The Washington herald., 1922-06-10
COAL RETAILERS
SAY SECRETARY
EvADES ISSUE
Roderick Stephens An
swers Mr. .Hooyer's
Letter to Jones.
REITERATES STAND
Head, of Commerce Depart.
ment Replies, Again Ask
ing Dealers to Cooperate.

Replying yesterday to Secretary
Hooyer's letter TO Homer ID. Jones.
of Chicago. pres dent Of the Ma
tionai Ret1il Coal Merchants As
socIat on. in which the Secretary of
Commerce criticised the retailers
for a non-co-operative attitude In
the effort to restrain coal prices.
Roderick stephens. on behalf of the
retailers. told Mr.. Hoover that he
is eveding the issue confronting
the men who must sell the coal to
the householders. s.a
1T is very apparent from the
tone OF your letter" wrote Ste
phens. that II is your intention TO
evade the issue and we feel 10 VIII
be a waste of time to continue this
discussion.
Feels They Are Ignored.
I'VE affirm that in your attempt
to prevent an undue advance in the
price of bituminous coal, you have
ia led to consider the interest OF
a substantial proportion OF the
consuming public, and that the
savings which you claim to have
brought about in respect to lump.
even IL true. which we do not admit
are applicable only to a small pro-
portion of the consumers affected.
I'VE also cannot but feel that
you have deliberately ignored the
interest of the people in refusing to
treat with us to the extent or
bringing about solution of the
problem confronting U.s."
Mr.. Hoover. replying last night
to Mr.. stephens letter said that
the retailers had faHed to mention
his suggestions as to means OF CO.
operation during the present
emergency which he had outlined In
his letter to them. and added: -
II again repeat that / should be
glad to know whether your associ-
alton will or will not undertake to
protect the consumer"
Secretary Letter.
Mr.. Hooyer's letter follows.
II am in receipt Of your COM
munication of June 9. 1 notice that
YOU do not reply to the last para
graph Of my letter. which was as
follows:
1T does seem to me that the
retail coal dealers could play a fine
part in this emergency IL they
would follow this suggestion: (a)
All coal to be sold at cost plus
reasonable handling charge. Obj
| The cheap prestrike and contract
coal to be reserved for the smaller
household trade. (c) Steam and
larger domestic consumers to bt
supplied from current purchases
plus a reasonable handling charge
| (d) Cooperate to prevent risins
mine prices, for some districts are
refusing to accept the formula
have outlined above and are asking
IS per ton. (e) Handle coal or
| straight lines from operator ant
wholesaler without speculative re-
sales in the trade
by such cooperation feel SURF
we can save she public from run
away prices, such as We witnessed
| in 1920: thus saving to them sew
eral dollars per ton-of more in
terest than questions of 25 or 81
cents.
'T requested that you should Dc
away with disputes on trivial ques.
tions and enter upon cooperation
with me.
'T again repeat that I should b,
glad to know whittier your associ
alton will or will not undertake e
protect the consumer by co-operatin'
in the above particulars. or wha
alterations in the above you woulC
consider fair"
The following average of spo
prices of Goals representative Of 81
per cent of the total output OF tn
United States, compiled by Goa
Age. shows the results of the ef
fort to restrain the rise of price!
at the first of June: