The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-12
COAL OPERATORS CHALLENGE ADMINISTRATION TO SHOW PROOF OF ALLEGED PROFITS OF $1OO TO $15O PER TON

operators, he said. had secured a pro- vision in the workmen's compensa- tion act in that state allowing them to elect not to come under the bill and still retain the common law 1e- lenses. In Alabama the operators must come under the bill or lose all such defenses.
 He called attention to the contrast I in conditions in the coal fields in I Alabama and Tennessee and Kentucky, reciting the causes of cheaper produe- | ton in Kentucky and Tennessee.
 In Alabama coal production in 10 years. he said. had increased two and a half times, whereas in Kentucky and Tennessee it had increased four 1 times. There is a reason for this more rapid increase in Kentucky and Ten i nessee. he said and that reason lies i in the production cost.
 SELLING PRICE REDUCED Referring to criticisms that Ala | bama operators maintained war time prices after the war ended he an- swered that the selling price was re- ] duced from anf average of S3.56 in January, 1919, to $2.77 in July, I9Ig 1 Every coal field. he said, depends to large extent on it's home market | Birmingham has to meet hydro -elec- i tric power. which has taken the place l Of 100000 tons of coal year in that 1 city. Then Kentucky and Tennessee and Illinois coal has come into Ala | bama, Georgia and Mississippi, and some even to Mobile, while Mexican l oils have cut into the coal business on ,, the gulf. Oil has taken the place of I bunkerage coal which Birmingham ! operators expected to supply l The freight rate from Birmingham l to the gulf, he said. had been in- creased from $1.25 a ton before the war to $2.o6, or an advance of S1 cents a ton.
 The shipping board commandeered a l large tonnage of shipping, a big per centage are oil burners. and of 11,547- 900 dead weight tons of shipping now building 9,065,000 tons will be oil burners and only 2,4S1, 900 coal burners, 1 he said.
 The hopes of the Alabama operators for large tonnage in that market he | said would not be realized
 WAGE INCREASES
 Answering criticisms that wages Aof coal miners had increased only 27h cents ton. he said that was the in l crease on piece work. The day work CTS received much larger increases he 1 said, citing in support of the state ment the following:
 l Hoisting engineers from $2.40 to $3S4: motormen, s2.50 to $3.S5; drivers, S1.S6 ] to $3.44; trackmen, s2S1 to s4 roller | | $3.04; tipplemen s160 to sS The ! higher rates ate for an eight-hour day whereas the lower rate was for ten ! hour day
 l AS to the charge that taking the coal 1 out of the land depicting the states re- l sources he admitted that if the coal were being shipped out Of the state and l given away that might be true, put such is not the case. The coal is sold and money brough back and invested in the state, thus creating more wealth and increasing property values.
 He asked why is it that Alab anna iron production has not increased in many years whereas-Pennsy ylvana has gone from 22 to 40 per cent of the 1 entire country's production and Ohio 1 where Alabama formerly had a large trade, has greatly increased her produc- tion.
 Cheap labor and close proximity ot raw materials made very low as- sembling cost in former days, but now he said, on account of large increase in labor which is not as efficient as il used to be, nor as efficient as that al Chicago or Gary, and the greater cos Of assembling has largely increased the cost of making pig iron now. He saiC It cost just as much to make pig iror in Alabama today as it does in Chicago and Alabama iron has to pay S5 freight charge to get into that market agains $i paid by Chicago makers.
 The tax on coal and iron he said would add 7o cents a ton to the cos ot pig iron.
 Alabama furnishes about 25 per cen brown ore he said. The tax is on TUT of the mine and as brown ore is mined by shovel and averages about. one tor of metal to the total material mined thus making the tax 24 cents ton or | Ill i~ny nd frn oci,,e tAa a ton of pig iron about SO cents.
 ADVANTAGE IS LOST 1 MT. Bush said Birmingham formerly had an advantage in the manufacture of soil and water pipe that enabled it to dominate the markets of the en- tire country and the industry was largely developed Now the freighr rates have been largely advanced; the cost of labor is the same in Birming- ham as in Chicago and the Pacific coast cities, and on that account. he said Birmingham had lost those ter ritories
 The freight rate on pipe to Pacific coast cities in 1914. he said, was $13 ton; today it is $23.50.
 He said practically all the money earned by the pig iron and cast iron pipe and soil pipe industry has been reinvested in the state. and when out side capital is sought to further de- velop the industry it will inquire about taxes, and if 1t is found that there is a tonnage tax on coal and : iron they will not be inclined to come here.
 Mr. Bush went into details. explain ing the disparity in the cost of min ing coal in Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois fields. due to the use of ma chinery in the latter, and the impos- sibility of using 1t in Ala bama, and added that the advantage of cheap efficient labor formerly enjoyed in Alabama no longer exists.
 He compared the higher cost of pro- ducing iron to the higher prices at which shoes, corn. wheat and other things are sold, saying that relatively the cost of iron is no greater than that of the articles named
 MINING METHODS EXPLAINED
 w. Carson Adams of the Adams, Nor. man x Rowe company explained the I method of mining coal and the efforts | to get out as much domestic or lump coal as possible: of the number of men employed and the sort of work each does, the wages paid each class saying the cost of producing is now $1.lS ton. as against S7A cents, as the public is led to believe
 The operator pays for labor in ths mine alone from $1.25 to $13O ton and to this must be added the wages paid labor on the outside of the mine l all-day labor paid by the hour
 Norman Gum of Jasper spoke n 1 behalf of the small operators. He said he got into the coal mining busi- ness by accident in 1917 and 1918 when he was led to~ believe lots of money was being made out of it. Only two foreign companies oper-