It is estimated that the reduction in wages accepted by the coal miners will save to the coal mining companies $18,000,000 a year. That the public will reap the advantage of this enormous sum in securing cheaper coal is out of the question. There may be some temporary price-cutting here and there, but in the long run the operators will hold a large part of that $18,000,000 a year. It is not only the miners, but many others who are affected by that cut. In having $18,000,000 less a year to spend, the small dealers in the mining districts are bound to feel the effects, while the consumption of less food, clothing, etc., in a similar amount by the miners is bound to react upon other industries. Instead of preventing an industrial depression by reducing wages, hard times will come all the faster. That is natural under the present system of production. Not satisfied with the general reduction of 5½ per cent in the wages of the miners, the coal barons of the central Pennsylvania field chopped off 6.08 per cent and hammered wages down to 62 cents a ton for many of their employees. Even this amount will not be paid at many pits. "It is an easy matter to make agreements," said a miner to the writer in Charleroi, Pa., last week, "but it is another thing to carry them out to the letter. Many of the operators in this district have no more regard for their signature or word of honor than the meanest thief. They pretend to pay a certain scale, and then coax or bully the men individually to take less, promising steady work and other advantages. This game is especially played with foreigners, who do not understand the English language and the trickery of the capitalists." Of course it is a hard matter to prevent such abuses. They show the lengths to which men go to acquire wealth, and surely the mine operators furnish some splendid examples of the cannibalism of capital.—Cleveland Citizen. Then when we add to this oppression the organized efforts of the labor unions to keep every laborer who does not join them from getting employment at any price, the outlook for the wage-earning classes is gloomy indeed. Men who have principle enough to aspire to individual independence—and they are by far the larger class—have two unmerciful enemies to contend with, the oppression of capital monopoly on the one hand, and the tyranny of labor-union monopoly on the other. Is it not time for the poor to be taking refuge in Him who is above all powers and principalities, whose coming to execute judgment is near at hand? In this sin-cursed world there is no hope for better days; but "according to His promise," those who trust His promise may joyfully "look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." See 2 Peter 3:9-14. The only assurance of hope in this world lies in the infallible promise, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." Ps. 37:3.