The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-12-18
PRQF|TEER|NG IN
COAL MINING
LARGE NUMBER OF LIBERTY
BONDS STILL HE'D BY PEOPLE
INCREASE IN WEALTH
STREAMS CONTAIN MUCH USABlE POWER
"ProtectIng the Pubiic"-Many Peo
pie Studying Foreign Languages
In Wash ington.
BY j. e. Jones.

BY J. E. Jones.
A rule Of commerce Is that the ten
dency of prices is upwards whenever
the demand exceeds the supply. Usu.
ally there is not much controversy
over prices when the purchasers are
chiefly interested in getting the goods.
Therefore not many people are ques-
tioning the price of sugar in the mar
ket place today. They are willing
to take it at any price. IT, as Federal
Judge Anderson has intimated, there
has been collusion on the part of coal
operators and miners, then it is rea-
sonable to suppose that in the
processes of natural laws Of trade,
coal would be selling this winter at
hitherto unheard of prices, except for
the Intervention of the government,
which has been able to lay down a
hard rule to protect the consumers
of the country, by forbidding an in
crease in the selling price Of coal.
The coal operators objected to this
measure very strenuously, when the
ington for decision. However, when
exposure Of enormous profits thre It
ened them, the operators decided that
discretion was the better part of valor,
and fastened to declare that they
would do anything the government de-
cided upon. Despite denials, the prob
abilities are that Secretary of the
Treasury Glass and former Secretary
McAdoo were in position to back up
their allegations that the profits to
coal operators have been anywhere
from Is per cent to 1000 per cent.
These profteers were, however, found
to be less stubborn than the profiteers
who mined the coal, and who con-
tinued to remain on strike when a
scientific adjustment was announced,
raising their wages fourteen per cent.
With cities running their business
houses on half time, and the great in
dustries of the country closing down.
or operating on a six-hour day sched-
ule; with train service reduced to the
minimum: and with general disaster
and freezing threatening the whole
country, the so-called radical group"
of miners continued to fight against
yielding to the government. Every in
telligent analysis leads to the conclu-
sion that nearly 100000 coal miners
have had the country by the throat,
and their manner of defying the gov
ernment was not bit less rebellious
than that which occurred in slavery
days when a group of states started
out running things on their own hook.
The only difference was that in one
case the men backed up their protest
with arms and ammunition, whereas
the coal miners stayed at home, and
ness brought any hardship to them or
their families, since they seemed to
be well supplied with money.
A commission is to be devised to
adjust questions of employment in
the coal industry. 1t is reasonable
to predict that such a commission will
establish a just standard between the
operators and employees. OF course
this is in keeping with progressive
policies in industry. But when the
commission has finished, the same un-
ruly hordes in the coal mining busi-
ness Gncluding operators and miners)
who have imposed their selfish affairs
upon the public. will doubtless still be
found kicking over whatever awards
and conclusions may be arrived at.
A great many people are prone to
believe that the better policy on the
part Of the public would be to see
the game of profiteering among coal
operators and miners through to the
finish, by letting soldiers and citizens,
who have a high regard for the rights
of the public, operate the coal mines,
letting the selfish interests that are
in charge Of the industry, get as much
the worst of things as 1t would be
possible to hand out to them.
Where are the liberty bonds of yes.
terday. Who remembers those in
tensely patriotic gentlemen that arose
in the theatres and moving picture
houses and called out their bids in
thousand-dollar lots? Great applause!
There were others who took a measly
fifty or hundred-dollar bond, which
they paid for on the installment plan.
These people still have their bonds.
It is different with those other pur-
chasers, who bought spectacular
bonds" According to the Federal Re-
serve bulletin $6,500 900 900 of liberty
bonds, victory notes and treasury GER
tihcates were owned outright and held
as collateral for loans in the banks OF
the country on June 80. 1919.
Senator Jones OF Washington. told
CONTINUED on Page 6-Col. 81