Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-09-05
PEPPER AND THE COAL MEN:
SOMETHING NEW IN POLITICS
Forsearanee. Sense Of impartial Jus.
tce and viii to Understand as
Substitutes for the Big Stick


Substitutes for the Big Stick
THERE is in some men n quality which.
for the want Of a more definite term.
might he called courtesy of mind. 1t reflects
Itself in patience and tolerance, in an
illuminating sense OF humor. in a fixed
regard for all just principles and in a kind
Of intellectual assurance which. re. e.enforced
bT clear perception Of changing rights and
wrongs. ,aH and does safely give all sorts
ot s"u"roU@ advantages 10 an adversary less
Fortunately equipped.
You have tina, gift or you haven't It
is not n Charactcristi" OF any particular
kind or class Of people. 1t doesn't come
from any particular sort Of education other
than the education of experience applied to
sensitive mind. Because tolerance and
the wisdom of humor and patience are
seldom encountered in the battlefield of
contemporary politics, it is worth observing
that 1t was courtesy of mind, rather than
any Of the more theatrical devices Of current
economic philosophy. that enabled Senator
Pepper TO bring temporary order out OF the
confusion in the anthracite field.
Already it IS being said that "pcrpcr's
victory is reminiscent OF Roosevelt and
his achievements in a somewhat similar
emergency. 1t is. in fact, too early 10 say
whether the adjustment effected at the coal
conferences here may be called n victory
for anybody. Certainly public confronted
with climbing coal prices and the threat of
a winter shortage due to diminished sup
plies and crippled systems of transport
cannot feel that it is victorious
One thing. however. Mr.. Pepper did by
methods wholly unlike the method of Roosc
welt. II" opened the way to an immediate
resumption Of anthracite mining. He had
no big stick and none of the power or the
facilities OF the Federal Government to
help him. Unlike Senator Reed. Senator
Pepper does not appear TO have been even
slightly biased in favor of the corporations.
lie was not 80 foolish or uncharitable as
to suppose that wOrkmpn in the coal fields
wUuld bring the miSeries of eviction and
hunger and general destitution upon them
selves and their families without what they
believed to be very good reasons. And.
unlike some Of those avowed friends Of
labor who are in reality labor's enemies lie
didn't believe that n majority of the men
who have invested their money and their
working years in the mining industry are
incurab!y selfish and inhumanely cruel.
When Mr.. Pepper began with the simple
assumption that the miner and his EN-
plOycr hay" ut bottom the same sort OF con-
science and the sane capacity for feeling
and the same basic concerns be could not
fail.
The time came when Warriner and Lewis
alike went TO him with their troubles. not
because one United States Senator could
show them a way Of escape from a wilder
ness of industrial confusion never yet
rhQrted or explored, but because at heart
NIL the opuo>ing LEADERS, of the EMPLOYING
and union groups are sick Of the passion and
unrcnson and violence and futility of those
half. taught and dangerous amateurs who
stlll believe that YOU can really subdue the
minds of men by the use of clubs and In.
functions and threats of Jail.
II may be that politics In Washington
and, indeed all political thinking as 1t is
done by the few "ho engage in that least
fashionable of pastimes are keyed too high,
The Senate has way of seeming to shrek
sov Washington Is now In a fever. 1t is
ohvtor.v ond shumelessly excited.
yat noonle who are sure of themselves
,oyor cet cxcited. They know that truth Is
,,ui,o a. miyhtv as the legend saws II is and
,ho, II viii prevall whether statesmen want
+, to or not and that right does invariably
oye,r, itself without asking for the aid or
,,oreor, of norIiamrnts. And tbev know
,h,t ,bora ore some great issues which con
ho ho,,or disnosed Of through an oppeol to
,Lo ro,urol human sense of decencv tbon
BY appeals to law, and that the rule of
common cour,esv, as it is established he.