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