Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-12-02
A IL Per Cent "Insult'
From the New York World.

! The leaders of the coal miners in the con-
F., ferences at Washington have seriously blum.
/, dered. Having started out with demand OF
| 90 per cent increase in wages and having for a
/ time confidently expected to get an increase OF
at least 81 per cent, they naturally feel and ex-
press keen disappointment at the governments
IA per cent conclusion. But in their refusing
conference and arbitration on other matters at
| issue, and even on this matter of wage rates as
permanent arrangement they have simply
! put their cause beyond defense at the bar OF
| public opinion.
Mr.. Garfield dealt with only one phase of
the controversy His decision, in effect was
| that the industry can stand an increase of IA
per cent in wages without raising prices to the
consumer, and that this IA per cent will Offset
the increased cost of living to the miners.
| The fuel administrator did not attempt to
! discuss the question of hours, working condi-
tons and regularity, Of employment none OF
| which can be ignored in hnal settlement. He
was concerned only in adjusting wage demands
| to the present selling price of COAL
| Whether Mr.. Garfield is right or wrong in
| his conclusions we do not know, can any
| body know without thorough analysis Of the
| statistics on which his decision is based. 1t Is
worth while, however. as a sign of the times,
| to call attention to the contemptuous manner
| in which his report was received by the repre-
sentatNes of the miners, many OF whom treated
| the IA per cent increase in wages all insult
| and as too contemplate to be taken seriously.
! whether it is adequate or not, is substantial
| advance. and it is only in this new era of
| profteering that either labor Or capital has
| come to regard advance of "a per cent as
! infnitesimal.
| The whole crux of this controversy is
| whether the public is to be saddled with an in
| crease in wages that the industry itself cannot
! pay at the present prices of coal. 1t gets back
again to the process Of pyramiding which has
been the basis of settlement in labor disputes
g.. f.. Al, toIA L~.
ceived more, the employer has passed the in
crease along to the consumer and the consumer
has had to make the best of it. The result has
been a steady advance in prices accompanied
by all the evils of speculative market with few
elements of stability.
10 That method cannot be continued in
definitely and there are already signs that a
crisis is approaching.
The coal operators undoubtedly hogged
everything they could while the hogging~ was
good, and now the miners demand their chance
at the trough; but the time is coming when
wages will have to be adjusted with some re-
gard to production, and selling prices cannot be
| maintained indefinitely at artificial levels
through agreements between employers and
employees to divide the swag. Otherwise the
whole industrial structure will come crashing
down.
It cannot be said that either the operators or
the miners have conducted themselves in this
controversy in way to command public con-
fdence. Both Of them have played fast and
loose with the general welfare, and if the gov
eminent is getting nowhere in its attempt to
effect settlement it is because the govern
ment is dealing with men and interests who
have no honest desire to see it get anywhere.
The miners, however, through leadership
with greater capacity for laundering, have now
put themselves clearly in the wrong and on
the defensive. In contemptuously kicking over
\ merely tentative arrangement they con-
temptuously deal with the public interest and
consider public ha opinion The strike accord
fighting chosen by the miners. They can cause
greater inconvenience and suffering to the coun-
try than could the steel strikers. Nevertheless
the steel strikers lost in defying public opinion
and by the same token the soft coal miners
will lose.