, 1922-04-11
ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND NEFFIcIENcY.

MIsMANAGEMENT M NEFFIcIENCY. -
"Senator Borah voiced the impatient protest Of an
unimformed public when he said that unless the coal
industry cleans house and is reorganized in the in
terest of the public, government ownership or some
other dire thing win happen" says Coal Age, an
acknowledged authority in the production and mar
keting of coal in the United States. Where Senator
Borah comes from about the only coal found Is that
which falls from the Oregon Short line trains as they
roll over the Snake river plains.
"Tze Senator is more nearly right than he real
lies. Perhaps the industry knows it too. Mine OWL
es and operators see no immediate possibility of
government ownership of tho coal mines but they do
sense an undercurrent of sentiment for government
regulation. The miners have the same vision but
with different hopes.
'The operators, capital il you will, do not want
the government to lay its blighting hand on their
business; they know that they can conduct it more
efficiently than can a federal bureau In this the
managers of coal mines are no differently disposed
than men in all other lines OF industry and bust
ness.
speak with a straight face of Government operation
as a means Of eliminating waste and extravaganza
must be hard for Mr.. Borah or anybody else. Look
Mt the figures of the Governments balance sheet in
the shipping business. Consider the lavish operation
~ the railroads by the Government
"Does the senator and others who think as he
does know that one of the issues at stake in the pres
ent conflict involves the endeavor of the miners to
perpetuate and extend practices that promote inef-
fciency and prevent good management?
"a machine shop that maintained a separate
bench for each worker and permitted the worker to
rome n 20 as Incy pfedeeuy ptfUutIeu tnem 70 dp-
sent themselves for two days in succession without
necessity or formalty Of excuse and held idle the in
vestmcnt in plant that absence involved, would prop
erly be challenged as mismanaged and inefficient.
"Yet that is a characteristic Of the ~unionr<oRl
mines. The coal miner is the freest workIdan on
earth. He is a contractor; he punches no time cloek
and permits no record of his comings and goings.
He enters the mine when he likes and leaves when
he deems prudent His working place, his room, y
IS his. Two days absence without excuse are not
penalized. One of the demands of the union this
year is that the automatic penalty Of a dollar per
day for absence beyond two days be removed, as il
WAS before the war.
ment is to discharge or furlough workers not needed
when demand for its product falls off. From the
standpoint of management it is more efficient opera
ton to decrease the force Of than to run part time
with a full crew. The railroads last year effected
economies by laying off Thousands Of men not needed.
Factory hands by the thousands were discharged.
But every coal operator who could get orders to run
his mine even a few days per month gave his men,
all his men, the opportunity to share in what bust
ness there was. In no other large industry does this
humane but inefficient practice obtain.
The union bituminous coal mines in 1921 prob
ably did not average half-tmie operation, that is
they worked less than an average Of four out of
eight hours per day. Had the management dis
charged the less efficient and energetic half of the
working force or closed the less efficient mines and
then have kept the remaining mines going full tilt
all day every day, as much coal would have been
produced and the cost per ton would have been less.
Part time operation always increases unit cost Bus
once a union miner or mine worker becomes attached
to a pay roll the union protects him against dis
charge.
'should Senator Borah pursue his study diligently
he will find that the checkoff is the greatest bar to
good management in the bituminous coal industry,
and he will find that the operators have declared for
its rejection in future contracts
must ask, however, what IN the public inter
est determines whether the coal industry is efficient
or otherwise. Until thrown out of joint by the war
and IN turn by postwar adjustment, even as now, the
bituminous coal industry gave the United States all
the coal it required and it was the cheapest coal in
the world The mine workers produced, and even
yet produce, more tons per man per day and per year
than in any other important country. The percent
age of machine-mined coal in the United States is
exceeded nowhere.
"yhe faults which are blazoned on high-inter-
nittency of operation, high wage rates, union domi-
nation, penchant for car shortages, overdevelopment
and others-are the result of the rapid growth under
highly competitive conditions Of a wholly disinte-
grated business composed of provincial, widely scat
tered units.
s.The remedy Of naturalization proposed by the
United Mine Workers promises no cure for these
basic faults. There can be no effective remedy that
does not contemplate the prompt squeezing out of
the mass the inefficient mines, which means less
workers and fewer operators If there are, as esti-
mated. 10000 more mine workers than are neces-
gary for proper functioning, they must go, as must
many high cost mines.
dwsas governmental agency would take such a