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Gounty Star.
SALISBURY. ELK LICK POSTOFFICE, PA., THURSDAY, AUGUST 4. 1904.
NO. 29.
i
9
Ww
Summer
Dress Goods,
Shirtwaistings,
Notions, Hats,
Shoes, Carpets,
8 Linoleums,
Hardware,
Groceries.
PLY 0.10
TMI
Wd
nn
ni
4
>
3
Capital paid in, $560,000.
% J. 1. BarcHUS, President.
PER GENT. INTERES
T NATIONAL BANK
OF SALISBURY.
Surplus & undiyided profits, $9,000.
On Time
Deposits.
H. H. MavusrT,
ALBERT REITz, Cashier.
DIRECTORS :—J. L. Barchus, H. H. Maust, Norman D. Hay,
A.M. Lichty, F. A. Maust, A. E. Livengood, L. L. Beachy.
BBE A RR SE
ice President.
wna
A RR a a a
&OC—=
Satisfied -:- Customers.
The above number of customers used our
Peptonized Beef, Iron and Wine
during the Spring and Summer of 1903, and any one of
them will tell you they were satisfied for the following
reasons:
1st. It tones up the system and makes you strong.
It creates an appetite and ades digestion.
2nd.
3rd. The cost is but 50c. per pint, or half the cost of
any other spring tonic on the market.
Get it at the Elk Lick Drug Siore.
Your money back if you are not satisfied.
—T1,00K -- HEREI=
Organs from $15.00 up.
Pianos rrom $125.00 up.
Sewing Machines from $10.00 up.
The asking for a catalogue, getting prices and looking over our stock
mean the saving of a good man¥ dollars.
PIANOS.
BUSH & GERTS,
CHICKERING & SONS,
STRICK & ZEIDLER,
VICTOR,
HOBERT M. CABLE,
KIMBALL,
SHUBERT,
OXFORD.
may
Agents for the following makes:
ORGANS.
FARRAND,
ESTEY,
KIMBALL.
SEWING MACHINES.
DAVIS,
WHITE,
STANDARD,
NEW HOME,
DAYTONIO,
GOLDEN STAR,
SUPERB.
We have engaged the services of C. E. LIVENGOOD, Piano and Organ
Tuner and Repairer, and orders for work in that line left at the music store
will receive prompt attention.
Somerset County Agents for Estey Pipe Organs.
Cecilian Piano Players.
REICH & PLOCH, CENTRE STREET, MEY ERSDALE, PENNA.
W<=~A present duty:
STAR.
Subscribe for THE
REPUBLICAN TICKET.
NATIONAL.
For President,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT,
of New York.
For Vice President,
CuarLEs W. FAIRBANKS,
of Indiana.
STATE.
Judge of the Supreme Caurt,
Hox. Jou~x P. ELKIN,
of Indiana County.
COUNTY.
For Congress,
Arex F. CooPERr,
of Uniontown, Pa.
For Assemblymen,
L. C. LAMBERT,
of Stonycreek Township.
J. W. EXDSLEY,
of Somerfield Borough.
For District Attorney,
Rurus E. MEYERS,
of Somerset Borough.
For Poor Director,
AaroN F, SWANK,
of Conemaugh Township.
‘A HEART TO HEART TALK WITH
THE MINERS.
Miners AND FerLow Cirrizens:—I
take the liberty to have a heart to
heart talk with you through the col-
umns of THE STAR, and if you will pon-
der carefully and considerately over
what I say, I believe that every rea-
sonable and sensible man among you
will admit that my words are pretty
generally true. I believe them to be
absolutely true. and I want you to at
least give me credit for being sincere,
for what I shall say in this article
comes from the heart and what I con-
sider the best ‘information obtainable.
I address you as fellow citizens, for
the reason that the majority of you
are citizens of the greatest and grand-
est country on earth—a country in
which the honest working man is es-
teemed more highly than in any other
land beneath the skies. Those of you
who are not naturalized citizens are
here because you can do better than in
your native countries, and as it is but
natural for men to seek the place they
think they can prosper most, I do not
blame foreigners for coming to our
shores.
Most of the miners of’ this region are
not only fellow citizens of mine, but
there are some, and a good many. too,
that I can call fellow miners, for the
reason that I used to mine coal with
them, and at no very remote period.
That being the case, it is but natural
for me to have the welfare and best in-
terests of the miner constantly at
heart, knowing that the prosperity of
all people in this region depends large-
ly upon the wages and amount of work
at the mines.
Simply because I am opposed to pro-
longing a useless and senseless strike
in this region. is not in the least an in-
dication that T am an enemy of the
miner or his cause. It is because I am
a-friend of all the honest, sensible
miners that I am opposing the strike,
which has long ago been lost to the
strikers. Do not understand me to be
claiming friendship with all of you, for
I am not. There are some miners in
this region that I might not throw a
plank to to save them from drowning.
Some of them are not worthy of the
friendship of a yellow dog. They are
untrue to their employers, to their fel-
low workmen, to their wives and chil-
dren, to everybody who trusts them,
and are even untrue to themselves.
And there are a good many of that
class in this region, too. It is the de-
sire of all honest men to see the region
purged of such dirty, criminal trash,
and no one desires it more than I do.
However, not all of our miners are of
the class just mentioned. Many of
them are good, thrifty, law-abiding
citizens—men that would be a credit to
the citizenship of any community, and
miners of the better class are worthy
of all the respect that is due to the best
of men.
There are good men and bad men
working in the mines now, and good
men and bad in the ranks of the strik=
ers. I have not contended at any time
that all the miners now at work are
good men. The fact is a few of them
now working are worthless, drunken,
quarrelsome fellows that are always on
the hant for trouble, and it is truly
nauseating to all decent people to see
some of the company people coming to
their rescue every time they find more
trouble than they are looking for, no
matter whether the trouble is of a kind
that pertains to their work or not. All
men have a right to be protected in
their pursuit of an honest living, but
when company people come to the res-
cue of thugs when they getinto trouble
through their own meanness, the res-
cuers are only nursing vipers that will
in due time turn and strike at their
benefactors. And when they do, thier
benefactors will deserve no sympathy.
Employ only decent, law-abiding peo-
ple. Mr. Operator, and you will have
-| little trouble with your employes, if
you treat them right. The thug may
be your friend today, but he is liable
to become your enemy at any time.
I believe that most of the thugs and
cut-throats in the region, however, are
in the ranks of the strikers, and not only
that, but T believe that they have the
controlling hand in the miners’ union.
At any rate all indications make it ap-
pear that way, and any sensible man
will admit that so far as the conduct of
the strike-breakers is concerned, dep-
uties and watchmen are not needed to
guard property. The organized miners
are the ones that must be watched.
But there are also some good; law-
abiding citizens in the union and
among the strikers. They are the ones
that I feel the most concern for. They
have been led astray by the agitators,
remaining idle against their own best
judgment, principally out of fear and
an aversion to ill feeling. Some of them
have comfortable homes and had con-
siderable money saved, but the money
is gradually slipping through their
fingers, and their homes, too, in some
cases are being mortgaged. Other men
are coming into the region and taking
their places, and they are a class of
men, too, that will remain here, for the
new-comers declare that they never
worked anywhere else that they could
make so much money and make it so
easily as here in the big Elk Lick vein.
To see some of our good native miners
thus forced out of the region, and the
danger of their homes being sacrificed,
etc., is a picture that affords me only
sorrow and regret. Yet, that is exactly
what is gradually taking place, be-
cause good citizens will cling to a
union dominated by thugs, and throt-
tle their own better judgment in order
to cling to a strike that has long been
lost. And all because they fear the
wrath and condemnation of men that
are utterly unworthy of the slightest
consideration.
The fact of the matter is the strike
has been badly managed, and the anion
has been so insolent during the past
few years that a reaction was bound to
come with tbe first slump in the coal
business. These are the facts, and
there is no getting away from them.
Isn’t it about time for reason ani
common sense to return? I thinkisis;
but the longer men walk about making
wry faces at each other, allowing their
petty spite to wax stronger and more
bitter, the longer it will take to bring
order out of chaos, and the longer it
will take to heal the ugly scars that
are now being inflicted on the hearts.
minds and souls of our people.
I am ever ready to do all in my
power to aid the toiling masses when
they keep within the bounds of reason,
law and order. But I have no sym-
pathy for men that act like a set of
idiots and criminals, as a great many
of the miners in this region have been
doing for the last six or eight months,
I cannot help but notice the great con-
trast between the last strike and the
strike of 1898-9. During the 1898-9
strike the miners’ union had scarcely
a foothold in this region, but during
that struggle the miners behaved them-
selves remarkably well, and their de-
mands and behavior were of such a
nature as to enlist the sympathy and
active support of the whole community.
Through their good behavior, just de-
mands and active support of the gener-
al public and local press, the miners
won the victory at that time. But how
have they kept faith with the people
who so loyally aided them at that
time? I am pained to say that so far
as I am concerned, (and others tell me
that they have had the same experi-
ence) I have been treated the meanest
and the dirtiest by the very men I aid-
ed the most at that time. A large
number of strikers patted me on the
back and said: “Mr. Editor, you are
sticking manfully to us, and we are go-
ing to stick to you. Put our names on
your subscription list.” Well, I put
the names on the list, and they are on
the list yet; but the great majority of
you fellows who ordered your names
put on the list while I had my coat off
fighting your battle, have not paid me
a cent to this day. Most of you that
are now howling the loudest against
THE STAR are the ones that owe me the
most and want to be the biggest guns
in organized labor circles. And you
have been treating other faithful
friends the
promises or curses, according to the
moods you were in, while most of your
cash has been carried to the saloons
for that which you can afford the least
to indulge in. Such is the treatment
most of you have been according to me,
while you were making the biggest
wages you ever made in your lives.
In spite of all your unkind conduct
and rascally principle, you now feel
greatly outraged because I will not
stick to you, make a big fool of myself
and allow you to use me for a good
thing.
.Had your union used good sense and
manly principle in this region after it
grew strong and powerful, and bad all
of you behaved as decently in the last
strike as during the trouble of 1898-9,
you could have held the support of the
local press and the general public, and
there is no doubt that matters would
have heen satisfactorily adjusted long
ago. But there are too many hot-nead-
ed fools among you, men that have
neither business sense nor manly prin-
ciple, but who seem to hold the con-
trolling hand in the union. Yes, you
have too many fellows in your ranks
who have got it into their heads that
the union can win by bulldozing and
intimidation. The public and the local
press has not been appealed to in de-
cency and reason, but coercion was re-
sorted to from the very start, because
the union could be flourished over our
heads as a club, the unionists threaten-
ing boycott, etc. to all who would not
knuckle to their whims.
Some of the strikers have been try-
ing to win the battle by not speaking
to those who went to work, while others
have been resorting to abusing them,
making threats, etc. Many more have
been indulging in all sorts of inhuman
wishes, saying they would like to see
the men hurt or killed that do not
stick to the union, ete., etc. What
nonsense! What would men think of
a politician who would resort to such
foolhardy methods to win others to his
way of thinking and voting? He
would be considered a fool, and that is
just what the general public thinks of
the miners who resort to such tactics.
That kind of business never wins, but
disgusts all sensible people and turns
their sympathy the other way. The
boycotting principle also acts as a
boomerang on the heads of those who
make use of it, and all the kinds of
foolishness mentioned, together with
the free use of the word “scab,” the
cursing of the court, ete., are respon-
sible for the thorough and much de-
served “licking” the miners’ union is
now undergoing.
I favored unionism in this region un-
til I saw its power abused and its true
principles trampled under foot by a lot
of human swine that are not yet suf-
ficiently civilized to belong to an or-
ganization of any kind. There are
some good men in the union in this re-
gion, but they seem to be powerless to
control the many blatant fools in it,
and the sensible thing for the decent
ones to do is to get out of the rotten
organization, go to work if they can get
work, and not make fools of themselves
any longer for a concern that is only
beneficial to the idle and the indolent.
Men of self-respect should cling to their
homes and families, letting the booze
hoisters, loafers, bums, deadbeats and
other trash take care of themselves.
If you will take notice, the men who
“get there” in the world are not the
ones who depend on the labor unions,
anyway. The union is a good thing for
the fellow that doesn’t amount to
much, but it is a handicap to the man
of energy, brains and correct habits.
The proof of this statement lies in the
fact that nearly all of our wealthy and
great men were once common laborers.
Some of you fellows that we are lec-
turing have also been guilty of acting
the baby by threatening to boycott the
churches if certain people were not re-
fused admittance, and some of you
have not been going to church because
your capers have been ignored. You
fools! You seem to think you are do-
ing the Lord a great favor when you
go to church, but you arenot. You are
simply profaning God’s holy temple
with your slimy presence when you go
to the sanctuary with hatred for your
fellow man rankling in your bosoms.
If God would be as unrelenting and
unforgiving as some of you fellows are,
He would send you to hades as quick
as a feather could be scorched in that
awful place.
But probably the biggest mistake
some of you strikers make is in urging
your children to call strike breakers
scabs and other vile names. That is
simply teaching your children impu-
dence, and impudent, saucy children
usually grow up doomed to lead a life
of crime, poverty and suffering. No
good positions are in waiting for the
impudent boy or girl that must depend
same way, giving them |
on his or her own exertions for success.
|
quently the scenes of much drunkem~
ness, profanity and vile remarks? [
am told by union men themselyes that
such terms ns “G— d— s—s of b—s”™
and other language equally as bad is
often uttered in your lodge rooms by
men who are drunk, but who think
they should do some speech-making,
nevertheless. Can any good results
come from an organization that will
tolerate such vulgarity and blasphemy
in its business meetings? I am afraid
not.
A whole lot of you have also beem
gloating over injuries that recently be-
fell some of the men at work in the
mines. You have wished their mis
fortunes to them, and expressed sor-
row that the injuries were not more
severe. Those wishes willin all proba-
bility come home to many of you with
compound interest.
You have made many other mistakes,
both vicious and criminal, and the
time has arrived for your reason to re-
turn. Those who keep on in the fool
course they started will rue it when it
is too late. It is too late for some of
you now, but there are others who can
yet make good their mistakes if they
act quickly.
There’s no use in bellyaching about
the present social conditions, for the
facts will not bear you out in your as-
sertions along that line. The poor
man’s lot is better in this country than
in apy other country on earth, and
there never was a time in the history
of our country when the poor man had
as good a chance to get something
ahead as during the last five years
This is about all T have to say, and
am as good a friend to the honest, sen-
sible miner as I ever was. There is ne
man living that I respect more or that
I would rather do a favor for. But I
have no use for the fool miner, the fel-
low that is never satisfied unless he is
doing something dirty and mean—the
fellow that is always ready to dictate
the policy of the local press in time of
trouble, but who never has a dollar te
pay on his subscription in times of
prosperity.
This is not an operators’ paper, and T
have never been offered a cent from
any coal operator in this region to fight
his battles. Any man who says any-
thing to the contrary is a liar. I speak
my own sentiments and propose te
continue doing so, and you know that
I have told you nothing but the trutk
in this article.
Some of you have been threatening
to boycott me. “As the feller, ‘says,
says he, boycott and be durned !” Some
of you have blowed around that yom
would “stop the paper” at once if you
had the money to square up. If thatis
all that bothers you, call at my dem
and give an appreved note payable im
one year, and I'll drop you from my
list at once. If you can’t get good se-
curity on a note for a few dollars, it’s &
sure sign that you are not regarded as
an honest man in the community where
you reside. Don’t think for one mo-
ment that my living depends on the
miners or any other one class of men.
I appreciate the patronage of all honest
men, whether miners or other people,
but IT am not courting the patronage of
fools. and such as I have of that class &
can easily spare.
Some of you have boasted that you
are going to force me to the hayfield te
make my living, by next summer.
Well, T used to make my living at
common labor, and I can do so agaim,
if necessary. If I had no more energy
and get up than some of you miners
have, I never would have gotten out of
the hayfield.
Some of you ought to talk a good
deal less about “scabbing” than you de,
for a whole lot of you striking miners
are “scabbing” just as much as the men
you are calling “scabs” You have
brought down the price of common la-
bor in this vicinity, and you have beer
gobbling up the jobs of men who never
work in the mines. You have a right
to do this, of course, and we believe
every man should have the right ang
privilege to work for any man or firm
that is willing to hire him. But re-
member, Mr. Striker and Mr. Uniow
Man, that others have the same right
you have If you want to work at
something outside of your regular oc-
cupation, you must accord others the
same right.
I may have been a little radical in
commenting on the strike at times, bat
if I have, it was because I was provok-
ed to that limit where forbearance
ceases to be a virtue, the proyoking
being done by a lot of meddlesome
strikers not content with deadbeating
their subscription bills, but who at the
same time have been adding insult te
injury by trying to force me to print
stuff in my paper that could do only
harm to me and no good to them. E
propose to run my own business, and I
have no apologies to make for the
course I have taken. The dirty dead-
beats IT have to contend with are nearly
Is it not also a fact, Mr. Union Man, |
| that your union meetings are very fre- |
all union men, and if unionism makes
| deadbeats, I am done with it. I will
| uphold, protect and defend any unica
| that obeys and respects law and com-
| mon decency, but a union that is dom-
| inated by thugs as the one in this re-
{ gion, I want nothing to do with; and f¥
| know of some good people in it that
should drop it like a hot biscuit, for
sheir own good, the good of their fami-
lies and the good of the community.
Yours in all sincerity,
P, L. LIvENG0Q®,
i
4
RN
a EN