The Prescott daily news., 1919-09-02
;. D. A. MORROW TELLS SENATE COMMITTEE SUCH A coMRlNA.
 TON WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE.
PRICES AT MINES ARE
 LOWER THAN LAST YEAR
setter Grades of Coal Have Advanc- cd, But Lower Grades Declined, Making Average of All
 Grades Lcss.

Washington-(Special) = A com.
 bination among bituminous coal ope-
 rators to maintain or fix prices does
 not exist and would be impossible if
 attempted. J. D. A.'Morrow, vice pres
 ident of the National Coal AssocYa-
 ton, told the Senate subcommittee
 in its first days inquiry here into
 the coal situation. Prices at the
 mine, Mr. Morrow added. have declin-
 ed under tho competition which pre- vails and ere lower now than they
 were year ago.
 There are about 5000 separate commercial producers operating ap-
 prcximately seven thousand mines. from which bitumineus coal is regu-
 larly shipped" Mr Morrow said. "ln addition there are some two thousand operators with about three thousand mines, who begin produc- ing and selling coal whenever tho price goes up @ little and offers prof 1t to them. Thus in 1917 coal pro duction was reported to the United States Geological Survey from 19,634 mines. Moreover. there are hundreds of thousands of acres of coal lands along railroads on which new mines can be ready and quickly opened by any one so disposed.
 Such condition obviously does not lend itself to restrictive combina.
 tions among producers. In addition the operators of each mining field are subject to competition from the pro- ducers of other fields, so that buyers have many different sources of sup. ply available to them.
 Anyone who alleges that there is nation wide combination among bi- luminous coal producers when these are the conditions of bttumlnous coal production and distribution, merely advertises his own ignorance or con- victs himself of deliberate and vi- cious misstatements.
 "Of the i've thousand separate bi- luminous coal producers in the Unit cd States, 2,8s4, approximately 45 per cent, hold membership in the Nation
 al Coal Association. They produce about sixty per cent of the total out put of bituminous coal in tho country.
 Charges that the National Coal Association is combination to main tain prices gre without foundation m fact; they doubtless proceed simply from ignorance of its purpose and ac- tiyities.
 The National Coal Association neither buys nor sells coal; neither does it have anything whatever to do with the prices which it's members ask or sell at, nor with the territory into which they ship their coal, nor the quantity which they produce"
 MT. Morrow stated that bituminous coal prices have declined since the armistice, and in general are lower than ths prices fixed by the United States Fuel Administration he sub mitted charts to the committee graph ically showing the prices which bitu- minous coal sold at the mines in diff ferebt districts of the United States from April 1 to August 1, 1919. Ia connection with these charts Mr. Morrow explained that when the price restrictions of the Fuel Administra- tion were removed on February 1 last, the better, more desirable coal went to premium in the open com petitive market and the less desirabls coals declined in price, This was the actien to be expected He said in a market where the buyer exercises his l choice and can obtain the kind ne prefers, as result, instead of the uni. ] form prices in different districts, which were fixed by the United States Fuel Administration, prices promptly spread out, some coal going higher and some lower than they had | been.
 | Meantime" MT. Morrow said "The cost of producing bituminous | coal is higher now than it was a year ago, due to the fact that the mines then were operating six days week and in many cases now are
 operating only four days per week. and in some cases only three days
 per week. The overhead expense ol
 maintaining mines goes on just the
 same whether coal is produced or
 not. These idle day expenses have
 resulted in increased costs per ton,
 as compared with last year. Wher T