Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-07-25
INDUSTRY Of ]. S.
BEGINNING To FEEL
5. EFFECT Of STRIKES
BY HARDEN COLFAX
(Leased Wire Service to The Journal.)


WASHINGTON, July 22.-The eff.
fort being made by coal operators to
>Un their properties VIII hardly re.
suit in sufficient coal being mined
20 meet the nations requirements
according to advices to Washing
SON from the coal fields. In western
Pennsylvania and elsewhere some of
the strikers will go back to work,
but the majority, reports indicate.
will remain on strike. In Illinois the
operators apparently are making no
plans whatever to reopen their
mines under the Harding plan. In
Indiana, martial law probably would
have to be proclaimed before the
mines could reopen as the miners
are in control Of state machinery for
licensing workers in the pits.
- Meantime production of coal has
dropped still further, according to
preliminary reports to the geological
survey. This weeks output from
non-union mines probably will fall
below the figure Of last week. The
supply Of coal on hand, according to
the same authority, has touched or
gone below the danger mark. Many
trains have been annulled because
of lack Of locomotive fuel and in
=dustries in the middle west have
been hit hard by the shortage.
As an Illustration of conditions,
1t is reported that the purchasing
agents Of more than so industrial
and utility plants have taken up
their headquarters at jacksonville,
Ky, and are bidding against each
other for coal as it comes from the
pit mouth.
The twin strikes apparently ac-
-complished material results in slow
ing down industry during the week.
On the railroads there are several
important centers OF congestion and
others are developing. Notwithstand-
Ing these spotty conditions, however,
the rail situation, in the words of
officials here, is decidedly looking
up" The movement of freight has
improved, they claim, during the
week, and the growth of congestion
has been pretty well checked. Some
of the roads are claiming as much
as go per cent of the strikers back
at work.
Car shortage in the non-union coal
fields cut heavily into production
during the week. On some of the
roads, however, capacity of facili-
ties had already been reached.
Again, the situation was spotty; i'm.
provements were noted in some sec.
tons and conditions were not so
good in others.
Officials here are hoping that the
presidents plan for the resumption
of mining will be successful, but
they are not unduly optimistic. The
suggestion that the government take
over the properties and operate them
during the crisis-not all the prop
critics, but sufficient mines in GER
tain fields to meet national require
ments-has been engaging more, at
tention during the past 48 hours. It
is felt that this will be done as
last recourse and not until the presi-
dents present plan will have been
found ineffective.
Mine workers, it is pointed out,
will hardly be in a position to with
stand the presidents command to
return to work at their old wages
in government-operated mines. They
would be justified, it Is argued by
supporters of the suggestion, in
staying away from privately run
mines, perhaps, but would find it diff
.ficult to find justification in strik-
ing against the government itself
Virtually all lines of industry re.
fleet the industrial situation in de-
creased production and orders.
The president is studying the
crisis to the exclusion of many sub
jects which would otherwise occupy
his attention. He is further along
with developments, perhaps, in the
coal situation than with respect to
the rail strike. The later has been
left to the government agency de-
signed to cope with it, for the most
part. 1t has only been within the
past 10 days that the president has
devoted much of his time to study
ing the rail situation with the same
concentration he has devoted to the
coal strike.
OF the two the coal strike is re.
garded as the most pressing. That
strike is given precedence because it
is aimed at the heart of industry
its fuel supply-and because whole
producing sections of the country,
Including the entire anthracite<field,
.1ooxya haor, +ioI,% fo,. WOODS