Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-04-25
COST OF COAL STRIKE
People In all Wallis Of Lite MGSi
Pay for It. ..
MAY Be AVOIDED i'm THE FUTURE
sccause There are so Many Items
Entering It Is Almost impossible TO
Correctly Estimate Cost.
H., L'roderick J. HaSkin.
By Frederick J. Haskir

tCrVcntiOn. IN Lne Codt sNiANN' Va
official action to relieve the situation
WAS promised ''when the 9ituat'on
becomes acute" or when the pubilc
bcrins TO feel the pinch OF the coal
shortage. There are experts VINO
contend that the public was pinched
from the moment the strike was
threatened, and such of these experts
~ are not engaged on one side or the
other of the wage controversy are
now busy computing the costs OF the
strike. Their figures arc at once in
teresting and startling.
The average citizen probably goes
his serene way without thought That
the coal strike is hurting him until
suddenly he finds that he cannot get
ccal when he wants it, o. must pay
higher price than he was charged for
his last order, and 1t is at this aver
agc citizen that the experts are aim
irS their broadsidcs of statisucs.
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, grum-
BILE over high, prices and talk of pro-
fitecring and summary legislation. He
must realize that this is a problem
which he, too, must. cooperate in solv-
ing, by. bringing about an intelligent
public opinion without which no
sound and equitable settlement of the
coal problems of this country is pos
sible"
From 1910 to 1918 strikes caused
1O.6 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 fmay be one to
challenge public attention. At any
rate, the prospect warrants consider
alton of the cost of the strike that be-
gan April 1.
Exact compilations of strike costs
are impossible. The Bureau Of Labor
statistics long since abandoned efforts
in that line, for even this government
agency could never secure complete
reports on such concrete items as loss
in wages and loss in products, and at
the same time there arc so many
items entering into the cost of a strike
that are definite and susceptible only
of estimate or approximation.
Gives the Public a 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 exhaustion of
coal supplies on hand would result in
the complete industrial and CONNER
cial paralysis of the nation: famine
and death would speedily stalk the
land and chaos ensue. Government
itself would break down and civiliza-
tion totter and fall. That is the pos
sible ultimate cost of a coal strike,
and is beyond reckoning in money.
Nothing like that would ever be per-
mitted 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 100000
miners idle as q result Of the strike
their loss each day totals at least $4,-
100000 on the basis of their average
earnings per day worked in 1920.
Next comes the loss in wages TO
workers outside the coal industry
upon whom idleness is forced by rea-
son of the strike. Thousands Of rail-
road workers were laid off the first
week of the strike-one system alone
laying off 16,O00-and their. number
will be added to us the strike con-
continues or becomes more effective.
Other thousands of workers who han
die coal somewhere along the line be-
lhHtI lIit IdlIIOIU lcllilISdl dla(l lIlc
consumers bin likewise ill have
idleness thrust upon them, and rass-
ing from them 10 the workers in man.
uf2Gturing establishments that can
net operate without coal yet ano.her
wage loss item is to be chulkcd up.
In the early days of strike such as
the one now under consideration only
the haziest estimates can be made rs
TO its direct effect upon other indus
tries, for reports of shutIowns. are of
necessity incomplete and notoriOusly
inaccurate. 1t may be significant 70
note, however. that n large steel mill
i'll Youngstown, Ohio, that had been
closed down for a long period was
scheduled to resume work the first
week in April and did not do so be-
cause of the strike and threatened
coal shortage, and that other large
steel plants in the PiusbTG district
were closing down or reducing their
scale of operations within Il few days
after the strike was called.
To the wage loss of all these work
ers is to be added the productive
value Of their labor had they been en-
plOycd, for every man at work pro-
dIICcS something Of Valup 10 SOcipt y