Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-12-15

not BY any meanx remedy that trouble. lack
the miners. the railroads and the consumer IL
at the bottom Of the problem. according to the
best expert evidence available.
Let us start with the public. The public.
including both domestic consumers and factory
owners, has been accustomed to buying its
coal when it needs it, which IL in the winter.
The result is that we must have enough mines
and enough miners on the job to supply
that maximum winter demand. 1t follows in
evitably that in the spring and summer. when
the demand 10 Lax, mines and miners are Idle.
They are In fact idle from one-fourth to one
third OF the time. This 10 one OF the things
that the miners are kicking about. They want
to be assured Of five days OF work week, at
least. Some octhe dear public still think that
the miners want to work five days week at
most. As matter Of fact the miners want to
work more. not less. 1t Is discouraging to 90
to work in the morning and to be told that
there will be no work that day, and no pay.
because there Is no market for the product.
Yet that IL what the miners are told again and
again In some Of the Ohio mines, the miners
were given only about 200 days Of work last
hundred. In most places they worked about
two hundred fifty days.
So the miners are idle in the spring and
summer for lack Of . market, and when the
winter rush comes along. they are idle part Of
the time for lack of cars to handle the coal.
1t is quite evident that if the spring and sum-
mer market could be stimulated, the miners
could be kept busy then. and the winter rush
could be to some extent forestalled There
would then be more cars available, and the
miners would not BE idle in winter. The min
ers would have continuous work and We could
have continuous coal supply
The present state Of affairs has often been
blamed on the operators. 1t has been stated
that they should provide storage facilities for
coal at the mines. Then coal mined in the
warm weather could be stored until needed.
But the technical investigations made by the
bureau Of mines do not bear out the theory that
the operators are to blame. They show that
the storage Of coal at the mine is attended with
serious difficulties. Soft coal stored In large
quantities-many thousands Of tons-is in dan
ger from spontaneous combustion. That is,
it may take fire from the heat which is gener-
ated by oxidation And again, storing coal at
the mines means handling it twice instead Of
once, as is done II the coal is put directly into
the cars. This means an extra cost to be
passed on to the consumer. And he is bearing
enough extra costs now!
1t also means that the coal will be broken
up, and will thus decrease in value. Coal
loses value from this cause every time It Is
handled.
The logical place to store the coal. there
fore. is in the bin of the consumer, and not at
the mine The small supply used by the do
nestle consumer (meaning you and mel Is in
no danger from spontaneous combustion, and
the amounts needed by the average factory
are not in such danger either, II properly
stored. Therefore. the consumer should buy
his coal in the spring and summer as much as
possible. and store it.
During the war we were all urged to do
this on the grounds q patriotism. But we had
already done SO much on grounds of patriot,
ism that we did not heed the appeal to any
great extent Now Director Manning of the
bureau Of mines comes forward with more
practicable suggestion. He suggests that the
coal be made cheaper to the consumer in the
| summer than in the winter. Here is q method
| We can all appreciate.
Owing to the laws passed by congress
against price-fxing agreements, the operators
OF coal mines cannot agree to set lower
price in the warm weather. But Director Man
ming makes the interesting suggestion that the
same result would be attained IL the govern
ment would work out sliding scale Of trans
portatfon charges for the carrying Of coal by
the railroads and boats. which would make
coal cheaper in the summer. 1t is easy to see
how this would work without going into de-
/! tails. Coal perhaps would be hauled most
cheaply in July, because there is then less de-
mand for It. BY buying your coal in July you
might save dollar a ton. In January it would
be most expensive. The January price would
be enough above the July price to make up fol
the loss. By varying the scale of Transports
ton charges, the production of coal could, the
oretically and. it would seem, practically, be
controlled almost at will.
There are several other ways in which thu
production of coal could be regulated. One o.
the best ways would be to have power plant.
at the mines. which are much cheaper to carr,
than coal. This would be the logical way, bu
1 it is Of course not a way that can be put int
effect on short notice.
Another way, also pointed out by Director
Manning, and of immediate value. is the ex
portation Of more COAL Europe needs our coal
In Italy they are burning olive trees for lacl
Of coal. Formerly Great Britain dominated
the coal export market, but she has now los
this dominance and is producing little NOR,
coal than she needs herself
We are not exporting nearly as much Goa
as we could export. Here again. organized in
telligent effort is all that is lacking Mr.. Man
lining suggests that the coal operators shout,
form an export association under the Webb
Pomerene law. They could easily find an ex
port market which would keep mines an,
miners busy during the dull season. when tn
domestic market will not take up the product