The Winslow mail., 1922-08-04

are not related to the strike at all.
These latter come out under cover
OF the strike season and spread their
poison. And each year they find
their prospects better The Admin
istratlon has been SO busy with
Russia that it has had little time
to give to America. Who is it, any
way, that is so interested in keep
ing our national eyes overseas when
they should be scutinizing affairs
at home?
As to the coal situation, the con-
ditions of coal mining are and al
ways have been disgrace to a CIV
ilized people. We have enjoyed our
coal at too great a cost of flesh and
blood. We have permitted our pub
lie press to degrade the name of
miner until it means little less than
outlaw. We have forgotten that the
best OF the British stock comprise
the bulk of our mining forces-Irish
Welsh and Scotch men whose
minds are fit soil for the seeds of
liberty and Christian justieek We
have thought, because they belong
to one of the most ancient trades
in the world, the trade of mining,
that anything was good enough for
them and that they must somehow
be themselves to blame or they
would not have SO many sufferings.
And that is about the total extent
ct the public's contribution of
thought to the mining problem.
The mine owners want a strike
because it will reduce stocks, make
| nd
is colossal irony in the fact that the
country faces a coal famine because
there is too much coal There is
, so much coal produced and so many
mines running that, in spite of the
high daily wages paid to miners
the days work are so few that in
West Virginia last year miners earn
ed $500 and in Illinois S1,OOO-the
lowest and highest figures for a
years income. And in earning that
pittance, $500 were killed and 10000
injured!
The miners produce coal at the
highest cost OF S2.91 a ton, often
at much lower cost. And that
coal sells for $11 to $14 When the
Federal Trade Commission tried to
discover where the So and the S11
difference went, an Injunction stop
ped them. The President knows all
rhls--it ic before him in reports
And yet the owners of the mines
do not get all this excessive profit.
The owners and miners produce
7OO,000,000 tons of coal annually in
a country needing only 5O0,0OO,0O
tons. Fully 40 per cent of the coal
mines are not needed. But they are
all working. And the anxiety of
mine owners to sell their coal is as
great as the anxiety of consumers
to get their winters supply What
is the explanation of this strange
state of affairs? The Man Between
the Broker the Coal Speculator-he
is the explanation 1t is the old
story which the public know very
well by this time: the breed Of those
who wedge themselves between the
producer and the consumer, to make
them both enemies, start them both
lighting, and reap shameful profits
frcm the struggle. That is the heart
OF the coal strike. And the Presi-
dent knows this, too!
There is philosophic view of all
this chaos which is difficult to take
| tress of the country and the colos-
sal stupidity which causes it: vet
the true American, retiring from
the heat and anxiety of the present
tumble of things, must reflect that
perhaps all these things must come
and must grow increasingly worse
until the blindness of our people be
broken through and until they see
10 f1n h0Iy x,.o
Tins of universal law, but the sport
of greedy men. These thoughts have
been hushed of recent years because
some have denounced them as bear
ing kinship to the reds" Let all
those who thAlk to shelter greed
behind the plea of loyalty, let all
those who would cloak commercial
sin in patriotic pleas, learn this,
and learn it we'll when the over
turn comes which shall straighten
up our country, and drive forth from
it's bounds all things that corrupt
and strangle it, it will not come
from the reds. The reds never yet
destroyed an evil, they havA only
increased the tale of evil. But when
the overturning comes it will be due
to the awakening of a Christian con-
science in our people, a Christian
conscience and nothing else, con-
science that will refuse to be the
beneficiary of blood and tears wrung
out of any race of men. That con-
science has awakened before with
swift and final judgment upon en-
| trenched wrongs and bitterness; it
will come again. Today it is the
main hope of the NATURALIZATION