The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-07-19
The Presidents Proposal

singular lack OF courage and with but
dim perception of the consequences of
its course, the administration at
Washington has hopelessiy befuddled
the coal problem. Firm and defiant
at Marion on July a, the President re-
turns tenign and benevolent to Wash
ington and on July 10 AYERS that pub
lie interest requires that the coal op-
orators grant the demands of the
United Mine Workers. There has been
no parallel to this since the passage
of the Adamson law six years ago.
The situation with respect to sup
ply of coal demands action, not delay
The solution offered by the President
is no solution at all. 1t. can and will
only postpone the day of peaceful re-
sumption of coal mining. In a panic
over the coming shortage of coal, the
principles at stake are to be compro-
missed. The operators are asked to
surrender to the campaign Of intim-
dation, terrorism and massacre that
has characterized the unions conduct
in this strike.
Must this country have coal at such
a price?
The fundamental issue In this strike
is and has been the reduction of union
coal-mine labor's wage in conformity
with the same principles that prompt
ed it's war and postwar time initiation.
To prevent such reduction the Unit
ed Mine Workers have welded the big
stick of nationwide strike-they
have exerted the full economic pres
sure of their organization. Hands
drippen red from Herrin, is the union
invited to Washington and told that
coal production is going to be resumed
at whatever mine and by whatever
miners choose to work? No. On the
contrary, in the most polite, hospita-
BILE manner they are invited to go to
work at the wage scale that they are
striking to maintain.
knowledge and courage command
respect. Who, even among the United
Mine Workers present on that event.
full Thanksgiving eve of 1919 at the
Red Cross Building in Washington,
but admired the grit, determination
and command of himself and his sub
;ect exhibited by DR.. Garfield when he
told the miners they could have a ID
per cent increase and not the 60 per
cent they demanded nor the 81 per
cent offered by the secretary of labor!
The present emergency calls for an
ether exhibition of indomItable will
and clarity of purpose. Apparently
the operators must this time supply
the stamina and take the punishment
that attends opposition to the United
Mine Workers. They have the brains,
they have the perception of the issues
to carry through if they but maintain
their unity.
1t is wholly idle to speculate on
what might have been. 1t IS sufficient
to note that week previous the coal
operators offered plan to which they
were fully empowered to commit the
bituminous-co industry-a plan en-
bracing essentially every point for
which the administration had taken a
stand. The plan offered the miners as
a substitute for the Central Competi-
tive Field a new .ror ping of districts.
1t provided arbitrati; II boards to set
tie appeals arising from tangles in
the conferences Of Elective bargain
ers. This plan was lacking only in not
providing basis for Immediate re-
sumption of work. Precedent for de-
termination by an administrative off,
Ger of the government of a proper and
suitable wage scale in such an emer-
gency was set by DR.. Garfield in 1919.
If the administration had a spark of
conviction on the economic necessity
of liquidation of postwar peak wages
it could have accepted the operators
concessions coupled with an ultimatum
to the union on wages. The data es-
sential for such determination are
asaccessible now as in 1919.
For the operators to agree to Pres
ident Harding's proposal would be
not only to surrender on the points
for which they have taken a stand but
to abandon the country to the rapacity
of strengthened, domineering labor
monopoly. The country has patiently
subjected itself to more than three
months strike in the coal fields as a
necessary travail in the economic ad-
justment of this basic industry. The
public most assuredly will not approve
official recognition and unnecessary
even though temporary perpetuation
of an uneconomic wage scale under
conditions that will rapidly elevate
the cost of all coal to previous peak
levels.
The administration has offered the
country solution of the coal strike
that is not even peace without vic
tory, for so ill-considered are it's
terms that even though operators and
miners be forced into acceptance, coal
production can proceed under nothing
less than an armed truce. To mine
coal under such plan is but to recon-
dition the contestants for further