The Connecticut labor press., 1920-09-04
PROFITEERING
 7. N*'COAL BAREDI "a a BY W. J. LAUCK
Mine. Workers Economist Says Price to Consumer Should
 Be Reduced.
OTHERS PREDICT } RAISES
Majority Report of Coal Comnis.
 sion Violated Principle of Living Wage.

Washington. Sept. 3.-Widely diver gent views, were expressed here this week as to the effect of the award Of the Anthracite Coal Commission on the price of coal. The commission :n its findings said The award offers 1.o
 justification for any advance i'll the re- tail price of coal, but is consistent with a decline in prices"
 w. Jett Lauck, consulting economist for the United Mine Workers, declared that prices should be reduced approxi- matelyt 50 cents a ton at the mines and far more to the ultimate consumer.
 Representative men, on the other hand, declared that there would not only be one advance but three and that for the commission to say that no in crease was warranted was a deception to the public. They declared that to squeeze a wage advance of $85, 100000 and back pay of $18,000,000 out of the anthracite mines without an increase was sheer impossibility.
 The price of anthracite coal to the consumer should be reduced, said MT. Lauck. When the case was submitted to arbitration with agreement that the award should date from April 1 the operators advanced the price of coal at the mines $l ton to protect themselves against any wage increase.
 '"The wage increase provided in the
 maj ority report of the commission in- creases the labor cost of producing a
 ton of coal barely 50 cents On the basis of 90,0O0,000 tons production this
 means the operators have already clean ed up 15,000,000 during the four
 months just ended, for they have taken +1, Il 41, they are required to pay the miners in
 back pay.
 It is obvious that one immediate effect of the award should be reduction of the price to the consumer of at least $1.85 ton."
 Available figures for 1920 for cost of production, MT. Lauck said, ranged fromA $2.71 to $3.10 per ton, and that 1 on the.hasis of Y per cent. wage in
 crease this cost would be increased l from 46 7-100 to ,52 7-10 cents ton Mfr. Lauck said that the majority re- port violated the principle of a living wage and was glaringly unequal when
 compared to the award to the bitumin- ous miners. "As result of this award" he said there probably will be trouble in the
 anthracite field. The United Mine Workers as an organization is pledged
 to accept this award and see it enforced,
 and 1 know officials of the union in all good faith will undertake to do this However, despite the fact that this
 grave responsibility rests on the union,
 the commission declined to grant that
 measure of recognition which would give it the power and authority ii should have to control the situation" G. H.. Gushing, of the American Wholesale Coal Association, speaking
 not for the anthracite operators, but as a coal man familiar with the sitt1a- l ton, said:
 Out of a deficit which exists the
 ompanies are asked to pay out $1O3,- 100000 without a price increase. Nor must the fact be overlooked that there will be an increase of freight rates of 40 per cent which increase must be added to the price of coal. To meet these increases without price advances cannot be done"