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"Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap; Each in his narrow cell, forever laid,

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep."

APPENDIX.

THE GREAT COAL STRIKE OF 1870-71.

THE preceding chapters of this volume were placed in the hands of the publisher in the early part of the great strike of the miners in the anthracite coal-fields of Pennsylvania. It was not then anticipated that this strike would reach its present magnitude, and it was therefore briefly mentioned.

As this strike is one of those matters intimately connected with the subjects treated of in this book, it becomes very proper that it should be particularly noticed. It has proved to be one of the most serious revolutions recorded in mining history. The effects produced by it have reached most of the branches of trade and industry throughout the country. Its continuance has been nearly six months. Individual suffering and want among the mining population have become a matter of serious consideration. A great branch of the trade of the country has not only been

interrupted, but scenes of commotion and bloodshed have occurred. The military power of the State has been invoked, and the city of Scranton is to-day a military camp.

The circumstances of this strike therefore present a case worthy of investigation, and one in which the facts should be thoroughly understood. The public ought to know who are the parties responsible for so serious a difficulty, and on whom to attach the blame. Somebody is at fault. The men of the mines allege that they are not; and the transporting companies, at least those companies who are the owners or lessees of mines, and in this way conduct the coal business, assert broadly that the serious troubles resulting from the strike are attributable solely to the miners. Deranged trade, suffering, and bloodshed certainly would not have occurred had there been no strike; therefore the great question is, Who was at fault in causing the strike?

After the calamities of an international war the first object of the arbiters of a treaty is to ascertain which of the belligerents was in the wrong. That party which, upon investigation, proves to have been the aggressor is the one to be made accountable. And so the community at large, which, as in the case before us, has sustained injury, should understand the true nature and character of the case. There may possibly be no

remedy, but still the public should so far understand the circumstances that they may be enabled to know where the censure should be placed.

It is my purpose, therefore, to submit the facts, as I have learned them from a careful examination of the subject. From these the reader will draw his own inferences; and will at the same time obtain some knowledge upon one of the great branches of national industry, which, if not of personal advantage, may at least be a subject of personal interest.

This strike, in its magnitude, its producing cause, and attending evils, is unlike the strikes which have heretofore occurred in the coal region. Strikes have heretofore occurred in the coal region because the persons engaged in the mines alleged that they were not, in their own judgment, paid a fair equivalent for their labor. This is not the fact in the present instance, for the miners did not demand more wages, but objected to their wages being reduced. They first suspended work nearly six months ago, and, comprising nearly a third of all the miners and laborers engaged in the production of anthracite coal, they struck because the large railroad and mining corporations of the Northern field reduced the wages of the miners thirty-three per cent. The effect of this terrible blow, as might have been and was anticipated, resulted in the great trouble which commenced on the first of December,

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