Manchester Democrat

The Detroit Conference.
In a situation so imminently menacing as that resulting from the strike of the anthracite coal miners any proposition which looks to relief is worthy of attentive consideration. The authorities of the nation lack either power or the inclination to act in the matter. The task of finding a way out of the difficulty devolves, therefore, upon the people themselves.
The invitations for a conference upon the coal famine which have been issued by the city authorities of Detroit should and doubtless will evoke a prompt and willing response. The matter is one which vitally affects more than half the population of this country. It is next in seriousness to a bread famine. It is probably the most critical condition which the nation has had to face since the civil war.
The Detroit council may not be able to devise measures for immediate relief. It can, at the best, go no farther than the making of recommendations. But it can formulate the sentiment of the country into an impressive expression and it can inform and develop public opinion with reference to the public enemies who control the anthracite coal mines of Pennsylvania.
If the conference shall do no more than this it will have accomplished a great and desirable end. When the people of the United States fully comprehend the danger which threatens the country as the result of the contumacy of a clique of lawless scoundrels there will be a demand for a righting of wrongs which neither the blasphemous coalkings nor the federal authorities will dare to ignore.
The convention at Detroit will disseminate the ominous facts of the situation, and that is what is necessary to procure salutary action. - Chicago Chronicle.