i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org

To that class of professional liars, who, in the
guise of newspaper correspondents, make a practice
of prostituting, for a few cents, their veracity
and integrity, nothing offers a better field than
the occasional mine or railroad accident. This is
amply shown by the accident in the United States
Coal & Coke Co.'s No. 1 shaft near Welch, W. Va.,
in which seven men lost their lives. This casualty
list was sufficiently regrettable but the newspaper
correspondents of the neighborhood flashed to the
world the announcement that from fifteen to
twenty-three men were dead, an indefinite number
entombed, the mine wrecked and afire and the
company to blame. Nor did they take the trouble
to tell the truth later, though the circumstances
were such that they must have known it from the
first. Normal humanity takes no pleasure in reading
of death and disaster and while it accepts
actual facts as current events, it has no desire
for greater shocks than are necessary. In justice
to it and to those who are sufferers both by accident
and by the false and exaggerated reports
which so frequently follow, as well as to themselves,
the newspapers should put a stop to the
criminal mendacity of dishonest correspondents.
The accident referred to was an explosion which
occurred at a time when there were only seven
men in the .mine. No men were entombed, the
mine was neither wrecked nor set afire and nothing
has been found to show that the owners were
at fault. Yet in order to add perhaps fifty cents
to their "space string" the correspondents who
wired reports of the accident to the newspapers
have led hundreds of thousands of people to believe
that it was a "mine horror" of the first
magnitude, for which the "coal barons" who own
the plant were responsible.
—o—
With the bright light of the twentieth century
illuminating the industrial page of history so that
all who run may read, it seems almost incredible
that there can be men so blind to progress, to say
nothing of their personal interest, as to wish to
continue the antiquated system of limiting output
in the supposed interest of labor. Yet so
widespread is the existence of this fallacious idea
in some quarters that journals devoted to the interests
of organized labor still find it necessary
to use their best efforts to eradicate it sufficiently
to prevent the inevitable harm its adherents would
inflict on the cause of labor were they permitted
to rule its councils.
—o—
The Russian is "up against it" wherever he
goes. The miners' organization has refused to
sanction a strike at Ellsworth, Pa., brought about
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 39
by Russians, one of whose number demanded as
his right the room in which he had worked when
formerly employed in that mine.
—o—
Congressman Burton did so well at the dinner
of the Pittsburgh Board of Trade on March 7
that it is suggested that if he could be kept in the
city for a month or so he might be much improved
for congressional uses.
Dealers of Lincoln, Neb., state that their better
trade has always confined itself to Pennsylvania
anthracite until this winter, when the dealers were
unable to get it, on account of snow blockades, and
the Arkansas anthracite, which had been a drug
on the market, began to sell.
*
The H. L. Seabright Co. has been formed at
Wheeling, W. Va., with a capital of $25,000, to engage
in the retail coal business.
*
Norcross & Mahannah have sold their coal and
lumber business at Beatrice, Neb., to the Searle
& Chapin Lumber Co.
.T O'Shea has sold his lumber business at
Madison, Neb., but will continue in the coal and
grain business.
*
The Olustee Mill, Gin & Fuel Co. has been incorporated
at Olustee, Okla., with a capital of
$20,000.
*
George W. Gribben has sold his wholesale coal
business at Lincoln, Neb., to William Gutzner &
Son.
*
C. E. Strode has succeeded to the wood and coal
business of Strode & Glasscock, at Hannibal, Mo.
J. D. Hunter has purchased the grain and coal
business of G. A. Harbaugh, at Alva, Okla.
L. L. Hawes has sold his coal business at Fort
Worth, Texas, to the Hill Fuel Co.
*
J. L. Baker has sold out his stock of coal, etc.,
at Beemer, Neb., to W. F. Fried, Jr.
#
B. Roberts has purchased the coal business of
P. Fitch at Marriman, Neb.
*
W. M. Taylor has sold his coal business at Wymore.
Neb., to A. R. Morris.
*
The dissolution is reported of the Union Fuel
Co., of Omaha. Neb.