The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-08-23
MORE ABOUT COAL.

The coal production in the bitum- Inous fields has now been fixed by the government for those several states wherein they are operated. It is based upon an average which has little or no relation to the costs of production.
 It is purely arbitary and although it cuts down the profits of the own CTS of the industry a little or con siderable, it still leaves quite a margin for profitable operation.
 Let us consider one state alone. The state of Illinois which is one of the leaders in bituminous coal pro- duction In fact it's production is only exceeded by Pennsylvania and by West Virginia.
 In 1916, just year ago the price of coal at the mine was approXimat- ely one dollar ton. Since then q wage agreement has been affected whereby in some mines the labor increased ten cents a ton. Since then. too, in the month of July the price of coal increased from the above amount to $2.75 or more. In fact Illinois producers were circulat- ing Wisconsin with coal offers at the mine of from three and a half to four dollars a ton. They alleged that these terms were especially sayored by Franklin K. Lane, Gov eg,nor J. r. Fort of the Federal Trades Commission and the Com Yn1ttee of the Council of Nationa! defense. They had jumped up their prices over 200 per cent and had the official approval for such pro ftable increase as fully in line with the exalted patriotism that was characteristic always of the coal kings. But then Secrcatry Lane has always been the good angel of the corporations.
 Ton cents a ton was considered a reasonable profit ct all times but the actual profit was in the neigh borhood of 750 per cent. And that certainly was enough 70 make any Cne patriotic.
 The labor costs on an average for q period of fiftoen years in Illinois have advanced 20.6 ton of which 1O.4 cents was during the past eighteen n1rthG.
 During that time tEc Lax" boats incl eased their rates from forty or fifty cents a ton to a dollar and quarter cents a ton and railroad transportation increased to a pro portionate ratio.
 Now an investigation carefully made reveals first of all that the coal mines can take care and that to an excess of the largest present time demands for bituminous coal. But it has also been revealed that sae production is not within forty Ter cent of the possible maximum rcnuirements for domestic or indus trial uses.
 IL was pointed out the shortage enables the companies to charge what they pleased up to this, and that the shortage is arti- ficially created is self evident.
 The capacity of the modern com pressed steel coal car is about hfty tons although much larger are in actual operation. These ears how ever are net utilized for coal exclu- sively but other heavy material is freightcd in them and often times with special bottoms such waste of freight space is to be noticed ac- coyding to the investigators as auto material and the like. The compa- nies blame the railroads for the car shortage but when 1t i3 r2mem- bered that the Illinois Central. the (. & O., the c. & A., the Elgia Sh4iiet end Eastern, the Illinois Springfield, the c, c. c. & St. l.. she B. & O., The Chicago Junction Railway. etc, in fact all the roads running through Illinois are also interested in coal companies. the great josh that has been perpetrated upon the people at the peoples ex- pense will be noted
 
 Indeed these coal and railroad companies have developed a war dime efficiency of their own, and