The New York herald., 1922-03-22
On the Eve of the Coal Strike,

On the Eve of the Coal Strike,
II the officials of the coal miners
unions carry out their threat TO issue
the strike call this week TO pull out
100000 workers in the bituminous
and anthracite fields on March 81
they will commit the most senseiess
act ever known in the coal mining
industry of this country. There is
not enough of demand for Ameri
can coal, as it is, to keep threo-quar'
ters OF the country's miners at work
Furthermore. the cost of union labor
coal is so high that the bulk of what
business is left is now going to the
non-union mines. Even foreign coal
is able to come into. our ports and
undersell the high cost union labor
product.
For the unions to go on strike
under such conditions simply means
that they will turn the whole coal
business of the country over to the
cheap non.union producers of the
United States and the cheap union
producers of Europe. The result OF
such blunder on the part of the
union leaders can only be their per-
manent loss Of many American coal
districts which have been unionized
for generations.
It has been stupid enough for the
union officials to refuse to recognize
the necessity of wage readiustments
based upon both the falling cost OF
living here and the capture of the
American coal market by mines that
do not recognize the union. But To
make matters worse for themselves
in such juncture the union lead
ers have insisted that no scale could
be considered unless it was based
on archaic methods of making all
wages the country over conform to
the wage in the highly productive
central field.
DID, worked out fields, according
to this edict, must pay the same high
wage costs as the new ones with
coal close to the pit mouth. Regions
where the fuel value of the product
is very low must stand on the same
plane with high grade coal regions
They must all do this or else close
down. No differentials are allowed
either, so far as wages are con.
cerned, for regional living costs, or
other differing factors in different
fields, which anybody with common
sense can see ought to be taken into
account in adjusting wages and all
other costs.
In extenuation of this obstinacy on
the part of the union officials, who
are deliberately bringing on the coal
strike, it is announced that before
long the union leaders will reveal to
the nation just exactly where it is
that the onus for the high produc,
tion costs belongs, and whence the
high price to the consumer is de,
rived. 1t is already matter of rec
ord that the cost of transporting coal
from the mines to tidewater has
doubled in the last ten years and the
wage cost in a ton of coal has
trebled.
In 1910 the day wage in the mines
was $3.50, and in 1921 it had risen to
$3.50. In about the same period the
cost of transporting bituminous coal
to tidewater rose from $1.55 a ton to
$3.11 ton. The actual transporta-
tion and wage cost in a ton Of bi.
luminous coal laid down at tide.
water was $3.50 in 1915. At the pres
ent time, on coal from the union
fields, it is $5.37.
Without allowing any profit to the
dealer or any return on the coal mine
investment, this $5.37 a ton, which
is mere transportation and wage
cost, is itself more than the price
at which bituminous coal brought
from the non.union fields in this
country and from the mines in
Wales across the Atlantic is now
sold to consumers.