The New York herald., 1922-07-02
President Harding's Resolve to
End the Coal Strike.

II
fhe coal mine owners and the coal
sStrike leaders with plain speech. NO
sbody can mistake his meaning. The
country needs coal and the country
is going to get it. The strike must
end. If the operators and the strik-
ers cannot reach an agreement as to
the terms and conditions on which
the unions will dig coal, then the
national Government will step in and
itself get the coal out.
This is vastly important juno
ture in the affairs and institutions
of the American people. For the
Government could not go into this
business 'in the name of American
safety" as a mere emergency meas
ure to be dropped at any moment
with nothing done toward the final
solution of the great coal problem,
with nothing at all achieved, in fact,
but the digging of some coal when
the country had to have it.
The Government, once it gets
started, will have to set legislative
and administrative machinery in mo-
tion to put the whole coal industry
right. The Government will have
to correct or make others correct all
the evils that now aff1ict the greater
part of bituminous mining. The
Government will have to see not only
that wage scales are properly con-
s.ructed but that the mines are laid
out, managed and operated to pro-
6uce the best economic results for
the industry and for the country.
The practice of letting the high
cost mines set at the peak the price
OF coal from all mines will have to
stop. The low cost mine will have to
help carry the high cost mine, with
lower prices for the public to pay on
the combined product and with
smaller profits for the fat mines.
The whole industry will have to
be reorganized into few great
groups, with stabilized costs brought
about through the zoning system and
the treatment of all the coal in
each group as if it were from one
mine. Useless labor will have to
be eliminated and permanent en-
ployment secured for the labor that
&c retained.
All this is the ultimate destiny OF
the nations coal industry, no matter
what the immediate strike situation
brings. The great national coal prob
Iom will have TO be worked out sooner
or later on those lines of putting the
fat mine and the lean mine together
And because it cannot be worked out
on such lines except under Govern.
ment sanction and control there viii
need to be suitable law changing
both statute and fundamental. Wher
the Government does take over The
coal mines as an emergency measure
undoubtedly it will begin, right ther
and there, the law changing to per
NIT the correction of the basic diff
culties in coal production under ex
listing conditions.
In respect of this matter. therefore
probably It would be better for tn,
industry in the long run and better
for the country in the larger sense
If the operators and the strike lead
ers could not reach temporary set
tiement of their differences, as tn,
Government then would be forced
into going at once to the bigger ant
better. work--to the sound solution
without which there always will b
strife among the coal operators ant
coal workers and without which tn
public cannot get its due from tn
coal business either as to price or a
to service.
But as the first purpose of Presi
dent HARDING is to get coal for tn
public and as neither the operator
nor the workers are yet ready for tn
ultimate solution OF the problem
there is a very good chance that tn
two parties to the dispute will re
spond to Mr.. HARDINGs admonish
ment with some sort OF settlement O
the strike.