The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-12

! Relative humidity, s a. m............ Y >l ?. m. .......-......,.......... Sz D. m. ...................-....... o4 Dry thermometer, a. m. .......s... "A l D. m. .,..................-.. ....''... tf p. m. x........-...........-.. TX
 Wet thermofneter, p. m. ........... tS D. m. .............---....... v D. m. ....................-.... 4 eral, paying royalty to the owner or the minerals. The company's taxes are on $24,0C0 valuation for the machinery
 and hole in the ground; the owner of the minerals pays tax on that, and the owner of the surface pays tax on that COAL DEMAND ENDED He said when the armistice was signed, the demand for coal ended. Last spring the railroads came into the market and all the Walker county operators went after it as that was the only market left
 to them. The railroads offered s2.45 a ton which the operators could not ac- cept. The Seaboard Air Line, he said.
 is bringing coal from Kentucky and put ting it on it's tipples in Birmingham. 'If you impose this tax on coal, yon are laying a burden upon the young men who are trying to build Alabama he said. T don't believe the energies and ambitions of the young ought to be bur dened. You are placing burden on the citizenship of Alabama when you inn pose this tax on the young men up there
 You are imposing a burden on small business and I don't believe it is right to do it.
 T have a contract to supply 5000 tons of coal to the Southern railway within the year. and if you impose this tax you run your hand down in my pocket and take $1,000
 L. Sevier vice president of the Sloss Sheffield Steel and Iron company, eX- plained that the drift mine was closed down because it is a colling proposi- ton and the lack of market for pig iron cut off the demand for coke. He told of filling contract with the South ern railway at s2.50 a ton, less than it cost to mine it., and the company on the termination Of the contract refused to 1 pay sl.a0 a Aon, and bought their coal in 1 Tennessee.
 l A. B. Adlrilh told of how he left South
 Alabama when cotton was selling at cents pound and went to work in the
 mineral district, of securing money from 1 friends in South Alabama, leasing land
 at 71s cents a ton royalty of opening mine. In 1915 he made 15.5 cents ton profit, in 1914 9s cents and in. 1918 he made
 IS cents a ton Nthe best he ever made. 1 The average for seven or eight years was | about IA cents a ton. He said his cost 1 sheet was accurate; made up by com ] potent men, checkeds up once a year bv 1 an expert accountant, and the govern
 ment checks up the books.
 CHALLENGES AUTHORS He said he would like to see the men that makes s1 to s150 ton profit He | said he didn't believe 1t, and if any one l does make that much profit he is making 1 too much. He challenged the author of | the statement that operators make iron $1 to $1.50 ton profit to produce his
 proof
 He said a difference of cents stood | between him and a 00,000-ton con- get it because he could not mine coal at the price offered. His offer/was ;
 cents under the price fixed fby the government.
 The levying of tonnage tax, he 1 said, would make it impossible for l the operators to borrow money needed to finance operations and that would compel suspension of work and cause the employees to go elsewhere for em- ployment.
 Judge c. M Sartain of Jasper, coal operator, presented figures prepared by his bookkeeper showing the Cost of mining coal.
 Last month, he said, it cost $267 6
 ton, Ills said he had a contract to
 furnish 2000 tons a month to the Southern railway and that runnia : irregularly the last week or two, il cost $3.15 a ton. He said by runnlr s full time every day he might make
 10 cents to nprofit on the contract. J. s. Freeman of Walker county
 said he mined ss,OoO tons of coal last year. on which he paid a royalty of cents ton and netted 12 cents a l ton profit He is now filling a con. tract with the Southern railway a.
 s2.5c ton. on which he netted 61s cents a ton
 | opened a mine about three years ago,
 made good profit in 1917, which was cut down in 1918, and he combined with two other persons. They ate
 now filling a contract with the South ern railway at s2.50 a ton. on which they are making no profit.
 T. J. Amos of Walker county is min- ing coal and selling 1t at $2.S5 a ten, i paying selling commission. of 10 to 1 15 cents a ton.
 l WAGE REDUCTION LIKELY 1 E. M. Young, representing the miners of Walker county. said he had been observing the methods of the operators in Walker county, that he l had worked in coal mines all over the country and that the Walk CT county operators, in business methods and treatment of their men. compai Q | favorably with the operators in any | other district: that if this tax is i'm :. posed on coal it may compel the o; = orators to reduce miners wages, a; the business cannot stand it. He said 1 if similar tax had been levied on tim Der. brick lime and other products ! they might not have said anything | Senator Mcdonald, reading from a 1 newspaper statement that operators 1 were making from $1 to $1.50 a ton profit, asked MT. Adams to explain the matter, saying that the stateme ents
 made before the committee today were convincing to him.
 CHALLENGES GOVERNOR MT. Adams said he knew of only one