THE STRIKING COAL MINERS.
It is thus that Rev. G. W. Puddefoot, home mission secretary of the Congregationalists, writes to the Springfield Republican of the wrongs of the suffering miners:— "In regard to the men engaged in a strike in the coal regions, last June I was called to visit the annual meeting of the Congregational churches in Pennsylvania. Many of the visiting ministers preached in mining towns, and complained of very hard times. I questioned them as to the cause. They all, without an exception, said that their membership was largely made up of miners, and that the men had not more than eight days' work a month for over nine months, and some of them made less than $1.00 a day, while some made $2.00, and in some cases $2.50 a day. Moreover, the store pay goes on, in spite of laws against it, and it is managed in this way: Some man has bought elsewhere, and at the end of the month the clerk says:— "'Why, Thomas, only $3.00 this month!'
"'Well, my wife bought a few things from her cousin's store.'
"'O, yes, I see!' "The next week the foreman says:—
"'Well, Thomas, I guess we won't work that pocket any longer.'
"'All right,' says Thomas, 'where shall we go next?'" "'Well, I don't know yet,' and he never does know. Thomas is not discharged, but they are not ready for him yet. "A little over a year ago I visited some coal mines in Illinois, and found one village called 'Kelly's Patch,' where the men were paid off in beer after their store account was settled. In one mine, where 300 men were employed, there was an average of one man killed a week. In some of these villages there was not even a day school. Now it is quite true that men make $3.00 a day for a time, but when the average for the year is taken, the wages are too small to supply the decencies of American life."