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28 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
hard times, more severe than the 1893 panic, will
lie on us in a few years. With the ruling stable
industrial conditions, disregarding the coal trade
which has only barely started to recovery from
over-production, the wise labor leader will avoid
wild demands.
A report of the board of trade on strikes and
lockouts in the United Kingdom in the year 1904
just issued, shows that 354 labor disputes were
recorded during the year, involving about 87,000
work people, or less than 1 per cent, of the indus­
trial population of the country, exclusive of agri­
cultural iaborers and seamen. The disputes, old
and new. which were presented for arbitration and
settlement in 1904, resulted in the loss of about
1.450,000 working days. More than two-fifths of
the disputes arose in the mining and quarrying
industries. The average annual number of labor
disputes in the five years from 1899 to 1903 was
568. The average number of work people affected
was 184,000. and the average duration of the dis­
putes was 3.125,000 days. In the five preceding
years, from 1894 to 1898, the average annual num­
ber of disputes was 835; the average number of
work people affected, 254,000, and the average dura­
tion of the disputes 8,927,000 days. The principal
cause of the labor difficulties in 1904, as in pre­
vious years ,was the wage question.
There are many unemployed in Great Britain at
the present time, and great unrest prevails among
the cotton workers because of dissatisfaction with
the scale of wages paid, but misunderstandings
between employers and employes seem to be di­
minishing, and to be more readily adjusted.
Whether or not this is merely a passing phase of
the labor situation in the United Kingdom or an
indication of growing good will between the em­
ployers and the wage earners can only be deter­
mined by future developments.
* * *
MR. HERMAN JUSTI, COMMISSIONER, Illinois Coal
Operators Association, delivered on Labor Day at
Joliet, 111., an address reproduced elsewhere in
this issue, on the system of joint trade agree­
ments, taking the ground that they are the means,
when properly employed, of elevating labor, re­
warding capital and promoting industrial peace.
Whilst Mr. Justi has dealt exhaustively with the
subject before, his newest address is refreshing in
its vigorous and fair treatment of this important
issue. "When properly employed." is the saving
clause or key which forestalls contest and this
is never lost sight of in Mr. Justi's address. His
ideas do not contemplate such agreements as those
in the window glass trade which were among the
telling factors bringing the American Window
Glass Co. to grief. The life of these agreements
was prolonged by adding recklessly to wages and
curtailing production, the two movements a sure
road to the pitfall. Then it is too patent how
over-confidence-in the trade agreement relationship
led to Homestead, how it has held countless num­
bers of skilled and unskilled workers abroad
to idleness or to hand-to-mouth existence through
effort in other lines. Mr. Justi rightly sees good
in the joint agreement only when properly em­
ployed.
* * *
THERE ARE RENEWED RUMORS that the president's
next message to congress will include a recom­
mendation for a department of mining. The in­
dustry of mining has become a tremendous affair
in the United States, and the mineral production
of 1900 was valued at $1,600,000,000. This nation
leads in coal, iron and zinc, is second only to the
Witwatserand in gold and next to Mexico in the
output of silver. Why not a department of mining?
UNITED STATES THE
WORLD'S COAL POWER.
Europe's coal deposits, including England, Scotland,
Ireland and Wales, cover not exceeding 15,000
square miles, and will cease to yield in 250 years
a,t present rates of production. The United
States, with Alaska and the Philippines yet to
hear from, has 250,000 square miles of coal area,
producing 325,000,000 tons yearly. This vast deposit
can safely be relied on to last 7,000 years
if the annual production remains the same. The
United States is already producing 32 per cent.
of the world's coal supply, although it has only
6 per cent, of the world's population. That coal
exists in large quantities in Alaska and the Philippines
is known though, as yet, reliable estimates
of possible yield are not available. Still, enough
is known to justify the belief that the yield will
tie enormous. Moreover, no one has yet the right
to say that the United States proper has not still
undiscovered coal fields within its area. Control
of the world's coal means, if desired, control of the
world's peace.