The New York herald., 1922-03-27
MONDAY. MARCH 81. 1922.
The Coal Strike Dilemma.

~ SoHA SeAAkA A~AANeAAA~A~~s
In a letter to THE New York HER
AID ELLIS SEARLEs, editor Of the
United Nine Workers Journal, the
official publication of the United
Mine Workers of America, declares
that there must be no wage readjust-
ment, He says that for the union
miners of the country to agree to
downward readjustment of wages so
as to enable coal mined by them to
meet the competition of non-union
mines would mean that the coal min
ers of this country would "allow
themselves to be reduced to the level
OF the poorly paid, highly oppressed
and hopelessly helpless non-union
miners of such places as West Vir-
ginia and Alabama"
Not at all. If 1t is true that there
are miserable. conditions in some
non-union mines, It is also true that
workers in other non-union mines
in some of the greatest producing
districts Of Pennsylvania and other
States make earnings that compare
more than favorably with union
workers earnings by the week, the
month and the year. They enjoy
high living standards, have typical
American families and are substan-
tial and respected members of their
prosperous communities. They do
not in any way fit the description of
such men as are described by Mr..
SEARLEs in the propaganda which he
puts out to mislead the public.
These self-respecting, competent,
productive men never would permit
themselves to become highly op-
pressed and hopelessly helpless" But
they labor under no economic fallacy
that coal can be sold on the market
when 1t costs more to mine il than
it is worth to the coal using indus
tries and other coal consumers Of
the country. They have no hallucina-
tion that they can get a good living
out OF coal mining unless they work
at 1t steadily and efficiently. They
recognize the laws of economies, go
on the job with all that is in them.
get out the coal and earn good money
right along, their actual pay in thou
sands of instances averaging more
than that of less efficient union work
ers, even when these latter workers
are employed, as they very generally
are not now employed in many union
fields under present conditions.
Taking exception to THE New
York HERALD's criticism OF the ar
chaic method of compelling all union
scales to conform to the basic scale
Of the central competitive field, the
propagandist OF the coal miners
unions then goes on to discuss the
practice of making poor coal cost
more in the consumers market than
good coal, as follows:
The theory OF this kind OF wage
scale making IS that the wages
should be so regulated that miner
working in a mine where mining
Is difficult could earn practically the
same amount In days work as the
miner employed IN a mine where
mage rate in mine where man
could produce only Ave tons a day
would be twice as high as in a
mine where the same man could pro-
duce ten tons day. And II should
be SO. for II is harder 70 dig ton
OF coal in an old. worked out field
than In a new mine with coal close
TO tho pit mouth. Surely. you would
not ask man TO dig coal for 81
ton in a mine where he could pro-
ducc only five tons a day and pay
coal in mine whore no could pro-
duce ten tons day"
But aside and apart from the nat
ural course and the necessary course
of adjusting excessive labor costs in
any particular industry to falling
living costs that are general, 1t must
hs apparent to anybody who under.
stands the plain arithmetic Of bust.
ness transactions that in an aggres.
sively competitive selling market
such as the coal market now is, the
given quantity Of mined coal that
has a labor cost OF two dollars for
every dollar Of labor cost In the
same quantity Of coal from another