Chapter 333 Miners' Union
"Gowan? The former leader of the coal cartel?" Sheffield put his hands in his pockets and asked with great interest, "It seems that like your father, there were piles of corpses under Morgan's feet. Later, he committed suicide?"
"In fact, for this strike, we can first focus Roosevelt's attention on the coal industry. Then we can see how Morgan responds. If he can withstand Roosevelt's pressure, then it won't be difficult for us to fight him with his example." Rockefeller Jr. put down the newspaper about the reconciliation between the two coal parties and said with a little regret, "It's a pity that Morgan doesn't seem to be ready to test Roosevelt's power for us."
"No one wants to be the first unlucky one! I understand!" Sheffield said with a wry smile, "But even if there is the first unlucky one sooner or later, considering your current penetration of the financial industry, Morgan should still feel the threat more than your family. He has intervened in too many industries, although his control is not high and many of his shares are not large. But from a probability perspective, he should be hit harder than Standard Oil first, but this does not mean that the Rockefeller family is safe. If Roosevelt tastes the sweetness, he will definitely take action against Standard Oil and this trust benchmark at the right time."
Standard Oil was the representative of the corporate trust. Without defeating Standard Oil, Roosevelt's attack on the corporate trust would have been a minor one and would not have won huge public support. This was obviously not in line with the idea of the first president who wanted to break the unspoken rule of re-election.
Standard Oil is a powerful entity among the corporate trusts. How can we defeat the trusts if we don't dismantle it?
Rockefeller Jr. nodded in agreement with Sheffield's analysis. He also felt that Roosevelt should start with the easy tasks and then move on to the difficult ones. After successfully eliminating several small trusts and accumulating public support, he would be fully prepared before coming to cause trouble.
"Since Roosevelt will make trouble sooner or later, we must prepare to fight him and take the case to the Supreme Court. I wonder how many of the nine justices will be inclined towards us?" Rockefeller Jr. paused for a moment. "As long as you can deal with two of them, there will be a way to make a ruling in our favor."
"Yes, according to case law, once we can get a favorable verdict in the first instance, the rest will be easy. But I still say that it is best not to help the Morgan trust. Our relationship with Morgan is already like this. Roosevelt has a term limit. Who knows how many years Morgan can live? The threat he poses to us is long-term. I will not help Morgan." Sheffield still remembered his ethics all along: pagans can be negotiated, but heretics must die. He would rather face Roosevelt himself than seek to unite with Morgan.
The basic idea of case law is to recognize that the law itself is not perfect. Legislators can only focus on the principle clauses of a law. When judges encounter specific cases, they should make specific interpretations and judgments based on the specific circumstances and the essence of the legal clauses. Its basic principle is "following precedents", that is, when a court hears a case, it must use the precedents of the previous court as the legal basis for hearing and ruling; for issues that have been dealt with by the effective judgments of this court and the higher courts.
If the same or similar case is encountered again, in the absence of new circumstances and without more sufficient reasons, the Supreme Court shall not make a judgment contrary to or inconsistent with the past judgment until one day in the future the Supreme Court makes a different judgment in another similar case.
Therefore, once United Oil and Standard Oil took the case to the Supreme Court after Roosevelt invoked the antitrust law and obtained the support of the majority of the nine justices, Roosevelt would have to collect evidence carefully if he wanted to launch an attack again for at least a few years, because if he launched an attack in a short period of time and the cases were similar, the outcome would likely be affected by case law.
"But I still want to attract Roosevelt's attention on this matter." Sheffield pondered for a moment and said, "We must prepare for the worst, but it is better not to go to the Supreme Court before that time, because at that time, many things can't be hidden. Now the coal cartel chooses to settle in order not to attract attention. We need to think of a way to prevent them from settling and let people pay attention to this matter."
The situation is different now than it was 20 years ago, when the coal cartel was able to not only dismantle the miners' union, but also hang the workers who participated in the strike. But the United States is so big that anyone can cover the sky with one hand. After smashing the miners' union many times, there is still a strong miners' union in the United States.
"What do you have in mind?" Rockefeller Jr. was stunned for a moment, then reacted. "Use the power of the union? Learn from Carnegie?"
"Well, but I will do it secretly. It will be so embarrassing if I fail. I don't believe that the union can't be bribed. Besides, this is also for the lives of the miners." Sheffield nodded simply, ready to follow Carnegie's example and use the union to stimulate the coal cartel.
Because of the glorious record of Gowen leading the coal cartel in hanging striking miners, there were no trade unions in the coal industry for a long time, and even if they did appear, they were quickly disintegrated.
However, the coal cartel always has negligence, and this negligence is closely related to the development of the coal industry, because in the era of the coal cartel, anthracite was the focus of everyone's attention, and the amount of coal needed by industry and individuals was not large. But now, in the past 20 years, things have changed. The United States needs a lot of coal, and the coal cartel based on anthracite is a step behind.
The nation now consumes four times as much bituminous coal as anthracite, one reason being that bituminous coal is more widely distributed. In addition to the rich coal seams along the Appalachian Mountains from Pittsburgh to Alabama, there are also concentrated bituminous coal fields in Illinois and Indiana. Unlike the anthracite industry, the bituminous coal industry was more decentralized and was not initially favored by the coal cartel that controlled anthracite.
In the bituminous coal mining areas, a miners' union emerged that was not broken up by the coal cartel, a miners' union that succeeded in winning formal recognition. This was the first miners' union to survive for twenty years, and its official name was the United Mine Workers.
Sheffield was ready to have a good talk with the Miners' Union. He said to Rockefeller Jr., "I will do this. This is all for the workers' treatment. I believe they will thank us."
Rockefeller Jr. and the shareholders of Standard Oil left after clarifying their attitudes. Sheffield stayed in St. Louis because of its good location, which was the most suitable place for neutral negotiations. It was not far from anywhere, so there was no need to travel back and forth.
The leader of the United Mine Workers was a young man named John Mitchell. Mitchell started working in the mines at the age of twelve, which left him with a permanent hunchback. A few years later, he left the mines and began to work hard to promote the union of workers in the coal fields of Illinois.
When John Mitchell was found by Sheffield's men, he was so shocked that he almost straightened his back. But after knowing the purpose of the visitor, he agreed to go to St. Louis.
A few days later, Sheffield met the miners' leader. After all, the man's physical features were too obvious, so he would never mistake him. He asked him to sit down, and the slave owner explained his purpose, "I hope you can help the anthracite miners get the rights they deserve."
"Why are you doing this!" John Mitchell only knew that he was facing a big boss, but he didn't know Sheffield's true identity. However, he still knew that there was no such thing as a free lunch, and this person must have his purpose in finding him.
"You can think of me as a competitor of the coal cartel. In fact, we businessmen don't all value profit. Sometimes we also feel angry. The coal cartel and my company are in conflict, so I want to cause trouble for them, so I thought of your union." Sheffield said his purpose with a smile, "I know you are confused and even despise me, but it doesn't matter. You can regard this matter as a dog-eat-dog competition among capitalists to achieve your own goals. If you want money, I can buy you off. If you want to seek benefits for more miners, you need my help even more."
"I need your help. Where can I find your help?" John Mitchell sneered, "I didn't find it."
"I have several newspapers!" Sheffield said with a proud look on his face. This pride was genuine. He was becoming more and more proud of his move to set up media. "I can help you with public opinion when the time comes."
John Mitchell was silent. The workers in the anthracite fields worked longer hours and were subject to stricter supervision, making their conditions worse than those of the bituminous coal miners in the Midwest. The miners usually lived in company dormitories, which not only kept them away from the care of the miners' union, but also exposed them to the surveillance of company spies. Child labor was rampant here.
This is exactly where John Mitchell wanted to go, to use the influence of the United Mine Workers to enter the coal cartel that has been crushing the establishment of the miners' union, to fight against these ugly capitalists and to fight for the legal rights of the miners.
Although the capitalist in front of him is not a good guy either, it is not shameful to use the contradictions within the capitalists to achieve the goal! This is a dog-eat-dog fight between you two. John Mitchell finally agreed that for the interests of the miners, he could temporarily cooperate with other capitalists.
"I will let those anthracite bosses know their sins!" John Mitchell said righteously.
I'm sure no one will contact me tomorrow, so I should be able to post three updates.
(End of this chapter)
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