Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 12, 1902 George F. Baer Expounds Upon the Divine Rights of the Capitalist
From the Appeal to Reason of September 6, 1902:
GEO. F. BAER ———-
Kansas Agitator September 5, 1902
Before he became president of the Reading railroad:
Extracts from an address delivered by Geo. F. Baer, before the law department of the university of Pennsylvania, on October 3, 1887:
States Resources Fabulous.
The natural resources of this state, (Pennsylvania ) are simply fabulous. How much of this great wealth falls to the share of our state and her citizens? It has passed into the hands of giganticassociations, kept together by state charters, or some cunning called a trust, whose principal stockholders are not among us nor of us. Daily they carry off our treasures, and leave only enough to pay the labor, which prepares them for and transports them to market. The profit which should enrich our citizens and state, goes beyond our borders and we thus receive little benefit from it. All this has only become possible through the mistaken policy of attempting to foster the development of our resources by departing from the simple principles of honest, free government. It is thru the manipulation of these associations that men ride to ‘sudden fortune,’ and thereby provoke the discussion of social problems and the promulgation of theories, which are at variance with all sound thinking and past experience.”
After he became president of the Reading railroad:
Wilkesbarre, Penn., Aug. 20.-W. F. Clark, a photographer of this city, recently addressed a letter to President Baer, of the Philadelphia & Reading railroad company, appealing to him as a Christian to settle the miners’ strike. The writer said that if Christ was taken more into our business affairs there would be less trouble in the world, and that if Mr. Baer granted the strikers a slight concession they would gladly return to work, and Baer would have the blessing of God and the respect of the nation.
Baer’s Reply Was:
“I see you are evidently biased in your religious views in favor of the right or the working man to control a business in which he has no other interest than to secure fair wages for the work he does. I beg of you not to be discouraged. The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for, not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in his in his infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country. Pray earnestly that the right may triumph, always remember that the Lord God Omnipotent still reigns, and that His reign is one of law and order, and not of violence and crime.”
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 11, 1902 Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1902, Part III Found in Anthracite Region of Pennsylvania, Returns to West Virginia
From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of August 11, 1902:
MOTHER JONES CONDEMNS ———- She Does Look With Favor on Certain Statements.
BELIEVES THAT IT IS ONLY A QUESTION OF A SHORT TIME UNTIL THE MINERS WIN-TRAINMEN UP IN ARMS. ———-
President Mitchell spent yesterday at Scranton, the guest of friends. His visit was one of pleasure and had no bearing on the strike situation. He returned last evening but had nothing of an interesting nature to disclose. He is still confident of the ultimate results.
Mother Jones still remains in the city and unless the present plans are changed she will deliver an address this afternoon at Nanticoke.Mother Jones has no particular love for Father O’Reilly and believes the latter to be unwise in his assertion about the miners and their organization. She believes that he will profit by his indiscretion. When told that he had delivered another address derogatory to the miners’ cause, she waxed warm, saying that if the occasion permitted; she would go to Shenandoah and tell the miners some pertinent facts.
[Declared Mother Jones:]
I know the miners are going to win this struggle, and every just man who is a competent observer of the prevailing conditions must be actuated by the same feeling. It is fallacy for even biased persons to harbor the idea that the miners are not steadfast. They show the same determined spirit, are practically speaking, of one mind and will never swerver the least iota from that course, they planned to take. The time is not far distant when the operators must mine coal or else lose their markets. In September the consumers will make an effort to get anthracite, and if they cannot they will look elsewhere and once the grates are changed it will take years, perhaps, before they resume the use of hard coal. If the operators permit it their business ability is not as great as credited. There may be an attempt made to operate the mines with non-union men, but the number will be so decidedly small and the work incompetently done, the effort will be given up with disgust. The operators will, after the trials, comprehend the determination of the men and will make the necessary concessions. The people of this country can rest assured that the miners are going to win this strike.
How about the one in West Virginia? asked the reporter.
[Mother Jones continued:]
We will not give up until the same results are achieved. Some of the places are completely tied up and victory is only a question of a short time. The collieries at Fairmont have not been reached, that I will admit, but do you know that there is a fence built around the town and no one in allowed to enter unless a permit is secured from some company agent. The men of West Virginia are partly paid in script, receive their money every month, sometimes every six weeks, deal in ‘”pluck me” stores and undergo other indignities. No American can or will endure such conditions.
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