Year: 1871

Repair Of tools per day. Observation-Disclosures rs


This deducted from 81 Sc leaves 81 65 as
the per diem pay of the miner for his ex-
posure to the damps, gasses and fonl air of
the mines; and besides this, the chances of
losing his life or being mutilated and
manned. 1t may be said that it is liberal
wages. In heavens name, ought not the
risk and exposure he daily encounters enti-
tie him t. liberal wages!


But where does he stand under the pro-
posed reduction! six cars a day at eighty six
cents will yield him S. l6; deduct from this
incidentals, So 81, and he has left 81 95.
And is this the compensation which incor-
porated capital would pay its hireling! Let
the miner reduce the pay of his labOrer to
81 so, and he will have left the sum of So As
per day, rate of wages which could sus-
tain life, it is true, but by no means com
mensurate with the hazardous nature of an
employment, which sometimes sweeps hun
dreds at dash to premature graves.
Any man who is unprejudiced will say
that the employees of the three Incorporated
companies were entirely justifable in sus-
pending labor on the first of December,
upon the reduction of their wages thirty
three per cent.
1t must be borne in mind that those en-
gagged in the strike did not ask for higher
wages.


RESUMPTION OF LABOR.
The men who suspended work upon the
tenth OF January, through sympathy with
their fellow workmen iu the employment of
the three incorporated companies, after a
| period of more than four months, resumed
! their occupation upon the payment of the
same wages that they were receiving at
| that time. So two-thirds of the difficulty is
| removed.


The remaining third, or those who sus-
pended on the first of December, are still
| out of employment. So far there has in
their case, been failure to come to an
agreement with their employers. They
have made reasonable propositions of arbi-
| tratiOn, but their propositions, which were


based upon reduction of their wages to a
very great extent, have been rejected.
1t is true that the companies made prop
Osition that if the men would resume work
at the price of eighty-six cents the 'Dia
| mond Car" that Oh the first of June they


would submit to arbitration. But the alb


surd condition coupled with this offer of
| arbitration on their part made it impos-
| sible for the men to accept. This strange
| proposition was that the umpire should not


add over three cents a ton to the reduced
| price of mining. Such a proposition can
not be dignitied by the name of arbitration.


We understand by arbitration that the tri-
|
matter of dispute submitted.


1t would be farce in the administration


of justice if the judge were to instruct the
| jury that they had full and entire control


as TO finding the facts of a case, but they


must accept the opinion of the court as to
such facts. This is precisely the case in


point under the companies recent PROPOSE
| ton of arbitration.


They say to them, "we will arbitrate our
differences if you will forthwith resume
work upon our terms upon the first of June;


but such arbitration shall not be obligatory
| II the award imposes an increase of wages of
| more than three cents per ton." Such pre-
tences can not meet the appreciation of the
| public even, much less the miners.
MR. wRIGHT's CONCLUDING REMARKS.
Your men did not suspend labor because
| they were not paid properly, but because,
without notice or warning, you abated one
third of their accustomed wages. You can
not therefore say, with honesty and sim
cerity, that they were in the wrong.


They are still out of employment, and
the measured tread of the armed sentinel
! resounds through the thin easements of
their humble dwellings. Such an argument
may answer the purpose, but it has been
one heretofore unusual in this government.
Thirtythree per cent off from wages has
made a revolution in the coal trade, and
among the coal men OF the country; and so
did tax upon tea make a revolution,
though upon a larger scale, and probably
before the troubles end the great public
voice will have something to say upon the
subject Yes, public opinion may yet be-
come an umpire whose decision will be final
and conclusive.


Since this was written the remaining
third of the striking miners, compelled by
L
Not only that, but at Pittsron, Pennsylvania,
they were so anxious to begin work, that
they crowded into mine to the number of
thirty-eight, while the law said plainly that
twenty should be the full complement for a
one-shaft mine. The result is, thirty dead
miners, which, added to the death harvest
at Avondale, proves conclusively Mr..
Wrights theory about the danger of mine
labor. LANDON.