The Washington times., 1922-05-20

conference they had agreed to hold.
Not in anyway his fault, and yet
here he Is, paying this heavy penalty
for II.
incidentally, II this meekly patient
person would only think OF 1t. the en-
tire coal business. as conducted in
this, his country, might well have his
careful scrutiny. II he should ever
take in hand and examine 1t, he
would surely find 1t to be one Of the
strangest things in the world and
costing him a mint of money.
For instance, even in the best OF
times, when peace Tor an armed
truce) reigns over the Industrial bat
tlefield, in no other country Is there
30 wide and absurd a margin be.
tween the cost of producing coal and
the price the consumer must pay for
IL.
Possessed of the largest known
coal deposit on earth, blessed with
lowest cost OF coal production, the
people of the United States must
pay for coal the most unreasonable
prices.
II is the pleasure OF some cham
pions in the present controversy to
assume that this is the result Of
high labor costs. II the old gentle
man ever looks into this he will be
astonished to find how different is
the fact. Take anthracite, for in
stance. The exact total OF labor cost
is in dispute, but we know that the
actual miner at work on the pit
face receives less than 81 ton net
The coal sells in Washington. d. c.
about $50 miles from the mines, for
a..
actual miner receives about so cents
a ton net. You know what coal sells
for in your community. Sometimes
within fifty miles OF the place where
it was mined the price Of IL to the
patient old gentleman before de-
scribed is $3.50 or So. That being
the case, he might we'll ask why an
ordinary increase in the miners pay
was made an excuse for adding an.
other dollar to the consumers price
An increase OF as cents in the
miners pay, for instance, would
mean an increase in the cost Of
mining OF 20 cents a ton. Yet when
II reached the consumer, by some
strange magic. II had become a
dollar.
The secrets about all this ought
to interest him, IL anything does,
for coal Is reflected in nearly every.
thing he buys. II il is true, as
sometimes said. that the average
cost OF producing a ton Of bitumi.
nous coal Is S2.35 and 400 or 500
miles away he buys that coal for
$40 he might like to know what be-
comes OF the s765 between him and
the mine. Some not very efficient
hired men of his now gathered on
Capitol Hill in Washington might
be utilized to make that inquiry.
They need not want enough sub
jects to keep their attention from
wandering IL they once go into the
great American mystery OF coal.
Why, for instance, do we have
more mines than we need and more
miners and still coal prices rela.
lively the highest in the world?
What are all these arrangements
of leases, royalties, holding com.
panies, over capitalization, sales
agencies, real and fictitious and the
other devices that sop up the alb
normal margin and conceal Il?
What is this most extraordinary
arrangement by which railroads Sc
cure from mining companies at
prices so low that the general pub
lie must take up the deficit?
What is the influence upon the
coal industry of these same cen
tral financial interests that own
railroads, banks, steel supplies, oil
supplies?
These and other topics of the
kind would make interesting read
ing for the old gentleman-say, in
the northwest, next winter, while
he sits In his ooalless house and
tries to warm his hands over q