The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-01

revenues, but he opposed it because he
 did not believe it to be a constructive
 measure.
 He looked at. it not as merely a tax on coal, but a tax on the coal industry.
 He said he held no brief for the operators
 who are amply able to take care of them selves, that he was on the other side as
 rule, but he was vitally interested in
 the coal mining industry. He said he was
 an officer of the miners union and as such his interest in it is direct. The bill. he said. put five-cent tax on coal, there it ends. The operators have presented a pile of figures which tends to prove they cannot stand it. He said he happened to know the tax could not
 be passed on to the consumer, and if
 that cannot be done. then they must stand it themselves, or cut miners wages.
 MUST FACE CONDITIONS
 He said the operators. may have made
 big profits during the war, but the war
 is over and conditions as they are today
 must be faced.
 When the armistce was signed, he
 said every coal mine in the country was running full tilt, but when the armistice was signed. the bottom seemed to drop out. Mines all over the country closed down and fuflly 50 per cent are closed 1 in the Alabama district They closed be- 1 cause there was no market for coal. He
 read the following list of mines either
 shut down or operating short time. They are as follows:
 Yolande Coal and Coke company. ? mines down. i mine slow; New Castle Coal company, one-half time; Pratt Consolidat- ed Coal company, l mine closed down. l mine only day week, mines day week, 8 mines days a week, mines l day a week: Alabama Fuel and Iron com- pany, mines only days run; Brookside- Pratt Mining company, days off at 5 mines days off at 1 mine. days off a. [ ? mines Sloss- Sheffield Steel & Iron con- pany days off at mine, days at mines, l 1 day off at l mine; Winoaa Coal com pany, shut down; Black Creek Coal com pany, shut down; Galloway Coal com pany No. 10, shut down; Alabama shut down, No. 15 5 days shut down: Eureka | 5 days shut down South Pratt Coal com pany. days shut down; Barney Coal company. days shut down. PERCENTAGE OF LOSS Percentage of loss of production on ac- count of no market in comparative local fields, MT Harrison showed as follows; West Virginia, New River, week ending 1 June 2S, O9 per cent; July ., per cent West Virginia, Pocahontas, June $, no | loss; July ,. no loss
 Kentucky. Harlan county, June 2S oS per cent; July 5, no loss. l Alabama. June 2S, 17 per cent loss; July ' }, 17.9 per cent.
 1 These figures show, he said. that Ala bama is losing almost three times as muc6 ! time as West Virginia and Kentuchy mines.
 | Those familiar with conditions in coal districts, he said. know that because or peculiar conditions it costs great deal more to mine coal in Alabama than else where Mines in the whole country are operating under an agreement made Wlth | the United States fuel administrator which fixed the mining wage. In unor ganized districts such as part of Wes' Virginia, he said, the operators can re- | duce the mining wage.
 If the Alabama operator has to pay this tax he will figure 1t in the cost or I production and when the mining wage scale is made he will charge 1t against the unions So that in the end the coal ! miners of Alabama will have to pay the l tax
 Do you want the coal miners of Ala hama to pay this tax?" he asked 1 He cited Texas where Mexican and Texas oil drove fuel out of the markets ! and compelled the closing down Of the l Texas coal mines.
 l He read from a trade journal an arti- cle stating that fuel oil had displaced coal to an extent of 50o,0oe tons year at New Orleans and 5000 at Mobile; at Memphis 250.0o0 tons | He reviewed at length the gradual growth of the fuel oil trade and its sup planting of steam coal.
 1 The operators would not object so | much to the tax on coal, he said, ii
 that were all there was to it, but ii means ruin to the business | Answering questions asked by mum
 Der of members, Mir Harrison said the
 reason coal prices advanced since the war was that during the war the mines were running on full time, but since the
 war all of them were running short time | while overhead expenses continue ] whether the mines are in operation or i closed.