The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1919-12-11
TAMBLYN BROS. Publishers.


The coal miners have real grieV-
ances, we believe, but the cure is not
freezing the people and stopping in
dustry. That is pure ~selflshness.
Miners have returned to work in a
small Missouri mine because "as Am
orleans they could not see their neigh
bors suffer" In a sub-district OF West
Virginia the miners resolved to re-
turn to work under the fourteen per
cent increase of wages until a salts
factory adjustment can be made"
Here are instances of recognition OF
duty to the public. These men will
resume work and trust the American
PEE pie to see that they get justice.
And the American people will sec
that the coal miners got justice. That
requires careful examination Of all
the facts by an impartial commission.
But meanwhile there is dire need of
coal.
Fuel Administrator Garfield has
made calculations based IN official
statistics of the cost of living and the
relation that existed between wages
and living before prices went up. He
finds that fourteen per cent increase
in wages will give the miners rela-
lively as much as they earned under
y tho nd ann1itfnng And hn nalanIafnC
that the operators ear pay this out of
their profits without raising prices to
the public.
Whether DR.. Garfield is approx
mately right cannot be determined &C.
curately without a careful investiga-
ltion, But it seems clear that the duty
OF the miners is to accept this increase
tentatively, and to order their leaders
To consent to the appointment Of an
Impartial commission to Investigate
and make just award. This was the
way Roosevelt settled the anthracite
strike in 1902, and it is history that
1 substantial justice was done.
The truth is the miners are burden
ed with a bad leadership leadership
that cares nothing for responsibility
to the men or to the public, but drives
straight ahead to attain its brutal pur-
! poses. Indeed, there is the best OF
, reason to believe that bolshevism, or
! is equivalent, controls and dictates
! the strike leadership.
, Union labor men everywhere should
recognize and oppose the dangerous
influence that controls the miners
leadership and threatens their own
hest interests. They should insist on
purging all their organizations of
everything that is not American,
everything that aims at destructive
results, everything that is really revo-
%lutionary. howsoever cloaked.
The public must have coal. The
miners must have a proper wage and
just working conditions. The opera
tors must have a fair proft-and no
mere. How are these things TO be at
tanned? Obviously not by throwing
thousands of union men out Of work
for lack of coal to run the plants.
Since coal is a natural resource
fttnd in the earth. those who live on
the earth have a prescriptiYc right to
its enjoyment.
This right does not preclude private
ownership. but it does necessitate
public re~u'ation of ownership and
operation @ coal industry, like the
railroads. viii hest serve the public,
II %privateiv cwned and operated. but
publicly regulated. That will assure
fair wages to the miners, fair profit to
the operators and sure supply at fair
prices 10 the public.
Toward this contamination we are
gradually moving.-Minneapolis Jour
nal.