President Roosevelt has succeeded after all in putting an end
to the Pennsylvanian coal strike. Great pressure has been applied to the railway magnates who own the mines, and after much resistance they have agreed, with Mr. Pierpont Morgan at their head, to go to arbitration. The arbitrators are to be six in number, of whom only one is an expert in coal, and have been nominated by Mr. Roose- velt with the assent of the " operators " and the miners. Their award is to be delivered within a fixed date, and is to be imperative on both parties for three years, work in the mines being resumed at once. The terms do not include full recog- nition of the right of combination, and there is fear that the men will hereafter demand changes which the "operators" will not concede ; but public opinion is satisfied, and in America the theory is that no body of strikers will venture to outrage public opinion. We shall see; but meanwhile the agitation against Trusts—that is, monopolies—has received an increased impetus. Dear coal touches the household as well as endangers many forms of associated enterprise. At the same time, President Roosevelt has still further raised himself in the estimation of his fellow-countrymen as a man of action, and also as a man of moderation. They feel that he will somehow find out a way to curb the excesses of the great monopolies without falling into the dangers of a Socialistic interference with commercial liberty. The American people are clearly going to trust Mr. Roosevelt as they trusted Washington and Lincoln. Their trust will not be misplaced.
