Looranna by M.A. Mccarter — Read

"Yes, my son, I think it would be better to tell Milly all. I know it would be better. If you have any difficulties to contend with, it is only right that your wife should know of them. I do not wish to blame either of you now, my boy, but it is not too late for both of you to start afresh. You must go home, as your father said. It is the only remedy now, since the coal miners have gone out on strike, and your mines are lying idle. The miners may become desperate, unless some remedy is found immediately; and, remember this, Harold, the absentee mine owner is almost as great a curse to a State as the absentee land owner. He shows little interest in his possessions; and certainly the absentee owner should remember that he owes a duty to the State from which he derives his income. You know, my boy," and Mrs. Jenkins' voice wears a tone of gentle rebuke as she speaks to her son, "you and Milly are the worst of absentees. Hitherto you have been gathering in the dividends, only to extravagantly spend them abroad in other lands. You did not interfere if the miners were imposed upon, and had to toil deep in the bowels of the earth, with death ever hovering in their wake." Harold winces, and is about to say something, but his mother continues, "These poor miners have to breathe in the foul, poisonous atmosphere, away where God's sunlight never reaches, and where pure air cannot be breathed. They have grown tired of toiling always for a miserable recompense. You now find that they are not content to suffer always.

They have the God-given ambition of freemen; they are only asking of you enough to enable them to live as white men should live. Hitherto, you have been deaf to their call. You have been satisfied to pay large bonuses yearly to the managers who could work your mines in the cheapest way; you forgot that the great profits shown in the balance- sheets were sucked, leech-like, from the poor miners, the earners of your wealth. And what is the result of this long neglect? The toilers are in rebellion! But then, Harold, you are no worse than many of the other absentee employers."