Show THE TIfE OWNERSHIP OF COAL William Lloyd Garrison Garris n in a lon long communication tion to the New York Evening Post mal males makes es this argument in connection with the coal loal strike sti-ike One of your corre correspondents unwittingly touches the tile core of the el controversy when he writes If the mine mine- owners do blot donot own the the- mines then nobody owns an anything thin This postulate once accepted t the lw po position i. i ion tion of the operators becomes a absolutely impregnate te le and the tIle use of force the logical sequence The same question a 1 was asked regarding the thc claims of oC ownership to human beings in iii the days of Ameri Amli American can slavery The law aw decreed it it ii and the tile court allowed allowed al lowed it If the thc law and mul court were right the slave slave- holders were amply jn justified in defending fen ing their institution in in- to the hit bitter er end eIlI But in the light of hi history history his his- tory justice or ot th the hi higher her law is seen een to have been heen paramount to written statutes How sacred then is in the assumption that this tills prime necessity it coal stored up tIp by bJ na nature ure through th the ag ages can be right righteously ous exploited by bJ its few privileged controllers The equitable solution of the thc matter is if of far more moment to the people at large arge than either to operators ope ope- or 01 miners The spirit of selfishness s an and exclusion ex ex- infects both hoth bodies bodie The Tile labor lahar unions are arc cruel and remo remorseless eless in dealin dealing with workers outside outside out ont side the their l' l organizations It is not C unlikely that if it were feasible for employers and employed to com combine coin coin- bine in order to extort undue profit from the consumers con con- sumers simmers the thc blend would be he speedily pushed Two alternatives then present themselves l either cither State ownership and amI operation of all legal e al privileges which i is the tile aim of HOl socialism or their total total to to- tal abolition h 1 by the system of taxation formulated by Henry George Either Eithel one national trust or no trust at all The fhe first method may well be he dreaded d din in view yiew of oC time the pervading all political conniption iOu ion and ill success of Governmental Go management ement That the second win will find more desperate and bitter resistance e is certain as IS it strikes Cs at tile the heart of oC monopoly abolishing l stead l of oC increasing the extraneous machinery of or Government GO With socialism enthroned en Baer and his kind have ilave only to capture the IlK machinery to become the Government Go and one monopoly is iR more e easily controlled than many ninny Trades Tindes unions minions are in e essence sence as aR monopolistic and wolfish as the trusts Under just laws Jaws they ther could ot exist hut but being heing the es essential complement t of organized or or- IU privilege not capital thc capital the shadow of of the tile substance the first must die lie before the second e ond ceases However the current contest conlest may be settled set Ret tIed it it must be he by a makeshift no matter mattel which party to the issue me succumbs A present poultice ma may cover coel hll but t cannot heal 1 the he wound c The authOl author au all- thor thOl of he above c has hag long been Irnell a power powel in ill economic and und political di discussions ions TIe He is iR a of principles principles prin- prin rather rathel than luau of oC deeds 1 For 01 those of LIS who are arf so warmly debating the Eastern coal quest question ion without 1 interest t in it Mr Mi ny personal or practical J it 1 Garrisons Garrison's thoughts thought should be hc valuable |