The twice-a-week Twin Falls times. (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1916-1918, 1917-11-01
DECLARE THAT 1T MEANS
ABSOLUTE ELIMINATION
OF PROFIT
Say 1t Defeats Its Own
Purpose
Declare That Compliance With
Law Means Financial Loss
Aver That Gooding Knows More
About Wool Than Diamonds.

Coal went down to $S.15 on the
Twin Falls market today, the lowest
regular price in the history of the
city. with an official order in effect
that no dealer shall charge more than
rs cents for delivery. The result is
that the dealers, who say that there
is no profit in the business at the rate
named, made coal a straight cash
proposition and separated the drayage
feature from the sale department
One of the dealers put it up to a
TIMES reporter this way:
you see, the price is fixed at $S.15
which includes $125 for unloading.
shrinkage and overhead expenses and
profits. Now, the first and third items
according to the figures of the coal
men here, average $1.10. The remain
ing Is cents will be lost through
shrinkage, so there is no profit We
are allowed to charge Is cents for
hauling and nc more, but the draymen
here charge not less than dollar for
hauling a ton, so you see that if
coal man should hire a drayman, he
would on the average contribute two
bits with each ton of coal sold. Any
how, the cutting out of profit will
mean the closing of all accounts, since
the loss of a single account would
mean going that much in the hole.
Our friend Former Governor Good
ing, is an excellent sheepman and
knows a lot about the price of wool
and the expenses involved, but he
does not know anything about the cost
of delivering coal The new ruling
will mean the end of screening and
forking coal heretofore done by the
dealers here and will defeat the real
objects of the regulation, which is to
furnish the maximum heat at a reas-
enable cost. Another thing, the pres
sure of dealers and the active person
al interest taken when coal is short
means the securing of a supply some
times because they can afford to go
to the source of supply and help fig
ure out how coal can be secured. Last
year dealers here made a number OF
trips to Salt Lake City with good re-
suits. This year, while the dealers
will handle the coal from patriotic
motives, they cannot afford to make
trips to get supply on hand. In re-
gard to delivery, they cannot afford
to hire men to haul coal and the law
will not permit them to make any
agreement to charge more than the
rs cents allowed so in many cases
it will mean that having bought cOal
a purchaser must then go out and hire
a drayman, paying him a dollar. Our
local man, Bill Guthrie, is a good law
yer, and doing the best he can, but he
is not any more familiar with the Goa
business than Frank Gooding is. The
situation is just like as if the govern
rent fixed a rate on printing and news
papers which left you no margin anc
then raised the price of postage or
newspapers, telling you at the same
time that you should not charge your
customers more than half the postage
You would insist on some other mean:
of delivery"
Coal Administrators w. P. Guthrie
who looks after Twin Falls distric
prices said that there seemed to bt
considerable dissatisfaction among
dealers. but he believed that the thing
could be worked out. He said some
of them had a sort of arrangement
with customers on which they nigh
lose unless they and the customers
could agree, which he believed tina
they could. He stated that the gross
prices were fixed by the food admins
tration at Washington and that For
mer Governor Gooding had nothing t.
do with that part of it. How much o
the details, like the cost of hauling il
determined by Mr.. Gooding he did no
state.