Evening star., 1921-06-05
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

BIZ WILL r. ASN NEDYs
Z YOU'VE got to get down to SUBJ
" soil facts for an effective So
luton OF the industrial snarl.
Agriculture and mining are
the two basic industries, for they deal
in the raw materials out Of which all
other industries are built. There has
| been considerable legislation and gov
| ernment care Of the agricultural in
terests; now the miner is coming for
| ward and making his demands upon
! Uncle Sam for a helpful hand.
View the picture-the railroads are
50 "balled up" that the best business
! brains and executive experience OF
the country. from President Harding
! down. have been working with little
progress upon a solution. The reve-
nues are down, freight is not moving
/ and all industry-the entire national
business-is in a slump in conse-
quence.
Furnishes Bulk Of Revenue.
Now come the mining interests and
point out that So per cent of the rev.
| enue-producing freight of the rail-
roads comes from mine products. and
I Of that So per cent-you will notice
more than one-half Of the entire rev.
| lenue-producing freight-is raw mate.
rials from the mines.
| No matter whether freight rates
are high or low, the freight is. not
moving. With SO large percentage
! Of revenue freight dependent upon the
mines. the logic seems good that te
lget smooth running transportation
! system you must get a stabilized min
ing industry. The country as whole
and the government itself cannot af-
tford to look upon the mines as q
minor industry-to take what is left
1t is absolutely fundamental that the
mining industry must be put in good
shape if the national industrial life
is to be stabilized.
Employs Too Many Men.
AS good a man as Herbert Hoover
with wide experience in mining and
| general business around the world
/, has characterized bituminous coal
| mining as the worst functioning in
dustry. 1t has approximately so per
cent excess producing capacity. Ii
withdraws from other industries
ed to produce all the coal the country
needs-700, 900 men where only soc. .00(
are really required. That's because
the big purchase of coal comes onl!
in certain months of the year. ant
the rest of the year the mines rur
only two or three days a week and {
good many stand idle; and on al
average the coal miner gets only e0t
to 20 working shifts out of the
year, but has to hold himself in read.
mess throughout the entire year
That's why the daily wage for a Goa
miner looks big. but his annual
wages are small.
That's bad economics and means q
big burden on the industry of tho
country 1t is type of what hap.
pens all through the mining industr.
when it gets no Intelligent consid
Grafton.
More Work, Fewer People.
Under recent legislation by Con.
gress and in response to an insisten,
public demand the; old policy of un.
restricted immigration has beer
abandoned. That means that il ou,
industries in the future are to be a.
big as in the past, and to grow a.
they have grown in the past, W.
must do moro work with fewer peo'
pie. So We cannot afford to waste
100. 900 men on an industry that doe.
not need them. We cannot afford tt
let water power remain undeveloped
We cannot afford to continue to de.
velop steam power in wasteful unit.
and by wasteful MISUNDERSTANDING W,
must substitute power for the immi
grants that we are not going to lei
come in any more.
Even as it is now, the amount o.
coal used for power production II
this country annually is about tn,
same as if there were three laborer.
working ten hours a day, drawing
no pay, eating no food and working
for each man. woman and child in the
United States. That's like the geni
that the Arabs used to call out OF
the smoke. We've got to capture the
rest of the genii and put them to work
To do these things-and all are pos
sible of accomplishment to greater
or lesser extent-requires that W.
take an intelligent interest in them
face them as a definite problem and