Arizona republican., 1922-04-19
RY Frederie ]. Haskin

WASHINGTON, d. c., April 1S.--
Government intervention in the coal
strike, or some official action to re-
lieve the situation, was promised
stwhen the situation becomes acute, >
or when the public begins to feel the
pinch Of the coal shortage. There
are experts who contend that the
public was pinched from the moment
the strike was threatened, and such
of these experts as are not engaged
on one side or the other of the wage
controversy are now busy comput-
ing the costs of the strike. Their
figures are at once interesting and
startling.
The average citizen probably goes
his serene way without a thought
that the coal strike is hurting him
until suddenly he finds that he cam
not get coal when he wants it. or
must pay a higher price than he was
charged for his last order, and it is
at this average citizen that the ex-
perts are aiming their broadsides of
statistics. Thus David l. Wing. who
has studied the coal problem for
years, says:
Since every cost or waste in coal
production, whether it be of natural
resources, or man power, or of capi-
tai, must eventually be borne by the
coal consumer, it is not enough for
the man in the street merely to read
the news of threatened strikes.
grumble over high prices and talk OF
profiteering and summary legisla-
ton. He must realize that this is a
problem which he, too. must Co
operate in solving by bringing about
an Intelligent public opinion without
which no sound and equitable sett-
tlement of the coal problems of this
country is possible.
From 1910 to 1918 strikes caused
106 per cent of the idle days in the
bituminous coal industry. The figure
for the year 1919 was still larger,
and for the current year it may be
one to challenge public attention. At
any rate, the prospect warrants con-
sideration of the cost of the strike
that began April ].
Exact compilations of strike costs
are impossible. The bureau of labor
statistics long since abandoned ef-
forts in that line, for even this gov
ernment agency could never secure
complete reports on such concrete
items as loss in wages and loss in
products, and at the same time there
are so many items entering into the
cost of a strike that are indefinite
and susceptible only of estimate or
approximation.
Giving the Public jolt
However, in the case of a basic in
dustry such as coal the statisticians
have more Informing data with
which to give the public Jolt. First
Of all, they point out that a total
cessation of coal production and eX-
haustion of coal supplies on hand
!
trial and commercial paralysis of the
nation: famine and death would
speedily stalk the land and chaos
ensue. Government itself would
break down and civilization totter
and fall That is the possible ulti-
mate cost of a coal strike. and is be-
yond reckoning in money. Nothing
like that would ever be permitted to
happen, of course, but the picture is
one to be borne in mind.
Getting down to dollars and cents,
the first item is the wage loss of
the mine workers. If there are $780,
900 miners idle as a result of the
strike. their loss each day totals at
least $4,200,00 on the basis of their
average earnings per day worked in
1920. Next comes the loss in wages
outside the coal industry upoR whom
idleness is forced by reason of the
strike. Thousands of railroad work.
ers were laid off the first week of
the strike, one system alone laying
off $4,000, and their number viii be
added to as the strike continues or
becomes mere effective. Other thou
sands of workers who handle coal
somewhere along the line between the
railroad terminal and the consumers
bin likewise will have idleness thrust
upon them, and passing from them
to the workers in manufacturing es-
tablishments that cannot operate
without coal yet another wage loss
item is to be chalked up.
In the early days of a strike such
as the one now under consideration
only the haziest estimates can be
made as to its direct effect upon
other industries, for reports of shut
downs are of necessity incomplete
and notoriously inaccurate. 1t may
be significant to note, however, that
a large steel mill in Youngstown,
Ohio that had been closed for long
period was scheduled to resume work
the first week in April and did not do
so because of the strike and threat
ened coal shortage, and that other
large steel plants in the Pittsburg
districe were closing down or reduc-
ing their scale of operations within
a few days after the strike was
called
To the wage loss of all these worke-
ers is to be added the productive
value of their labor had they been
a i