The New York herald., 1922-07-25
TUESDAY, JULY rs. 1922.
Shortage of Common Sense as
Well as of Coal Cars.

In recent days there has been a
sharp drop In car loadings of soft
coal in the non-union territory where
the bituminous product had been
coming out in steadily increasing
tonnage. The sole reason for this
sudden slump Is the bad order OF
cars on the railroads serving such
territory.
This is no credit to those particu-
lar railroads; it is no credit to the
railroads generally. 1t is no credit
to the United States Department of
Commerce, which has been so active
with it's efforts to try to stabilize
coal prices and with it's plans for
rationing the bituminous supply.
1t is no credit to any Of them, it
is reproach to all of them, because
1t should have been the first busi-
ness of all Of them when there are
plenty of cars to see that, what
ever else happened, the supply of
cars fit for hauling the coal should
not run out.
1t should have been the first busi-
ness of all the railroads. not merely
the railroads tapping the operating
coal fields, because all the railroads
OF the country must have coal or they
cannst operate.
1t should have been the first busi-
ness Of the Department of Commerce
officials seeking to ration the coal
and regulate its price. because you
cannot ration coal If there is no
coal to ration, and without cars to
haul 1t there cannot be, so far as
consumers are concerned, any coal
either to burn or to ration.
With so many thousands Of coal
cars not in use on the railroads that
serve union coal territory where the
mines are closed down, there Is not
a mere abundance of, there is vast
surplus of coal cars in good order.
The union coal mine country is lit
orally strewn with coal cars unused
and in good order. The side tracks
and storage yards of the roads own
ing them are cram jammed with
them. Their division superintendents
don't know where to put them all.
In good order and with nothing to
DO in their own territory, these cars
should have been engaged by the
roads hauling out the non-union coal.
They should have been volunteered
by the other roads. II necessary,
they should have been commandeered
by the Government.
1t has been fnexplicable stupidity,
in a measure it has been criminal
negligence, that all those concerned
in this imperatively necessary sup
ply of coal cars that could haul coal
went off wild goose chasing, this one
in this direction and that one in that
direction, after some solution of the
coal problem, and let the bottom fall
out of the non-union coal supply for
no better reason than failure to have
cars at the operating mines when
there are plenty of good order cars
elsewhere, more than could possibly
be used. They let the bottom fall
out of the coal supply. in fact, at the
very hour when the non-union mines
had worked their production up
from normal output sufficient to
supply one-third of the country's
coal needs to forced draft output
sufficient to supply two-thirds Of the
country's soft coal needs. And then
coal. but no cars!
II that kind of muddling by the
railroads, by the intervening Govern
ment agencies, by everybody con-
cerned, is not enough to give common
sense a large and abiding pain, then
nothing Is.