Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-04
A LOOK UNDER THE LID
IN THE COAL INDUSTRY
The Question Of Anthracite Prices In
the Light Of the $aa,ooo,ooo Mys.
terry Turned UP by Colonel
Mccain

TVtS rOOu prOnteerS DOuRnt lin
cuisines in clumps. Sugar prices winged II
almost to the moon. Whisky men got so
rich evadng the law in Pennsylvania that
some of them still fear they will wake out
of a gorgeous dream.
Mr.. Palmer was not diverted from his
solemn purpose. In retrospect he .ap-
pears like new statue of Liberty I'm
enlightening the World. A new sort of ves-
tai was he, resolutely on guard at the altar
of freedom and determined to save democ-
racy by annihilating every one who talked
independently, or, as they say, through the
hat. 1t was a great show. And while the
country gazed fascinated the anthracite coal
operators approached noiselcssly from the
rear and took just about 500 100000 in cx-
cess. unreported and unjustifcd profits out
of its pockets.
Where was Mr.. Palmer while the coal men
were collecting an extra dollar ton merely
because a question Of mine wages had been
submitted fol arbitration to a federal board,
and where was he when they pocketed the
500 100000 which represented the difference
between the sum Of the final award and the
insurance fund created by the dollar tolls?
Where has he been recently while the pro
ducers talked of even further increases? Ask
the ouija board. We do not know.
The operators. of course, are no radicals.
Oh. no. They are eminently respectable
gentlemen who want all agitators depoftcd.
Now the attorney general has one slim chance
to prove that he isn't tragically inefficient or
worse. He can start a hunt for that 500,
0O0.0 900. If the money cannot be turned
back to those who were robbed it ought to
go to the government or for charity or good
roads or bathing suits for the heather.
1t belongs anywhere but where it is. 1t
is a bad thing for the coal men to have, be-
cause it has plainly fired them with an
unholy desire for more of the same sort of
money.
Do the operators and the miners alike
wish Congress, driven by an enraged public,
to go at them and their institutions as it
has gone at others which proved detestable-
suddenly. unscientifcally, with an AK?
The country is almost at the end Of its
liberation. 1t is aware that wells and fogs
deliberately created obscure the inner work
ings of the coal industry and mask machinery
by which it is plundered or made miserable.
Barons who were kicked out of their castles
in England centuries ago and dumped into
their own moats hadn't half the power for
evil that rests now with some Of the men
who, when a question is put to them in the
public interest send secretaries to say that
they have nothing to say.
1t is impossible to read Colonel McCain's
dispatches from the anthracite country with
out feeling that these same captains of the
coal industry may be glad enough to talk
before long.
Colonel Mccain is one of the ablest Of
American journalists. He cannot be awed,
stampedcd or befuddled. He is getting under
the lid of the coal business in his dispatches
10 this newspaper. And his revelations are
such as to raise questions that transcend the
question of fuel altogether.
1t is becoming necessary to ask for eX
ample, whether the really vital affairs of the
people are being taken out Of their hands in
the United States and given over to the con
troll of tongs organized, If you believe them,
in the interest of capital or labor, but Or
ganized actually for a lawless pursuit of
advantages for themselves exclusively. Some
of the unseen powers with which the ultimate
consumer has now to deal are as un -Amer-
can and as exclusive as the Chinese Six Com
panies and hundred times more powerful
The ovcremphasis and overorganization of
exclusive group interests in America will
lead inevitably to trouble for a great many
people.
That may seem like strained view of the
matter.
But let US sec.
In the early days of the republic, when
the codes and laws under which we now live
were formulated, this was a relatively small
nation dependent chiefly on agriculture The
means Of life and comfort were easily avail
able to any one who would work. Food and
fuel were at the door.
But the growth of the population and
areas of the United States, the drift Of in .
dustrial evolution, the concentration of great
masses Of people in communities far removed
from the sources of life's necessities and the
growing Complexity Of existence in a machine
age changed all this. Great and highly orr
ganized agencies for production and distribu
ton have come into existence In response Ia
| a definite need They are the mine com
| panles and the railways and the labor unions
and the packing houses, the shipping cor
| porations and the telegraph companies.
Such groups as these often have 1t in their
| power to affect the common life OF the people
more intimately than any agency of gov.
ernment can affect it. Their contacts with
the communities are direct and vital Som,
of them have actually aimed at power almost
as great as the power OF the government it
self That is for the moment aside
The question is whether these agencies
established with common consent and toIer
ated in their present forms only because the,
are supposed to serve society by keeping it
lines Of supply and service open, are actual,
to be permitted to obstruct and block thes
same channels at viii and for the sake O
abnormal profits.
IL L. lLL. l. Il L..