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Show Through Foreign Eyes A while ago 14 Austrian coal miners visited this country coun-try under the Mutual Security Program. A Pennsylvania newspaper devoted a page of pictures and text to describing describ-ing their amazement at the unbelievable living standards enjoyed by the American miners. The Austrians couldn't believe at first that all the cars they saw parked near the pits belonged to the miners. They were astounded at the comforts and luxuries, ranging rang-ing from refrigerators to TV sets, they saw in miners' homes. They were amazed to find that all you had to do to get hot water in one of these home was to turn a faucet. When an interpreter told them that the average American miner earned, over $18 a day the Austrians assumed as-sumed he had made a mistake that the $18 was for a full week's work. They were dazzled by the welfare and retirement retire-ment benefits our miners receive. And when the president of the coal company they were visiting passed by and said hello to a group of miners they thought they had seen a miracle of democracy. It seemed even more miraculous when the president said, "Of course I speak to them. They are my friends. I play cards with them." It's still pretty much the rule in Europe that bosses are bosses and workers work-ers are workers and never the twain shall meet. The Austrians saw something that too many Americans Ameri-cans overlook. Under free enterprise the much reviled capitalist system labor has made the greatest gains in all history. |