Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-02-26

80 operators associations or (
spiracy to violate the Sherman
live in Missouri, Illinois, Indi;
sylvania.
Judge A. B. Anderson set May 3 for
arraiwment, and in issuing capiascs
for arrest of the defendants he fixed
the bond of each at $4,000. Names
of all defendants except II were made
made public.
Brewster Leads "Barons."
Prominent operators, including
Thomas 7. Brewster. Edward c..
Searles, Jackson Dering, Phil Penna
and William X. Kavanaugh, and high
officials of the United Mine Workers
union, including its president, John L.
Lewis, and secretary, William Green,
were among the defendants. The Ma
tional Coal association was among the
corporate defendants
The indictment covers specifically
the last three years in the coal industry
and follows an investigation conducted
almost continuously the last Is months
by agents of the federal department of
justice. The charge is made by the
indictment that at various joint confer
ences, the miners and operators agreed
to be partners in mining and distrib-
uting coal, and that they would aid one
another in plans to increase wages, in
crease prices, create a shortage and
otherwise limit production and dstri-
button. Creation Of fictitious market
prices and the provocation of miners
strikes by operators was charged.
History of Methods.
Most of the persons indicted as indi-
viduals in the new bill were among
those named as defendants in the in
dictment returned some time ago
charging violation of the Lever food
and fuel control act bv an alleged con-
spiracy to curtail production and force
high prices.
During the three year period covered.
a detailed history is given of methods
by which it is charged the operators
and miners worked together to re-
strict the production and distribution of
bituminous coal.
The charge is made that the agree
ments entered into between the opera
tors and miners provided that coal
should not be sold at any time for
a price that did not yield a profit to
the operator, that increases of wages
to miners should be added to the price
of coal; that competition among opera
tors should be eliminated; that no coal
should be sold below the cost of pro-
duction, and that the means of increas-
ing cost and production in the price of
coal should be by closing and keeping
idle the mines.
Owners Boost Prices.
rI ~..4o.n o.4ohl;cLoJ , ,,,;fo.n,
cost accounting system for the opera
ton of the mines, it is charged, and by |
agreement employed greater num-
ber of miners than was reasonably nee |
essary to operate the mines proper |
~.
Creation Of "high and fictitious
prices" for coal was brought about by
the operators, according to the in
dictment, by an agreement following
suspension of the national fuel regu-
lations in February 1919, not to con
tract for the future delivery Of coal and
not to sell coal unless they were able
to obtain price equal to or above the |
price that had been fixed by the ma
tional fuel administration.
Another charge is made that the op-
orators by a concerted plan made var
ious reports to the mine bureaus of
the several states and to the govern
ment that there was no market for coal
and that this plan caused the price to
increase until it was higher than the
prices fixed and maintained by the ma
tional fuel administration prior to its
suspension.
Prices by ZonIng System.
Regarding the activities Of the Ma
tional Coal association the Indictment
charges this organization is engaged in
marking out zones into which coal may
be shipped and that reports on produc-
tion and prices in each zone enable op-
orators to govern the supply and price
Of fuel.
The indictment charges that in the
plan to increase the price Of coal the
operators refused to sell fuel to any .
one not member Of the Retail Coal
Dealers association and allied organ
izations and that they refused to sell
coal to any one for purposes beyond I
their immediate needs, thus preventing ,
the storage Of coal for future use, !
Another plan for increasing fuel {
prices. it is charged, was to sell It | /
through sales agencies separate in name
only from the operating and producing t
Profits were thereby in. +
creased, the indictment says. a