Life — October 22, 1925 — page 54: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

OCTOBER 29, 1925 VOL. 86, 2243 “While there is Life there's Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY $98 Madison Avenue, New York Cuantes Daya Gt Crain Maxwett, Vice-President Lancnorxe Ginsox, Secretary ond Treasurer R. E. Sugrwooo, Editor F. D, Casey, Art Editor VIO- LENT gale from the North in the second week of October and the resulting effort to keep warm made coal a topic some- what sooner than would have happened in ordinary course. It was very cold, making some folks feel as if the ce- lestial authorities were trying early to make good on some of the disturbing forecasts of affliction that have been put out. Naturally, it turned many minds to thoughts of fucl, but tardily, since even now in a good many places you cannot buy domestic sizes of an- thracite at all, while in other places they are scarce and dealers limit you to a ton at a time. Rochester reported searcity on October 13 with famine about two weeks off. There are sub- stitutes for anthracite and if the pinch is very bad they will be used, but they are not yet popular. ow, then, what is the matter? John Hays Hammond, who knows as much about it as any one, explains that the continuance of the anthracite strike is made possible by the certification law in Pennsylvania. That law forbids any person to mine coal in that State unless he has “a certificate of competency and qualification.” To get such a certificate ke “must produce satisfactory evidence of having had not less than two years of practical experience as a miner or as a mine laborer in the mines of the commonwealth.” This evidence goes through an examining board of nine members, cach of whom must have five years of practical experience in mining in the applicant’s district. The upshot is that the examining boards are made up of members of the United Mine ahoy below! whats the 8ocd word? President Workers and that all the anthracite is mined by members of that union. So the United Mine Workers virtually own the usufruct of the anthracite mines, and apparently they pretty well own the State of Pennsylvania, since the Gov- ernor of that State does not dare call the legislature to repeal the certification law, and quite likely the legislature would not dare to repeal it even if called. Meanwhile the miners won't arbitrate. Pennsylvania has the coal, and if she will not do anything to put it on the market, so much the worse for the an- thracite habit and the revenue that it produces. One of the details of the necessary bettering of this world in which we try to live is the modification of the political morals of the State of Pennsylvania, a large and powerful commonwealth, with bowels packed with necessaries of contemporary life, but so used to living by legislative favors that she has ceased to know what it is to give a fair deal to her neighbors. drink, 1 tell ye! HE efforts to compass the security of Europe at Locarno have gone cn fervently up to this writing and promise to have comforting results. The job is difficult, but the need to do it is com- pelling. What is now proceeding is an effort to include Britain, France, Italy and Germany in an agreement to insure the integrity of the German frontiers. The chief motive to that is to make France easier in her mind so that she will feel able to get along with a smaller and less expensive military ap- paratus and allow her neighbors to economize for a while on armament, Of course that is desirable and ought to help matters and alleviate fears a little. Germany seems to be coming into the League but is fighting hard for recognition of what is due to her as one of the great powers of Europe he does not propose to function as a con- quered nation that must sign on the dotted line, and it would not make for the peace of the world to have her do so, All this pulling together of we ern Europe is particularly desirable in view of the possible developments of disorder by Soviet Russia. Bishop Brent has been reading what he calls the Bolshevist Bible, the title of which is “The A B C of Communism.” He quotes Senator Borah as calling Bol- shevism a disease. He dissents. He ays it is not a disease, but a religion and singularly like Mohammedanisr compares the Communists’ Bible wit! Koran and says it is very clever, cating conversion or destruction, offering a Paradise of comforts ¢ fruit of perfect communism. Brent says we “are facing in this re- agent of Czarism the most power product of the war, a world-force to be reckoned with.” All of which makes the proceedings at Locarno the more timely and important. HE Episcopal Convention, sitting in New Orleans, has eliminated “obey” from the marriage service, and Dr. Brown from the house of Bishops. Dropping obey was simply a recogni- tion of what had happened in the world. Dropping Bishop Brown was evidently an unwelcome duty. It is not for a lay- man to set forth the precise points of diversity for which they fired him, but a good deal of his reported remarks. either at the convention or outside of it, sounded very much like the truth, and if they were heretical, Dr. Brown may merely share with others—some of them sainted, many of them honored— the inconvenient distinction of being a little ahead of his brethren. E. S. Martin. comicbooks.com