Albuquerque morning journal., 1922-04-20

cannot operate without coal yet
another wage loss is to be chalked
up.
In the early days of a strike such
as the one now under conSidera-
tion only the haziest OF estimates
can be made as to it's direct effect
upon other industries, for reports
of shutdowns are of necessity IN
complete and notoriously inaccu-
rate. 1t may be significant to note
however, that large steel mill in
Youngstown, O.. that had been
closed down for q 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 Pittsburgh
district were closing down or re-
ducing their scale of operations
within few days after the strike
was called.
To the wage loss OF all these
workers is to be added the produc-
tive value of their labor had they
been employed, for every man at
work produces something of value
to society that is lost irrevocably
when he is idle. Naturally each
mans productive value depends
upon the nature OF his work, and
| to arrive at this item in the cost
of the coal strike one mans esti-
mate-or guests as dependable
as the next's. Perhaps the most
| illuminative conception of the val
ue of time when usefully employed
! Id IN hA old hnnk
! aphorism, Lost, yesterday, some
where between sunrise and sunset,
| two golden hours, each set with
sixty diamond minutes; no reward
is offered for they are gone for
ever" ..
A Loss Everybody Shares.
But every member of society,
| be he business man, professional
man, farmer, workman or para
site idler must share in this
loss occasioned when a days wage
it not earned and hence cannot be
spent and the product of a days
labor has not been realized and
is gone forever. Everybody has
seen a town or small city, largely
dependent upon one business or
manufacturing establishment, "go
| dead" when that establishment
suspends operations for a period,
and like deadening effect, more
or less serious, must be felt In
every section of the country when
so essential industry as Goa
suspends operations or is only
partially productive and hundreds
of thousands of wage earners &c
! IN an inHafipito vacation
This deadening effect, more
over, according to economists, be-
gan with the first serious threat
} of the coal strike. They poin
out that with the opening of th'
J present year there was Yer!
J general determination to pull th'
country out of the slough of bus
mess depression and bring abou
that return to normalcy" o
, which so much has been heart
and so little realized for man.
, months. Men in all lines of en-
: deavor were planning to get un
; der full swing again, and per
hape to extend or expand thei
operations New enterprises were
projected, bankers were more op
! timistic, credits were becoming
| easier, capital was seeking worl
: to do instead of a hole in which
: to hide. The road to prosperit.
| seemed open again.
: Then came the controversy be
! tween the coal miners and bper
; ators, with a practical certaint
: of a strike on the first of April
S Better wait and see what hap
/ pens" instead of "up and at EN-!
: became the watchword in tn
i business and commercial worl'
f and there again is found u yer
indefinite but none the less rea
q item of loss that is to be adde
s to the cost Of the coal strike.