The New York herald., 1921-12-19
Dear Coal Killing Exports and
Strangling Home Business.

Corn used for fuel in the granger
country beyond the Mississippi is one
OF the industrial sensations OF this
winter Coal coming into the ports
OF our Atlantic seaboard from abroad
is another, OF even more startling
Significance In its bearing on both
our coal exports and our exports Of
general merchandise.
Foreign trade calls for cheap fuel
to supply power for the mill and
factory, to haul their products to
the overseas snipping points and to
bunker the vessels which carry the
goods abroad. Domestic trade as
well calls for cheap coal to help home
industry meet the competition Of for
eign goods pouring into our own
markets.
But our coal, the essential bitumi-
nous product which is largely used
byst the railroads, steam vessels, pub
! lie utilities, steel mills and general
factories. is relatively dear, all but
desperately dear. 1t is killing our
coal exports and strangling home in
dustries.
Consider the first effects of this
| dear coal on our sales abroad of the
fuel product itself. Our coal exports
dropped from a value Of S53.000,000
in October, 1920, to $10,000,000 in
October of this year. and bunker coal
laden on vessels in the foreign trade
slumped from s9,9O0,00o in the same
month last year to $2,950,0O0 in Oc-
tober, 1921.
| In the first ten months OF 1920 we
sold S30,700,000 of coal to France
against $4,SO0,0O0 in the same period
this year. Our sales to Italy dropped
from $16,000,000 to $11,000,000; to
Sweden from s12,9Oo,OOO to 100000;
to Holland from $2O,OO0,0OO to ST.
900, 600; to Cuba from S10,900,000 to
$3,00O000; to Canada from $6S,000,-
900 to s52,000,O0O. and so on down
through the export markets.
Europe and the United States are
now producing almost exactly equal
quantities of coal, approximately
600,000,000 tons year each. But
European coal is brought to the sur
face at anywhere below half what
it costs to produce American coal.
This is particularly true in Germany.
! In Great Britain, aside and apart
from direct cash subsidy of $125,-
100000 applied by the Government
to the encouragement of the coal in
dustry. wages, while above the pre-
war level, are lower than in the coal
fields here, and the cost of transpor-
tation to seaboard is as nothing COM
pared with the cost of transportation
/ in this country.
Welsh coal has been sold recently
in New York harbor at as low as S.
ton. But the labor cost alone of
| getting bitnminous coal to the mouth
of the pit in some of our most impor-
tant mining districts is S226 a ton;
the haulage to tidewater is Sail a
ton; or S5.37 a ton for the two.
Welsh coal is beating Utah and
Wyoming coal in the Pacific coast
markets and it has captured the
trade of nearly all the islands of the
Pacific where American coal was
used almost exclusively as late as
year ago.
When we cannot sell our btu
minous coal abroad, when as bust
ness proposition it does not pay to
use it at home, It is time not only for
the men who own the mines but for
the men who dig the coal and the
carriers that transport it to face the
blunt truth of why it does not pay 70
use It. Some facts and figures quoted
by THOMAS II. WATKINS, president OF
the Pennsylvania Coal and Coke Com
pany, make il plain how serious the
trouble is and what is responsible for
this industrial crisis.
twenty years ago tue uidAIiuuih
wage in the soft coal mine was S1.90
day. THE NEW YORK HERALD does
not hesitate to say that this was too
low wage, even at that time. Be-
cause it was too low it was adjusted
in 1901 TO a standard rate Of $2.25.
which held until 1908, when it was
increased to $2,40 day. Probably
this was none too high, although in
1905 1t was reduced to S2.27. How
ever that may be, the miners wage
went back again in 1907 to $2.4o.
After that the increases were nu-
merous and extreme, as follows:
1910 and 1911. S2.53; 1915, S2.77;
April, 1917. $3.50; November, 1917,
So; 1919 (after strike) $3.50;
April, 1920 CBituminous Coal Com
mission award). So; August, 1920,
$3.50 day.
And while the labor charge for
getting the coal out of the mine had
gone up from S190 a day man to
$3.50, the railroad charge for hauling
ton of coal to tidewater went up