Smyrna times., 1922-08-30
DELAWARE COAL CLUB WILL
AID THE STATE COMMISSION
COAL DEALERS ORGANIZATION
PLEDGES ALL AID IN CRISIS
No Anthracite in Delaware For Dis
tributiOn At Present Time, Deal
ers Declare at Meeting


ers Declare at Meeting
Close cooperation on the part of
the Delaware Coal Club was prom
ised the Coal Commission Friday at
a meeting held in the ,Belhaven Ho-
tel at Rehoboth. Coal dealers from
all parts of the State were present.
The club authorized its executive
committee to represent it in the ar
ranging and execution of the program
of the commission when completed and
put into effect. The club adopted res
olutions to this end. The program,
according to Leon Walker, chairman
of the commission has not yet been
drawn up because of the lack of in
formation as to what steps will be
taken in Washington regarding the
matter, at least so far as the State of
Delaware is concerned. He further
said that the State would have to
trust to the Government for fuel. To
date there is no anthracite coal in the
state for distribution.
Soft Coal Relieves Tense Situation
An allotment of 5000 tons of soft
coal has been obtained to relieve the
immediate tense situation the indus
tries of the state are now telling, Mr..
Walker told members of the club dur
ing the meeting. He said that fair
price had been agreed upon when this
supply was gotten. Outlining the sit
uation as it now is, Mr.. Walker said
in part: "It is quite likely many of
you are as well informed as to the
coal situation and what brought about
the conditions which now confront us
as | am" went on Chairman Walker,
'but for the information of those who
are not so informed l will attempt to
outline briefly some of the troubles.
Reviews Mine Troubles to Coal Dealers
"At midnight on March 81, 1922,
all wage scale agreements in both the
bituminous and anthracite fields eX
pired, and the production of approx
mately 60 per cent. of bituminous and
practically all anthracite coal ceased,
and up to the present time there has
been no change in the situation other
than a slight increase in the produc-
tion of bituminOus by reason of the
recent Cleveland agreement entered
into by the United Mine Workers and
a few operators in Ohio, western and
central Pennsylvania. "The outstand-
| ing issues were wages and conditions
of work, wage scale agreements upon
national basis or by districts or at
most by States, complete unionization
lof the coal industry, and the system
of collecting dues for the Union, known
as the check-off, an agreement where
| by Union dues and assessments are
collected from the miners by the oper-
ators through the simple process of
Withholding such dues from the pay
envelope.
Fuel Distributor Busy on BituminOus
"Up to the present time the Fed
eral Fuel Committee, through its
chairman, Henry B. Spencer, has con-
fined its activities to the regulation of
the distribution and sale price of what
ever bituminous coal was available
for federal distribution to the State
Committee, and has not included in its
program anthracite coal for the suf-
ficient reason that there was practi-
cally no anthracite for distribution.
Thought BituminOus Strain Relieved
THE Delaware Coal Commission
working along the same lines, like
wise has attempted only so far to
handle the bituminous situation. We
succeeded in getting through the Fed
eral Committee an allotment of 5000
tons of New River and Pocohantas
coal, at the agreed upon Hoover fair
price to meet the immediate needs of
our public institutions, Estate, county
and municipal), our public utilities,
Gamers and other essentials, at time
when it appeared that it would be i'm
possible otherwise to procure sufficient
coal to continue their operation. With
the increasing production of bitumin-
Gus coal from the non-union districts,
along with the resumption of work at
the mines of those operators signing
up on the basis of the Cleveland agree
ment, it is expected that the total pro-
duction shortly will be sufficient to
greatly relieve the bituminous situa-
ton.