Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-29
LET GOVERNMENT MINE FOR
FACTS IN SOFT-COAL FIELDS
Federal Interference Should Be Prelm-
lnary to a Sweeping Survey in
the National Interest


wolves responsibilities for which there
is now no adequate machinery at Wash
ington. 1t implies that the miners or
the operators or both have been unfair,
reckless and blind to considerations of
justice in all their recent deliberations.
Yet there was no other way out of
the deadlock. And if there is to be gov
ernment regulation there ought to be
government regulation. The approach
of the cabinet and Doctor Garfield to the
newer policy is hesitating and half
hearted. For that reason alone it is dis
quieting. Their program is obviously
uncertain. Defniteness of aim and eff
fort and quick and certain action are
the great needs of the moment.
The miners refusal to accept, under a
government decree, wage increase less
than that which the operators themselves
proposed, can easily be understood. Men
cannot be forced to work, and there is
a suggestion of valid and hidden griev-
anCes in the voluntary and spontaneous
refusal Of miners everywhere to return
= to work.
Union leaders and operators are alike
fond of citing specific instances of earn
ing power and working conditions to
prove the logic of their claims. But
the country is beginning to feel tb2t in
dividual cases prove little and that there
is something fundamentally wrong in
the coal fields which only general and
impartial survey, made in the national
interest, can reveal and remedy.
If, therefore, government interference
in this instance carries the assurance
for the miners that their claims will be
considered in detail; that there will be
new beginning, and that wage scales
and working conditions will finally be
revised and improved on a just basis,
irrespective of present estimates the
newer plan should cause a prompt re-
sumption of operations at the soft-coal
mines. If, on the other hand, Doctor
Garfield hopes to force his own terms on
the men without any further general
consideration Of the claims still in dis
pnte, he will fail. And he will fail mis-
erably.
1t is becoming clear that there is
more to the soft-coal controversy than
wage rates. Mr. McAdoo and Secretary
Wilson, of the Department of Labor;
Doctor Garfield and the other members
of the Presidents cabinet are men who
might be expected to view the wage
question impartially. They seem utterly
unable to agree on the rights and wrongs
of the present strike. How, then, can
the miners and the operators, whose
lives are bound up in the coal industry
and affected by it in thousand ways,
be expected to reach agreements uni
versally satisfactory?
The fact seems to be that only the
surface of the question has been touched.
The way to settlements does not lie
through casual government interference
in crisis like this. 1t cannot be reached
with the aid Of troops alone or by any
method of coercion.
A vivid clue which indicated the state
of mind of the strikers was given by
one of the union leaders, who complained
bitterly that Doctor Garfield is substi-
tuting academic estimates for sense of
justice.
1t is possible to interpret that charge
in the light of contentious advanced by
Mr.. Lewis at one of the recent confer
ences. He, like other representatives
of the miners, objected to the system
under which the soft-coal operators have
been pooling their interests and concen-
trating productive effort in one or an
other field while leaving other regions
L r g -.
enforced idleness.
There is nothing sinister in the de-
sire of coal operators so to arrange their
business as to save unnecessary ship
ping costs, especially when the with
drawal of wartime control has revived
strong competition among various fields.
And yet it Is apparent that the habit is
one certain to confuse existence for vast
numbers of workers in many areas as
the heavy demand for coal shifts from
one point to another.
Unless there can be such control or
systematization in the coal industry as
will insure reasonably steady work for
miners and freedom from the stresses
Of competitive schemes with which they
have nothing to do, there will be no per-
manent peace in the coal fields and no
assurance of maximum production.
There is an impression In the mind of
the country that coal costs enough in
every retail market to provide a fair
rate of wages to all miners and fair re-
turns on all capital invested in the bust
ness. Unquestionably that general as
sumption will be justified by the facts
If they are ever brought to light.
Government interference in the pres
ent case, therefore, ought to be merely
the preliminary to sweeping investiga-
tion and a sweeping report of a sort
that will give the public the information
it needs. This method of dealing with
a complication that has got beyond con-
troll of those who are now running the
soft-coal fields ought to enlist the i'm
mediate attention of Congress ON Mon
day.