The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1922-03-27
STRIKE MLL NOT
INGREASEPRGES
OF COAL AT 0NGE
of Industry Made
by Editor of Coal
Journal
By AMEDEE J. CASEY
EDITOR American Coal Journal

thihIiSah SOul bOuTual
NEW YORK, March 27.-wtth
q showdown at hand in the coal
industry OF the United States, the
public is left In some doubt as TO
Just who Is going on strike April
!. 1t has been told from one side
that 100000 bituminous and 15O.-
600 anthracite union miners are
striking, and from the other that
these men are being locked out
and that II is the operators and
dealers who Will be on strike. The
plain truth of the matter is that
for at least a year and 1t hasn't
there has been a strike on In the
coal industry OF the United States
been the operators.or the miners
who have been striking. The
walkout that Is coming this week
is merely the final chapter in the
strike Of the consumer against
high prices. The worm has turn
ed. The usual goat in all former
industrial disputes, the innocent
bystauder-the Public, will be
discovered as the guilty party who
is on strike April Fools Day.
Losses to both sides. the min
ers and the coalmen. have been
heavy In this strike OF the public,
The United States geological sur
vey with all returns in for 1921,
said OF the soft coal trade Of the
country: THE figures on tonnage
sound like those OF an earlier day.
To match the 100000, 900 tons
of soft coal produced one must
go back ten years. To match the
100000 tons of coke he must go
back seventeen years. But these
tonnage comparisons are not
enough, for they ignore the nor
NAL increase from year to year.
To match the completeness OF the
depression OF 1921 one must 90
back to 1898"
From the miners come reports
of widespread suffering and loss.
They averaged little better than
three days work a week. Thou
sonds were idle in the union fields
altogether.
Coal prices arc too high. No
body denies 1t. Steel. the rail-
roads, building. shipping-all are
picking up. but coal remains the
laggard of the Industrial field. a
drag on all other business, a pot
ent factor in the continuing high
cost OF living.
To remedy this. give industry
and manufacturing the big shove
ahead they need, bring down liv-
ing costs, coal prices have got to
be cut. And this is what the
strike Is about, The miners say
the producers can do this without
lowering wages and, in the case
Of the hard coal miners, even in
creasing wages. The producers
say they can't. Therefore $780,
600 men will he out of work next
week. plants and equipment worth
a billion and half dollars will be
idle and a hundred million people
or so will have their coal supply
placed in jeopardy.
Three factors enter into the
price OF coal--overhead. trans
portation costs and wages. Coal
producers and dealers in the last
twelve months have slashcd their
sales and executive organizations
toa,tlle bone. Freight rates are
still up, although rail- labor has
been Debated. High fuel prices
are keeping them up. Once coal
is cut, freights may drop. The
one remaining way to get coal
prices down. the operators assert,
is drastic wage cuts. 1t is to break
into this vicious circle Of costs
that notices from 20 10 40 per
cent have been posted in the uu-
ion coal fields OF the country.
Coal miners still are operating
at peak war time wages. Seventy
per cent of the price Of soft coal
to the public is estimated by the
operators rs labor cost. Tho Ma
tlonal Industrial Conference
Board has just made public the
results of an investigation into
the actual earnings of miners in
the anthracite field in which 1t
finds that they are making 152 to
16G per cent moro than they did
before the war and that their In
crease has been far more than
that OF wage earners in mauufac-
turing industries or on the rail-
roads. 1t also finds that there
has been no wage reduction in til"
period Of depression.
Union leaders of the hard coal
men in convention adopted a wage
scale calling for a pay increase o:
60 per cent. At the joint confer
ence In New York. the operators
definitely rejected this. but ex.
pressed a willingness to negotiate
with the union, STIMULATING. how,
ever, that the negotintors must be
prepared to consider substantial re.
ductlons. An anthracite wage scale
is a matter OF six TO eight weeks
to negotiate, so the hard coal fields
will be without a wage agreement
and idle April !. In the event OF
a deadlock, no hard coal may BIO
mined far into the summer.
Tho wage convention OF the soft
coal men at indianapolis demanded
the present war time scale for two
years more, the retention Of tho
checkotf under which the operators
are obliged to deduct union dues
from the wages OF their employees
to replenish the war chest OF tha
union, and a six.hour day and a
five day week.
The miners demanded that the
operators OF the central compett.
tive field, the basing point for
wages in the soft coal industry.
meet them and ratify this scale,
any deviation from which would
lead Inevitably to a strike. The
operators OF the field, which in.
ciudes Western Pennsylvania, Ohio.
Indiana and Illinois, declined. and