Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-12-02
MesFEITONS TALKS
CONDUCTED BY
MRSWH.FElTON



The war has been over for more
than a year. What is now done or
said by Germany means less than
nothing TO the common people of the
United States. Nevertheless the peo-
Pile of this country are paying fam
inc prices MT only for food an6 gen.
eral commodities, but they are fac
ing coal situation tat may end
in civil strife here amongst US There
is no scarcity of the COAL but the
coal miners will not dig it nor allow
others who would dig iH allowed.
Out in the far west coal is the
only accessible fuel in that prairie
section. In the large cities of the
east 1t is the only possible means of
preventing death from freezing. The
coal miners are demanding nine dol
lars for a working day of six hours.
1t is plainly evident that the u. 8.
government must take hand. Dur
ing the Civil war of the sixties, we
in the south had experience with va
r1ous shortages; sugar was among
them. In our homes we stopped buy
ing plain brown sugar when it reach
ed $12 a pound. When we handed
over $40 bill and four fifty-cent
shtnplasters to get g. measly pound
of brown sugar, we thought that
the sugar business had gone up into
the sky, and that we poor refugees
had certainly Struck bottom" But
there were no strikes.
There were no attempts at riot
ing. We were up against diff
cult proposition and we said but lit
tie about the people who made US
poor refugees pay them such
prices for sugar made in the Con-
federate states. Whatever we bought
that had run the blockade we could
pay thousand per cent, or let the
goods alone.
But thieves are totally different
now!
We have the coal and the rail-
roads to haul it, but the people who
are anxious to keep from freezing
must stand the pressure, until STATES
manship comes to the relief of the
masses. When reckoning comes in
the future, there will be a long &C.
count to settle-with mine owners
and coal diggers. This coal business
| apears to have the essential fea-
ture of "hold-ups"-and the people
are fleeced on both sides of the con-
troversy.
For nearly half a century an oper
conflict between coal owners and coal
| diggers has been menacing. Predic-
lions by the thousands have been
| made that strikes would occur-and
the military would be called out by
| the government to settle the dispute.
The neares: 1 ever came to personal
PcQuaintanc with strikes and the
| nj tary was the memorable railroad
Sfrilya
| quelled by the military in 1871 We
were ma railroad train that made
It's cautious way through the de-
stroyed district. 1t was an IN
pleasant thing to interview at close
range. The strikers were sul1en and
angry. I was in Chicago shortly aft
er President Cleveland ordered out
government troops to quell another
railroad strike in the early nineties
We all recollect the uproar that fol-
| lowed and the danger-that was
smoothed down at that time. The SOL
diers fired on the strikers.
But prevailing conditions at this
time and infinitely more serious-be-
cause the territory ovre which these
strike disturbances prevail is I'M
| mensely greater-and the numbers
| involved are proportionate,y greater
also. When a republic feels obliged
to rely upon the military 20 maintain
law and order. we ere walking upon
dyn"mtte that may soon sound the
death knoll of a republic. 1t is a
| dangerous application to resort to.
Nevertheless, human beings will not
t2mely consent to Starving TO death
with warehouses packed full Of
food commodities in such--no> will
strong men consent to see their wives
and babies freeze to deazh with plenty
of coal to be had for the digging.