THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



13 



dustries to which anthi-acitf coal is iuilis- 

 pensable are cripplcil. and unless the strike 

 is settleil very soon, the whole country will 

 be put to much loss and im-ouvenience. 



The president of the coal trust is out in 

 a statement, which bears marks of truth 

 and sincerity, in which he states that it 

 the demands of the strikers be acceded 

 to the anthracite mines cannot be oper- 

 ated with profit, that the miners are now- 

 getting as good wages as such class of 

 labor in any line of business: that if 

 wages are increased the price of anthra- 

 cite coal will have to be advanced, thus 

 driving the people to use bituminous coal 

 and causing loss of customers to the an- 

 tliracite mines, and conseQuent loss of em- 

 l>l()yment to the miners; that the stock- 

 holders of the railroads which operate the 

 mines liave received no dividends for a 

 number of years; that the books of his 

 company will sustain all his statements. 



If those things be true, and they well 

 may be. the board of arbitration would cer- 

 taiiUy uphold the mine owners and decide 

 against the strilcers, and we cannot see 

 why the owners shoidd olj.iect to submit- 

 ting to arljiti'ation. exceirt to sustain tlie 

 principle that the, capitalist has the right 

 to control his business absolutely, and 

 that to grant the principle of arbitration is 

 to surrender a valuable perogative. 



It is not our province to discuss that 

 phase of the question, but the right of labor 

 to have its differences with capital sub- 

 mitted to arbitration has come to be gen- 

 erally conceded. 



A difference recently arose lietweeu the 

 I'nion Traction Company, controlling most 

 of the surface street car lines of Chicago, 

 and its employes. The company offered to 

 sulunit its case to a board of arbitration. 

 Init the employes refused and voted to 

 strike unless their demands were acceded 

 to. But the president and executive com- 

 mittee of the National Association of Street 

 Railway Employes promptly notified the 

 Chicago imion that if they did not submit 

 to arl)itration their charters would be re- 

 voked and th.ey need expect no support 

 from the national, body. Whereupon the 

 Chicago unions reconsidered their action 

 and submitted to arbitration, with the 

 prospect that the employes will be sus- 

 tained. 



The plan of arbitrating differences be- 

 tween employers and employes has been 

 generally adopted, luit if the ooal operators 

 are strong enough to get along without it 

 that is their business. All the public asks 

 is that the mines be operated and the prod- 

 uct be put into the channels of trade. They 

 could do that, the owners say. if the state 

 would furnish troops to protect them from 

 the strikers. But pulilic sentiment will not 

 support such measures and public senti- 

 ment must be concurred with. 



What the public demands is that the 

 mines be operated, if not for the good of 

 the owners or employes, then for the good 

 of the public. If the owners can do this 



without arbitration all rigiit. if not then 

 arbitrate. 



OUR PRESIDENT. 



The country was very much st.-irtled last 

 Wednesday to hear th.it President Unose- 

 velt had been very near death— that lie had 

 been in an accident where two memlK'rs 

 of the part.v had been killed and that he 

 was consideraljly injured. Happily that 

 news was accompaiued by the assurance 

 that while considerably bruised and shaken 

 his injuries were not serious. 



The accident was serious enough, how- 

 ever, to bring the people to a realizing 

 sense of how greatly they need a man of 

 the President's character at this stage of 

 our country's histoiy. 



When Mr. Roosevelt was called uiKin to 

 take the high and responsible position mafle 

 vacant by the assassination of President 

 M'cKinley, the Record expressed the hope 

 and belief that he would settle to the task 

 in a manner to please the American peo- 

 ple, and so far we believe the American 

 people are well pleased with him. 



It is doulrfful whether they would have 

 elected him to the presidency in the regu- 

 lar order of things, for the reason that his 

 career had been more or less erratic. Not 

 that he had ever been guiltj- of anything 

 wrong or questionable, but because of an 

 apparent inclination to do unusual and sur- 

 l>rising thin.gs. The American people have 

 always, in the matter of electing presi- 

 dents, been extremely conservative. Bril- 

 liant and erratic men have always been 

 passed by iu favor of "safe" meli. and 

 even a certain amount of dulness appears 

 to have found favor, most of oxir presi- 

 dents having been men of very ordinary 

 mental caliber. They seem to have pre- 

 ferred for their chief executive men who 

 had lived well regulated, straightforward, 

 colorless Uves and whose mental processes 

 were direct, simple and easily understood. 



With only a few exceptions our great 

 men have not been chosen presidents. 

 Some of them developed unexpected quali- 

 ties after their election, but. as a rule, they 

 have been of a plain and humdrum pattern. 

 Certainly we have never had a president 

 at all resembling Theodore Rwisevelt. He 

 is a new species, tmt the people are taking 

 to him very kindly. 



For the past two weeks Mr. Roosevelt 

 has been making some speeches through- 

 out New England, covering a wide rang.» 

 or topics, from the Monroe rIn.-'-ine and 

 the trust question, to the everyday life of 

 the ordinary citizen; and tlie people like 

 his speeches. They are full of earnestness, 

 honesty, courage and homelj common 

 sense, which makes them ring true and 

 which warms the hearts of the people. 



There is implanted in the breast of every 

 man an instinct which enables him to dis- 

 tinguisli between the false and tlie true, 

 and that instinct api>roves of our president. 

 We know that his speeches come from his 

 heart and they strike a chord with whtch 



the hearts of his countrymen arc in tune. 

 Here is a man. they say. who understands'; 

 and we can trust him. 



The old issues are done away with. 

 There will never be another presidential 

 campaign fought upon the tariff (iuestio:i 

 or the silver question; but new and grave 

 issues are arising, and it is well for the 

 countiT that we have a new man as reso- 

 lute, fearless, honest, sensible and opti- 

 mistic as oiu' president to lead us against 

 them. 



Our president rings ti-ue and the people 

 .ire iileased with him. May he live long. 



THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE. 



The "United States tf Europe" is sug- 

 gestetl by a German professor of political 

 economy as a defensive measure against 

 the United States of America, and has 

 more UH-rit than a good many suggestions 

 .ilong that line. Euroi>e is a very t-mall 

 continent and it is hampered at present 

 much as this country would be if the iron 

 fields of Minnesota were separated b.v a 

 tariff wall from the coal fields of Illinois, 

 and as if the great manufai-turing section 

 of the East from the agricultural districts 

 of the West. So long as t^m-ope holds' to 

 those old divisions of territor.v. iu violation 

 of all economic principles, so long the 

 United States of Nortlr America have little 

 fear that they will not be able to hold their 

 own in commercial and industrial warfare. 



Europe is sadly hampered in other ways 

 also. Each of its small and unnecessary 

 divisions has its separate, cumbersome 

 and expensive government to maintain, 

 with its kings, dukes, palaces and other 

 useless bric-a-brac held over from former 

 ages and different conditions. 



Then each nation is so jealous and sus- 

 picious cf its neighbors that it maifftaius 

 an expensive army and navy. Nearly 

 every man in E\u'ope is a trained .soldier, 

 liaving given up several of the best years 

 of his life to drill. This is all a foolish 

 and expensive sy.stem. which competition 

 will eventually force Europe to al>andon. 

 but the people of Europe are so bound by 

 prejudice and ignorance that it will be 

 long before they are starved into taking a 

 s'ane view of things. In the meantime this 

 country should continue to prosper. 



The whole system and theory of gov- 

 ernment on the continent of Europe is 

 antiquated and terribly expeiisive to o;m r- 

 ate, and such a condition is a handicap to 

 the people of Europe in industrial rivalry, 

 just as afi equipment of antiquated ma- 

 chinery is to a factory. Iu tlieir own in- 

 terests they should get rid of it all. Ther(? 

 may have been times in the middle ager 

 when it was necessary that the king of 

 France should go to war with the king of 

 Germany, but there Is no reason now why 

 the educated and enlightened people of 

 France should go to war with the enlight- 

 ened people of Germany. And if both 

 countries would dispense with their armies 

 and devote the time now given to training 



