Evening star., 1926-02-15

It's likely to be some time before
posterity will know just who did set
tie the coal strike. The operators
and the mine workers themselves
who ought to know-agreed that 1t
was Richard F. Grant of Cleveland Id.
former president of the United States
Chamber of Commerce, and now chief
of the Hanna steel, iron and coal in
terests on the Great Lakes. Their
political partisanS in Pennsylvania
are enthusiastically contending that
it was James J. Davis, Secretary of
Labor. and William C. Sproul, former
Governor Of Pennsylvania State, who
killed cock robin. Still other ZealotS
hand the laurel crown to Gov. Gift
ford Pinchot. Despite his determine
ton to fade out of the picture. there
are those who insist that Calvin Cool
idge, in the quiet. invisible and un.
pretentiouS way that is all his own,
was the giant force that finally
brought peace.
Beyond all question, the anthracite
tragedy came to be political play
1t is something more than CO.
incidence, for example, that Phila-
delphia newspapers which are BOOM
ing Secretary Jim Davis for the
next governorship of Pennsylvania are
hanging medals all over his manly
bosom as the real breaker of the
strike. He is named, along with
former Gov. Sproul, as the pre-
dominant factor in the underground
negotiations that led to final results.
Sproul was Coolidge's guest on the
Mayflower on January 10. Since re-
tiring from the Statehouse at Harris
| burg three years ago, the Chester
Quaker has not figured conspicuously
in Pennsylvania politics. But he now
is credited with the ambition to be
the next Republican national COM
mitteeman from Pennsylvania, with
all the power and political emolu-
ments that go with 1t. On a certain
hot day at Chicago in June, 1920. when
the Republican presidential nomina'
tion hung in the balance, Bill" Sproul,
for whom Pennsylvania big delega,
ton had voted successfully for seven
or eight ballots, loomed as the most
formidable compromise figure on the
horizon. Then the Keystone bosses
spoke. Pennsylvania S votes went to
Harding, the 'break'' for the Ohio
Senator set in, and all was over.
X X X X
Richard F. Grant, who seems to
have the premier title to anthracite
peacemaking honors, comes out of the
Northwest He is a native son OF
the little town of Owatonna, Mimi,
whence he went to the Sheffield Sc1en.
tific School at Yale. Later he took
law course in New York City. After
graduation he hung out his shlngle
in Duluth, became member or the
| Minnesota State Legislature, and
eventually counsel for the Hanna
shipping and ore interests bordering
Lake Superior. When that business
was reorganized Grant was trans
ferred to Cleveland and became Its
| executive vice president. When he
! was inaugurated as president OF the
| United States Chamber of Commerce
| in 1924 Grant discussed fnterdepend'
ence in business and the Importance
| OF mutual understanding in terms not
| without interest at this time. "Bust'
| ness" he said, "is no longer thing
| which hovers between our front and
| back doors. We have grown to larger
| estate. To raise your level. you must
build up the whole fabric. When any
| thing constructive is hanpered OF
pulled down, the whole general leve
| goes down."
| Two members of the Coolidge cab
| inet-Herbert Hoover and William NJ
Jardine-who tried to glorify Abra
ham Lincoln by radio on the night OF
| February IL were badly worsted by
| the United States Weather Bureau
The Secretary Of Agriculture was +
Fthe midst Of his panegyric when N