Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-02
REPORT SENT TOCONGRESS
Increased Compensation, $4,000, 900 !;
Product Goes Up $13,45O,O 900.
FIGURES SHOWN BY INQUIRY
Effect of Strike Agreement in An
thracite District Demonstrated
by Labor Bureau.

fard coal companies increased the
wages of their employees 100000 fol-
lowing the strike agreement of last May
and increased the price of anthracite to
consumers $13. 10000, according to
report based on an investigation by the
bureau OF labor, submitted to the House
yesterday.
The report submitted by Secretary
Nagel Is the result of an investigation
conducted in response to a resolution
asking for the elements of cost and
profit included in the present high price
of anthracite
An average increase of &c cents ton
in wholesale coal prices was discovered
to have been made since the May strike
agreement. In spite of the fact that
the workers benefited about $4,000. 900 in
increased wages during the year, the re-
port adds that 'the recent i5Sceases In
prices have been more than sufficient to
compensate fully those companies, whose
cost of production have increased most
| rapidly during recent years, and at the
same time have very greatly increased
the profits of those companies, of whom
there are at least several, whose costs
of production either decreased or re-
manned stationary during the same
period"
Advance in Ton Price.
Coal for domestic use increased a frac-
ton over 81 cents a ton, that pea coal
and the smaller steam sizes rs cents a
ton. These figures were based on compar-
ison of net receipts by the operators aft
err the agreement of May last with their
receipts during the same months, June to
September 1911
OF the more than S13.OOOOOO gained by
the operators after the strike agreement
$1O.&O,OOo was derived from general in
crease In prices and about $2,55O.0OO from
the suspension of April and May dis
counts. while in addition a limited num-
Der of operators are reported to have re
ceived very large sums through the sale
of coal at premiums made possible by the
shortage of shipments incident to the
strike. The discounts of 40 and 30 cents a
ton customarily allowed in April and May
on domestic size coal were suspended dur
ing those months of 1872.
AS a result the operators not only
gained by saving this discount, says the
report, but in addition purchasers who
were unable to secure their usual supply
in those months We're forced to buy 1t
during June, July or August, when dis
count rates were smaller, or in Septem-
Der and later when full circular prices al e
charged. The SIG, 10000, the report says,
was not net profit, because out of it came
the cost of six weeks cessation of work
by the strikers and also the increase in
their wages.
Effect on Production Cost.
The increase in wages, however, the
report adds, represents a raise OF only
eight ten cents ton in the cost of
coal production. The report does not
estimate how much more the public paid
for it's coal last year than II 1911 rates
had continued. although it says that the
increase In wholesale prices affected re-
tail prices directly, and that in all COM
munities these advances were felt. The
retail increases averaged % cents ton
and ~ to 80 cents on chestnut coal.
In New York, Philadelphia and Wash
ington retail advances correspond very
closely with the advances in the circular
prices of the operators. In some places,
however, the advances were much more
pronounced, and the report cites Spring
field, Mass. and Manchester, n. H.,
where 1t was approximately $1.J0 a ton;
and Boston and New Haven, where 1t
was 80 cents. The retail dealers, it says.
benefited very unequally from the price
advances. Whether these increases were
rea sonable must be determined, the re-
port adds. for individual communities.
The report shows that the coal COM
panies affected by the Supreme Court de-
cision Of last December had until Een
a still further advantage, in that their
contracts with independent companies by
which they secured domestic coal at 10
per cent OF tidewater prices We're not
disturbed when the price of val in
creased in June.
While the so-called Independent oper-
ators paid their miners the same in
creases in wages as the larger coal COM
panies, they got only Is per cent of the
price raise, while 30 per cent of 1t, Or
SIS cents d ton, went to the big COM
panies
Benefits to Miners.
AS to the anthracite mine workers, the
report says that they benefited by the
strike agreement of May 70 last, not only
by an average increase of Sc per cent
in their wages. but through the con-
cession of certain working conditions
which were considered of Importance al
though they cannot be measured in terms
Of money; an additional item of import
ance to the miners being the partial re-
cognition Of their organization, both in the
negotiations and in the form in which the
agreement was signed"
The report shows that all the operators,
most of the dealers and the miners gained
by the increase following the wage
agreement, and that the consuming public
| alone paid higher prices without any COM
| pensation.