Arizona republican., 1922-04-19
What the Coal Strike Costs

ETY. that is lost irrevocably when he
is idle. Naturally each mans pro-
ductive value depends upon the nat
ure of his work, and to arrive at
this item in the cost of the coal strike
as one mans estimate-or-gu guests
as dependable as the next's, Per-
haps the most Illuminating concep
tion of the value of the time when
usefully employed is conveyed in the
old copybook aphorism. Lost, yester-
day, somewhere between sunrise and
with sixty diamond minutes; no re-
ward is offered for they are gone
forever
A Loss Everybody Shares.
But every member of society, be
he business man., professional man,
farmer. workman or parasitic idler,
must share in this loss occasioned
when days wage is not earned
and hence cannot be spent and the
product of a days labor has not been
realized and is gone forever. Every
body has seen a town or small city
largely dependent upon one business
or manufacturing establishment fgo'
dead" when that establishment sus-
pends operations for period, and
a like deadening effect, more or less
serious. must be felt In every section
Of the country when SO essential an
industry as coal suspends operations
or is only partially productive and
hundreds of thousands Of wage earn
ers go on am indefinite vacation.
This deadening effect. moreover,
according to economists, began with
the first serious threat of the coal
strike. They point out that with the
opening of the present year there
was very general determination to
pull the country out of the slough of
business depression and bring about
that return to normally of which
so much has been heard and so little
realized for many months. Men in
all lines of endeavor were planning to
get under full swing again. and per-
haps to expand their operations.
New enterprises were projected,
bankers were more optimistic, credits
were becoming easier. capital was
seeking work to do instead of hole
in which to hide. The road to pros
perity seemed open again.
Then came the controversy be-
tween the coal miners and operators,
with a practical certainty OF a strike
on the first of April. Better wait
and see what happens" instead of
"Up and at 'em!" became the watch-
word in the business and commerce
ial world. and there again is found
very indefinite but none the less
real item of loss that is to be added
to the cost of the coal strike.
Lost profits to coal operators, lost
freight revenues to railroads Can en-
ormous sum in the aggregated; lost
profits to all middle men and dealers
who handle coal and lost profits to
all industries and business affected
adversely by a real or threatened
coal famine, are other items in the
total bill which the country must pay
because the men who own the coal
and the men who dig it would not
set their house in order before March
81
It will be long time before anyone
will hazard an estimate as to what
this total cost is in cold, hard cash,
but one thing has been made GER
tain already-it will be enoughi
Optomists among Members of Con-
gress and other leaders in public
affairs agree, however, that what
ever the bill is it will not be too
much if it arouses the public until
measures are taken to avoid similar
debacles in the future.