Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1922-07-06
AN OPPORTUNITY USED

In the manner in which the Hard
ing administration has handled the
problems arising from the nation
wide suspension of work by union
coal miners there has been the revel-
alton to the country of band of
craftsmanship of unusual kind. A
very delicate and very serious situa-
ton has been met by measures of
sort which while not spectacular,
were of a sort to bring results. The
opportunity given an administration
by any great domestic problem has
been used to the best advantage.
There was the temptation, as in all
such conditions, to attempt snowy
and vote-catching schemes and to
! play to the grandstand, as our Ameri-'
can language has it. Time after
time the people of the country have
! had to suffer for the pranks of such
sham craftsmanship. But, in this
instance, the interests of the country
have been handled so quietly and so
unobtrusively that grave crisis has
been reached and gone through with
out panic and without play-acting,
and everyone is better off as a result.
1t was evident from the start that
there was no likelihood of averting
strike. Natural conditions forced
] it; wages in the coal-mining industry
were too high, and yet the men who
drew the wages could be expected to
give them up without some struggle.
| 1t is difficult to take an unselfish
view when ones own pocketbook is
| involved.
Confronted with these facts, the
administration first offered the OPP
portunity to the employers and un-
ion miners to meet, and then, seeing
that they could not find basis for
meeting, desisted from vain attempts
to stage a make believe conference,
such as might hav been forcd or con
| trived, which would have had no
good result. No conference could
have produced an agreement and, a.
side from the vast amount of discuss
ion which has been engendered by
the failure to hold the particular one
which the union leaders demanded,
there has been no real loss from that
| failure.
With the strike an assured fact,
the administration has sagely kept
to the task of presenting the real
facts to the public with regard to
coal supply and hus absorbing any
attempts to create panic and there
by stampede any party to the con-
troversy nto hasty action. Through
the medium of Secretary Hoover's
/ price-fixing conference reasonable
price for coal at the mines was ar
ranged in a time of possible short
supply.
Restraint is the most difficult of the
arts of craftsmanship, but it has
been exercised in his crisis in way
that deserves praise With the gov
eminent even watchful and impart-
| ial, the coal strike has gone on with
such a minimum of disturbance as is
to be marvelled at. Now it may be
said to be drawing to close which
] will find some agreement based on
/ the facts of world trade and which
will find some agreement based on
the facts Of world trade and which
will be more acceptable because it
! will be a voluntary bargain.
Those play-actors in congress who
4 put on a mimic war-dance over the
matter in the early stages Of the
strike are well on the way to be for
gotten. That is also well.
An administration which has done
So well in the coal strike may be
trusted to carry the country through
a transportation strike, so often
threatened, if it is necessary to have
a harmful and senseless demonstrate
/ ion in order to convince the transpor-
tation workers that the war is really
over and that wartime methods and
wartime wages cannot exist and all
low at the same time Of prosperity
for the country.