More Prospective Trouble
By Editor
More Prospective Trouble.—It hardly needs the gift of prophecy safely to predict another anthracite coal strike next year. It is often true that "coming events cast their shadows before." A press despatch says: The coal combine, under the direction of President Baer of the Reading railroad, is said to have been gathering together for two years a vast reserve stock of anthracite in preparation for a fight with the United Mine Workers of America, who are expected to demand an increase in wages next year. The coal roads are said to have massed in the immediate vicinity of New York City 15,000,000 tons of hard coal, or nearly a year's supply, and by scattering the storage yards as much as possible have been able to accumulate this reserve without exciting suspicion. This reserve supply, with the vast stores of the roads elsewhere, will give the combine an important advantage in case of a strike in the spring. When we remember the exorbitant prices to which anthracite coal was raised during the last strike in the Pennsylvania mines, we can form some idea of the enormous profit it would be possible to make off such a store of coal in case of a strike. Such a prospect is almost sure to provoke a strike in some way; and one is inclined to wonder how much some "labor leader" will be paid to work it up, or what oppression will be brought to bear on miners in order to provoke it.