Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

Knight Case and declared the Northern Securities Company illegal. Similar suits were then started against other trusts, and the Sherman Act was given a thorough trial.

At the time the decision against the Northern Securities merger was hailed as a great victory, and it may have been. At the present time it appears that the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific lines are firmly united, with government approval. Possibly this suit, and the others which followed, made the trusts more careful in their operations, possibly not. The country is still too completely submerged in the problem of modern finance to be able to see how much these efforts really accomplished.

THE COAL STRIKE

In 1902 Roosevelt had an opportunity to deal with another one of the by-products of "Big Business," a large scale strike in the anthracite coal fields. Ninety-five per cent of the anthracite mines were owned and operated by a few railroads, such as the Lehigh Valley, the Lackawanna, and the Philadelphia and Reading. By virtue of their control of transportation, the roads had compelled the former owners to sell out, at prices fixed by the purchasers. In 1873 the State of Pennsylvania added an amendment to its constitution, prohibiting railroads in the state from engaging in coal mining, but that was easily evaded. The railroad companies organized mining companies, with the same boards of directors. This new arrangement proved profitable, because the directors, in their capacity as common carriers, could impose high freight rates on coal, and in their capacity as operators they could pass this charge on to the public.

The miners complained that they were compelled by the operators to live in company houses, to purchase supplies at company stores, and to employ company physicians, all at rates fixed by the companies. Feeling their helplessness, they finally organized a union, under the leadership of John Mitchell. The operators refused to recognize this union.

Early in 1902 the miners demanded higher wages, more freedom in their living conditions, and especially the recognition of their union. In February Mitchell asked the operators for a conference; this request was not granted. In May, Mitchell asked George F. Baer, the President of the Reading Coal and Iron Company, to submit the dispute to arbitration. Baer's reply was not calculated to conciliate

THE COAL STRIKE

709

the men. "Anthracite mining is a business, and not a religious, sentimental, or academic proposition." On May 12, 150,000 miners went on strike, and they stayed out until October 23.

As cool weather came on, the Northeast, which depended largely on anthracite for domestic fuel, became thoroughly alarmed. Normally selling at five dollars per ton, by October 1, anthracite went to thirty dollars.

The operators refused to consider any thought of yielding or of compromise. Sooner or later, they reasoned, public opinion would compel the government to break the strike, in their favor. "The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for," wrote Baer, "not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in his infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of this country, and upon the successful management of which so much depends."

The miners hoped to win public sentiment to support their side, and the union officials tried to prevent disorder and violence. In this they were more successful than might have been expected, but there was more or less violence. The newspapers which favored the operators exaggerated this, while those which favored the miners tried to minimize it. One report declared that twenty persons were killed, and forty injured during the riots.

In the meantime mayors and governors in the East were making personal appeals to Roosevelt to interfere in the controversy so that their section might have its coal. The President had no Constitutional authority to participate in a struggle of that sort, and if he had, he would have found it difficult to make the operators listen to him. His views on the trust question, most heretical for a Republican, had turned some "Big Business" men against him, and among these were some of the operators. Although he was at his "wits' end" as he put it, he knew that he must do something. If he did not, he wrote on September 27, "the public at large will tend to visit upon our heads responsibility for the shortage in coal precisely as Kansas and Nebraska visited upon our heads their failure to raise good crops in the arid belt a dozen years ago."

[ocr errors]

On October 1 Roosevelt invited the operators and representatives of the miners' union to meet him in Washington, for consultation. On October 3 the parties came together, and Roosevelt appealed to the contestants to show some consideration for the suffering public.

Mitchell replied that the miners would welcome the appointment of a commission to investigate the issues involved in the strike, and that if the operators would agree to abide by the findings of such a commission, his union would do the same. The operators refused. Furthermore, in the afternoon session, they read prepared statements, the tone of which was noticeably insolent. Accusing Roosevelt of failing to do his duty, and adopting the tone of "divine right Baer," they characterized the government as "a contemptible failure if it can secure the lives and property and comfort of the people only by compromising with the violators of the law and the instigators of violence and crime."

After this rebuff Roosevelt decided to appoint a commission anyway, regardless of the attitude of the operators. At the same time, he made arrangements with the governor of Pennsylvania to send federal troops into the anthracite fields. All plans were completed for starting the troops on half an hour's notice. His next step was to send Elihu Root to New York, to talk with J. P. Morgan. These two men worked out a plan of arbitration, and under the influence of hints judiciously dropped regarding the President's plan to put the army in charge of the mines, the operators yielded. After some difficulty the commission was appointed, and the miners went back to work.

After an investigation lasting four months, in March 1903, the commission submitted its report. The miners received a ten per cent increase in wages. Their union was not formally recognized, but the operators were compelled to adopt the so-called "open shop" principle in their mines. For the purpose of preventing future strikes, the commission provided for reference of all disputes to a board of conciliation of six members, three to be chosen by each side. If this board failed to agree, the federal judge of the district was to make a final decision. Both parties professed to be entirely satisfied with the award. From that time until 1922 the anthracite regions were free from trouble. Beginning with 1922, however, they began to make up for lost time in this respect.

Roosevelt's efforts to bring business practices into harmony with the law, and his attempt to bring about a satisfactory settlement of the coal strike were new departures for the federal government. There is no doubt that the experiments made a strong appeal to the people. Hitherto the "trusts" had loomed up as an uncontrollable

THE COAL STRIKE

711

power; now they must obey the law. So at least Roosevelt's admirers reasoned. Even if there are legitimate doubts as to the true measure of value in his trust policy, there can be none as to the political effect of it. The people wanted reform, so conducted that they could see what was going on. In appealing to their love of the spectacular, Roosevelt accumulated political capital for himself.

Roosevelt was unusually wise in knowing which issues to make his own, and which to disregard. The tariff for example did not appeal to him, and he could see as many chances to lose as to gain credit in advocating legislation. He managed therefore to work primarily with those questions on which he could make a stirring appeal. In doing so he showed remarkably good sense, because above every one else a reformer needs popular support.

CHAPTER LXIII

THE PANAMA CANAL

In displaying his understanding of what would or would not appeal to the country Roosevelt was never more fortunate in his judgment than in his promotion of the Panama Canal. The American people admire the man who can act; when that action seems to promote national greatness, their admiration may turn to worship. "Manifest Destiny" had not entirely disappeared as a factor in American life, and the prospect of an American-built, American-owned canal was bound to stimulate once more the desire for national expansion.

Reference has been made to the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, to the treaty with New Granada which preceded it, and to that with Nicaragua which followed (see Chapter XL). In the New Granada Treaty the United States guaranteed the "perfect neutrality" of the Isthmus of Panama, and it also guaranteed to New Granada the rights of sovereignty and property which she had in the Isthmus. The Panama Railroad, built in 1855, was an American enterprise. The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty provided for joint British and American control of any canal which might be built between the Atlantic and the Pacific. In the third treaty, with Nicaragua, the United States acquired the right of way for a canal through Nicaragua, with the understanding that other nations would be associated in the agree

ment.

The Civil War, with its blockade-running, emphasized the need of an American naval station in the Caribbean, which Grant tried to secure in Santo Domingo, and in addition the desirability of easier communication with California. An Isthmian canal might answer both purposes. If, however, it was to serve as a substitute for a naval station, the plan of joint ownership and operation would hardly be feasible. After the Civil War therefore various presidents tried to secure the abrogation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. Grant and Hayes both called for an American canal.

In 1878 a complication arose when a French company, headed by de Lesseps, the builder of the Suez Canal, got a concession from Colom

P

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »