The Washington herald., 1920-12-22
OFFICIALS
PADDED PURSES
IN COAL DEALS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE.


wholesalers and the others were
without governing influence"
The whole industry, he said, be-
came disorganized. and the priori-
ties allowed the railroads added to
the chaos. These priorities, he testi-
fed. mean that If the coal mines
wanted to run they must sell to the
railroads.
THE mines wanted to rum" he
stated. They sold to the railroads,
The railroads sent in their cars
which were to be loaded with their
own fuel. only. Such, .mipss natar-
ally had to conceal the commercial
contracts previously signed. Later
similar orders were given to the
public utilities. This forced the can
collation. of other commercial con-
tracts.
Shipments Forced.
FINALLY. the coal mines were or
dered to ship a certain percentage
of their coal into the pools that had
been created at tidewater and lake
ports. This amounted to virtual
order to the mines to annul con-
tracts in other directions. For these
reasons contracts were not worth
the paper on which they were
written"
This situation, Cushing asserted.
created a spot" market where coal
was bought in the field and in the
scramble to get 1t the prices natur-
ally went up.
The witness said that conditions
have altered considerably in the last
few weeks and that coal is now
being produced in larger quantities
than the country demands, and
prices are declining as a result.
EXCESS Now Sure.
Tho price at the mine is now
about 81 to IS a ton" Gushing said.
The producers are coming into the
market to sell. When that hap
pens there is sure to be an excess
of coal. IN some places it has been
as low as $3.50 a ton at the mine"
Asked how, In his opinion, recur-
renee of the present situation could
be prevented, Gushing volunteered
that it could be accomplished by
assuring the people that there will
be no shortage of coal and by dis
counting reports Of any shortage.
He refused to predict, however, that
there will be no future shortages.
This. he said. he was unable to
make because Of his belief that with
the growth of the country the rail-
roads will not be able to meet the
demands of transportation. Under
the transportation act. he explained.
the roads are offered no incentive to
build new lines. and his opinion was
that under the circumstances it will
be only question of time before
the trafflc is greater than they can
bear. Should there be such an
eventuality he indicated that a coal
shortage might occur from the lack
Of transportation.
Asks Release of Roads.
He recommended the release of
the railroads from rigid government
restriction and supervision. Toward
this end, he said, he favored the
abolition of the Interstate Com
merce Commission or at least the
curtailment of its present powers,
which, he contended. permit too
much government interference.
when we had competition be-
tween the roads we had plenty of
transportation and low rates" the
witness said significantly, referring
to the commissions rate-fixing
and regulatory authority.
Senator Calder asked the witness
whether it was true that thousands
of tons of American coal had been
refused by France. Cushing said
that he had been informed that
there are around 250,000 tons in
French and English ports which
had been shipped in anticipation
of a foreign shortage because of
the recent coal strike in England.
The shortage. he asserted. was not
as serious as had been expected
but he expressed confidence that
there would be no necessity of
bringing the fuel back to this
country.