The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-08
For the Good of
 the Community

w HILE the coal miners strike may w not be felt as acutely in Birming- ham or the south as in the strictly indus trial sections of the country, yet it IS bad enough here. Although the number of miners now idle is comparatively small compared with the total working ,popula- tion of the country, so many industries and the entire transportation system of Amer ica are dependent upon coal to keep oper- ations going, that the effects of the strike are universal.
 The strike has now been in effect five weeks despite the recall order issued about the middle of November and this has made it necessary for all coal con- ' sumers to draw heavily on their reserve stocks
 If the strike only affected the men ac- tually connected with the coal industry the effects throughout the country would be negligible, except perhaps for little suffering here and there because of the lack of heat, but without coal the iron and steel industries cannot operate; transpor- tation must cease; cities must go lightless, and business generally be paralyzed, and hundreds of thousands of working men forced into idleness.
 
 fore, are not the only persons whose in- comes are~cut off. With the strike con- tinued indefinitely, and effectively, thous- ands of industrial plants would have to close down and millions of men thrown out of employment. Therefore, 1t comes to pass that 400, 900 men, whose demands are deemed exorbitant by the public gen. erally, are able to tie up the entire coun- try because the employers refusedto grant these demands.
 Some intimation of what has happened, and may reasonably be expected to hap pen soon, unless the miners go back to work is stated in the Iron Age of Decem- Der 4, in discussing the strikes effect on the iron and steel industries. The article follows:
 ''The coal shortage is shutting off iron and steel production in a number of dis tricts and the industry will soon face ser ious curtailment unless coal output can be materially increased. The return of the wartime ban on certain uses of fuel will effect all industry and the place of steel in peace time will be much farther down < on the essential list than in the heatless days of 1918.
 'The Bethlehem Steel Go. has been compelled to bank four blast furnaces. At South Chicago, the Illinois Steel Go. has banked five blast furnaces and blown out one It has blown out one at Gary and shut down two batteries of coke ovens at Gary and one at Joliet. Most of thebar iron and rerolling mills in the Chicago dis trict are idle, and two iron mills at Cleve- land. Secondary industries are being af- fected also, an Indiana nut and bolt plant having been forced to close down.
 With the coal situation so much more threatening, steel companies have brought their sales departments to standstill but meantime. demand is coming in from all directions, so that business to the extent of tens of thousands of tons is piling up that the mills cannot consider. Com panies not committed to the policy of holding down prices are reaping the bene- fit of premium prices, but the total of such business is not significant
 Coal scarcity and the fear of fresh curtail- ment of blast furnace output has caused further sharp rise in pig iron, the weeks advance being from $2 to S3. In Eastern Pennsylvania the de- livered price is very close to the $40 level that was predicted when iron was S1O lower Basic