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The Coat Swindle

The Coat Swindle image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
March
Year
1871
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The enormous iucrcase in the ptice of coal within the past i!ay or two serve to poiut tho explanatiou Wo have previousT giveu of the causes and Üie i'oreshadowiug we have made of the ronuits of the sonroity which u-idoublcdly exi--ts. Tho "prayer" w'uich has boep ciruu'.atod iu Pbiladelphia, howcver noverely and juatly the form of it may bc oondeinned, is worth reproduoing to show those who aro responsible for tkisetulo of things how intenso tho indignaüou of those who suffer by it is, and how precarious their own proíita aro so long as they aru pbtained by shameleps extortion. The eomplaint of the miuern deserves to bo heard also. The coiDpanies have had the cunning herotofore to shift the odium of the ttuddcu and enormous rise of prioes Irom their own shoulderB to those of a ulaBS which can give no better expression than than the inarticulate form of a strike to tbo story of its own wants and woes. It has boen shown that the difFerence in the wagos of minors betweon their receipts aud their domands is an infinitesimal fraotiou of tho difference botweon what tho price of coal ought to bo and what it is. Tho last turn of the crew is so suddon and so severa that tho respoiiüibility of it cannot bo evaded bj those who havo brousht it about. A. differenoe of from L5 to $7 a ton n tho prico of ooal nieans ío many thousands of families in New Sfork aad Philadelphia the difference beiween decent oomfurt and sbject desútution. Even the Legislatura of Pennsylvania can hardly be so deaf to tho cry of a plundered public as to rofuse taking some real and not merely plausible tneasures to prevent the recurrcuoe of this flagrant and pernioious swiudle. It will be well for the monopolista whom that Legislature permits to prey upon tho public to bo admonished that thore is a point at which public resistaDoo to outrageous extortion cao organizo ileelf, and that such au organizaron is apt to do justice in a wild and hasty way. The country man whosegooae laid the goldon egg, lost not only bis eggs but his goose when he attempted to gct them all at once by disenibowelliug tho auriforous fowl. Ia the old legend the gooso simply died on bis bands, but in Tennyson's version of the fable it was taken from hira with considerable violence. "Therostrode n straugcr to thcdoor, And it vmz wiudv wenther."

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus