year there will come ey and by some sort of an arrangement or agreement whereby the employed will ne permitted to participate in reason able measure in the management of the corporation becoming in that sense partners.
 IT WAS ABRAM s. HEWITT'S IDEA when the anthracite coal strike early in the second administration of Presi- dent Roosevelt was as seriously imperilI- ing industry and bring great discomfort to private citizens as the recent strike Of the bituminous coal miners has done, Abram s. Hewitt at one time mayor of New York, for many years member or congree and one of the ablest men of his day and generation, said that the time was not far distant when the men who receive wages would also become stockholders in the corporations from which the wages came. After they had accumulated considerable stock: not receiving it as gratuity but secured | by them by payment out of their earn ings. they would have the right of representation upon the boards of direc- tors and in that way would become not merely employed men but in Iart em- ployers. In MT Hewitts opinion when a comsummation of this kind is reach ed almost all the friction between em- ployers and employed would be ended and there would also come ais era of the greatest possible efficiency Nnd pro- ductive outout which of itself would tend to increase the earnings of the ccr- roration and therefor the gains which would be made by the employees