The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1917-12-04
TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER A. 1917.
SOMETHING FOR THE COAL INDUSTRY
To PONDER OVER

T-,WERYTHING considered it took the coal industry
e long time to find out that the railroads were not
treating it squarely. And after this apparent
to the most obtuse it took another long time before
Coal began to demand its rights from Transportation in the
right way There are number of explanations for this
The most important of them are that it not until this
year that Coal discovered that all the regions and all the
operations had many things in common Many operators
knew so little about the basic facts of the industry that they
did not know that Transportation was treating them all alike
IN the matter Of discriminating against them. Even the coal
trade journals did not discover this until recently.
The first to find it out naturally. lie big corpor
hons that have traffic ckefs on their stas True to their
Traditions when they got line the situation these
poraion. did not make hs only kind of protest that
C. s IN country III this. They kept quiet about what
they had learned and tried the effect of palave They
treated the railroads with extreme kndmess in the hope
that the railroads would be moved treat them kindly in
return. Some Of them may have tried what decade
so ago got 'bad nam IN transportation circles under
the none too beautiful name of pull But no natter the
raro, kept right on giving the coal industry raw deal
Finally Coal had to drop all the archaic methods with
which il had been trying do business and out in
the open like the honest business it is That has not been
gong on very long. but it already beginning to bring the
answer in the way of better sevce-and abuse and this
abuse the for this screed We want to show coal
operators how transportation handles them when it
longer hoodwnk them The following extracts are from
zee countys foremost and ablest transportation pub
LEGATION:
Why does this condition inadequate pro-
& ductionl exist? 1t exists mainly because the
& coal producers of the United States have dis
played sordid selfshness, want of business
8 capacity and lack of patriotism. The rail-
ways, foreseeing the course of developments.
organized themselves to meet the country's
transportation needs during the within
\ + five days after war declared The; coal
-nrnd have mt OrPaniZed
~ themselves to meet the countrys needs for
fuel.
The railways have been obliged to go on
rendering their service for the same rates as
before the war, although they have had greater
Increases in expenses Of operation than the
coal producers; and yet during the e months
ending with August they handled 16 per cent
more freight than in the same months OF last
year, and in the months from May to October.
inclusive. they transported Is per cent more
coal than in the same months of last year.
They have moved this years increased output
of COAL and also the vast quantities Of 1t which
in former years would have moved by water.
The coal producers. on the other hand
ceeded in getting the government to fix pr
for coal vastly higher than any. ever known be-
fore the conditions created by the present war;
but in spite of these high prices they have
erted themselves sufficiently to increase their
production by only about 10 per cent.
Having failed through avarice .incapacity
and want of patriotism to meet the require
ments of the situation. the. coal producers
engaged in the familiar practice Of crying
"a stop thief" The National Coal Association
an organization formed apparently to increase
the output of misinformation regarding the
fuel situation rather than the output Of coal.
is Issuing frequent statements intended to put
the responsibility for the failure to secure ade-
quate production OF coal upon the railroads. .
hat OUGHT 10 make rather pnI.,a.nt koy n.