The Elk Mountain pilot., 1918-10-10
Miners Work vii, Wi. or Lose for Us

Before meeting OF mine WorkerS
Friday afternoon, Sept. 20, called by
ton. u. S. Fuel Administration, P.
B. Moves, Director of Conservation.
spoke as follows:
81 passed soldier in the street
the other day. A friend whom was
with me said "That fellow has just
come over from France. He has been
four months in the front line
trenches" l turned around to look
at him. That soldier was of tremen-
dous interest to me. He was the
real thing. He was one of those men
whose work must win or lose for me
and mine and everything hold dear.
You would have turned around and
looked at him with the same interest.
81 have come down here today with
this same feeling. l look at all you
miners with the same thrill that L
looked back at that soldier. l have
been sitting for a year between the
great war making departments OF
the government and the Fuel Admin
istration and have seen success or
failure narrowed down every month
more and more to a question OF how
much coal you get out, until now you
miners are as interesting to me as
soldiers. To me you are first line
men in this war. You do not know
yourselves or you only half know
how much you are the real warriors
in this greatest of all wars. l have
come here partly to hold up mirror
to you and let you see yourselves
as we are all seeing you-first trench
soldiers.
This war is fought with steel and
iron. Steel is short because coal is
short. You have a terrible task. You
have done splendidly and have made
splendid increase in the amount OF
coal mined during the past two years
in spite of all handicaps, but still
more coal must be sent to the steel
furnaces if you are to save the lives
of our sons and brothers and friends
in France.
81 did not come here to make a
speech came here to tell you some
cold facts. Germany taught the
of making war last March She got
together supply of shells. and guns,
and every offensive weapon greater
than the world had ever seen before.
With this huge pile of shells she
staged a terrible offensive with much
smaller loss of German lives than
such battles used to bring. Having
shells to waste, she saved her SOL
diers' lives. Wherever the German
line went forward, endless quantities
of shells were exploding as pro-
were lined up to defend their posi-
tions, the countryside was deluged
with shells of all descriptions. The
Germans fired hundred shells. not
caring if ninety-nine hit nothing. If
the hundredth killed man or broke
up a trench, they were satisfied. They
had shells to waste and that waste
fulness protected their men and put
ours out of business.
Our generals have learned this
lesson we'll. They are ordering for
next spring cannon. and shells, and
bombs, and aeroplanes, and tanks in
ing in on US and other orders for
ships to take this material over be-
fore next spring. Piles of munitions
are to be prepared in France for the
great drive which will bring victory,
so big as to make the German piles
last spring look like thirty cents. If
we send to France all that is asked,
the casualties in the great drive will
be few compared with the execution
done.
"Shall we here at home be able to
fill all of Pershing's orders? The an
swer is. we shall not. To make these
munitions we need steel. At the rate
we are now making steel, it is i'm
possible to fill these enormous or
ders. We cannot increase the steel
without more coal than you are min
ing now Get this in your minds.
The question, how near we are COM
ing to sending General Pershing all
the munitions he can use to save the
lives of his men. will depend abso-
lutely on how much coal is mined
this fall and winter.
II want you to fully sense the pos
sible disaster ahead. You may never
hear of the disaster if it comes be-
cause the drive will go forward on
| time just the same. 1t will be sue
cessful. The disaster will be buried
in the casualty lists. Some time in
February or March, or whenever the
time fer the big offensive has come,
General Persh'ng will sit down with
pencil in his hand and figure cut
just how short he is of that ideal
Then to make up the shortage, he
will figure SO many thousand addi-
tional young men who must be killed.
He has military formulas which will
tell him-so many shells short, so
many extra deaths. General Persh-
ing can figure to a man how many
extra deaths must be allowed for to
make up for his deficit of shell 8.
This is an absolute truth. Do not
fool yourselves. The more coal you
get out betw- en- now and Christmas,
the fewer casualties next spring.
"Many of you mine six tons of coal
per day. That six tons will make
one ton of steel. which will make 25
3-inch shells. Ev-ry day that you
lay off unnecessarily, figures against
yourself 25 shells gone from General
Pershing's pi e. If YOU lay off one
day week until next , arch, YOU
must figure TINT your pleasure has
cost General Prrshing 1T lie st SEQ