The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1919-11-06
The Peoples
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me space in your paper to make re-
plies to the operators on behalf Of
the coal miners of Colorado?
In the Denver Post, under date OF
October 26. the Colorado Coal Opera
iors' Association. through their pres
ldcnt, Mr. Wood, issued statement
to the public about the proposed
strike OF the coal miners. This must
be answered, as hal ia truth told is
sometimes worse than lie.
Let us analyze some of his state
merts, and in doing so we will not
take the word of the Colorado coal
I operator nor the word OF President
Lewis of Ire Mine Workers Union,
tut facts and figures as obtained by
the technical engineers of the United
/ States fuel administration, being as
sociated with that institution in
Washington. d. c.. during the war l
/ am in possession of scme of these
facts:
| The association tells tie public that
roal viii be so high thar poor people
can not buy it. Let us see who will
! make il &C high. Tho United States
1 t'iti Ot OCloDti
| 1918. issuLu bulletin to the Colo
RADIO cJa' operators. tSee publica-
t;on Nc. i-Ej. saving TO the opera
tors: You can. not sSh Colorado
bitun,ii.uus steam coal for more than
s2.70. :. y. Inc cars Al lines. Do
nestle coal for more than 2.6o. add
the freigh' WI = would ne appr1Xi-
mately ;. - Il, any giver point. and
you have s5.>, ioI a ton OF steam coal.
and 50 70 for Q ton of domestic coal.
Is the public getting il for that now
This includes what the government
thought was a fair margin of profit
over and above the actual cost of pro-
duction. Let the operator not forget
that the actual cost of production, as
submitted by them, is on record. An
other one of his statements says. a
competent coal miner can make $3.50
month
/ Let us see what the average coal
miner makes. Figures submitted by
/ Herman Lesher, statistician for the
Government. show that the daily av-
erage of tons per man for Colorado in
1918, was five tons. The contract
price for leaders after machines,
which constitute the majority, range
from 50 cents to IS cents. Strike
an average of 81 cents, and you will
see that the miners are making five
times 67 cents, or 1886 a day, and
yet they say miner can make $3.50
IA month. They might arrive at this
conclusion by aggregating the general
managers. superintendents and fore
mems pay with the employees, but not
By figures taken from the employees
wages.
He further states that the country
can not secure sufficient coal under
'hese reduced hours to take care of
their needs. Let us see. Mr.. Lesh-
er states that in July, 1918, there was
working in the bituminous coal mines
74s.4S0 men, working 800 days a year.
They would produce $50 $4,000 tons
:. OF coal. The normal consumption of
the United States is approximately
500, 100000. You will see that if the
miners were permitted to work the
500 days they would accumulate a sur
plus of 330.0O0.0O0 tons. Why are
they not permitted to do SO? Who is
fleeing the public to death? OF course
If this surplus was allowed to acctm-
ulate coal would be a drug on the
market. and the coal operators could
not demand $S and $40 a ton for It,
Let us quote an article from COM
inittee of six from the employers and
employees. II. n. Taylor. now president
of the National Coal Association. was
one of this committee, the writer was
another. This committee was called
together by Or. Garfield. United States
fuel administrator. to outline a policy
to govern the coal mining industry
after the war. This committee said
in part: For many years prior to
the war. for reason not necessary to
lfecite here. there had continuously ex-
isted productive capacity In the BIZ
luminous coal mining industry largely
in excess of the capacity required TO
meet the then current demands of con-
sumers. AS a result of this excessive
capacity, the industry was almost con
stantly in an unprosperous condition.
Mining communities were detrimen-
tally affected; mine workers had a
precarious existence. their working
/ time was short. and regardless OF the
wages paid, their return at the end OF
the year was almost In all cases in
sufficient. Naturaly operators sought
to produce coal at the least possible
e-'rene. regardless Of conservation
e'th'r Of coal in the ground of the life
or health of employees in and about
the mines or OF transportation facil.
ties and also regardless of the clean
Illness. quality or preparation of the