The Elk Mountain pilot., 1922-05-25
SOME COAL FACTS
TIE Rights of the Operators


kins, Executive Chairman of the
COMMITTEE OF 4s, for the National
Bureau of information and Education.
These articles are based upon person
al Investigations by Mr.. Hopkins.
In my two preceding articles have
dealt with the general conditions ex-
sting in the coal industry today, and
particularly in their relation to the
rights of the consuming public and
the rights Of the operatives. 1t is
now my purpose to deal with the
rights of the operators and to sug-
gest a method of procedure which
would justly meet their demands with
out infringing upon the rights of
either the operatives or the public.
The operators furnish the capital,
set up the equipment, and ship. the
coal to its distributing points. In
the process of SO doing certain leg
itimate financial risks from time to
time have to be incurred. Under
these circumstances it follows that
they have right to demand a price
for their product which will allow
for fair rate of interest on capital
actually invested, compensate them
for. any reasonable financial risks in
CURED, and pay them a fair percent
age of profit upon the cost price of
the coal laid down at point of de-
livery to the consumer. In order to
satisfy these demands they must how
ever show that their capital upon
which they are allowed interest is
actually and legitimately invested;
that their allowance to cover their
other financial risks is based on leg
itimate expenditures; and that in
agreeing upon proper. percentage
of profit this must be based upon the
actual cost of production including
freight, and must include all com
missions and middlemen's expense
ESQ far as the latter cannot be avoid
ed) as between the operator and the
actual consumer of the coal. fr..
This latter requirement involves
the taking over by the operators of
the responsibility of distribution. In
other words, they are in precisely the
same position as the Insurance com
pany which has to market its policies
through general agents, state agents,
local agents, and sub-agents. The
operators problem is of a similar
nature. namely, to eliminate all the
Intermediates that can be elimi
mated, and then to fix total per-
centage of profit Tor as the insur-
ance company would call it, COM
mission), out of which each of the
distributing agents takes his com
mission in accordance with an agreed
scale. The public is interested. and
IS entitled to be interested, simply
in the actual cost of producing the
'oal plus just and fair percentage
of profit, but it is not interested in
low this allowance may be divided
up nor how many distributing agents
are used by the coal operators in ac-
complishing the delivery of the coal
to the consumer
TIE first item in the schedule of
costs upon which the percentage of
profit must be figured (aside from the
question of interest on capitaD is the
rost of labor. Without labor the coal
would remain in the ground. The
cost of labor should correspond, as
have already pointed out, to an
agreed standardized cost of living,
and should be based upon daily or
monthly wage, which will accomplish
this result, This item, the wages of
labor, must be the one irreducibIe
item in the bill of costs. Any at
tempt to scale down the wages of
labor below the cost of living will
not only. gradually and inevitably
bankrupt the laborer, but perpetrate
the strike as his only weapon of de-
fense.
All the items going into the cost
of produc tion should be certified
either by a system of state inspection
or bv commission on which the
operators, the operatives and the
public are evenly represented. The
duty of this body should be to see
that the coal is efficiently mined;
ihat needless expenses are elimin-
ted; and that the costs upon which
the operators, after adding their per-
rentage of profit, finally base their
selling price, are correct and do in
fact represent the cost of producing
he coal and conveying it to the
point where it is delivered to the
purchaser. The percentage of profit
sfould be agreed upon after a fair
and impartial hearing in which all
threa Of the interesfed nart;as shall