Great Falls tribune., 1922-04-20
The HQSkitl Letter . ,11ass.a1 %ssz
WHAT THE COAL STRIKE COSTS.

l. STRIKE COSTS.
/ ing in money. Nothing like that woult
ever be permitted to happen, Of course
but the picture is one to be borne il
mind.
/ Getting down to dollars and cents
the first item is the wage loss Of ths
mine workers. If there are 100000
miners idle as q result of the strike
their loss each day totals at least 81,
100000 on the basis Of their average
earnings per day worked In 1920. Next
comes the loss in wages to workers
outside the coal industry upon whom
idleness is forced by reason Of the
strike. Thousands of railroad workers
were laid off the first week of the
strike-one system alone laying of
16O0O-and their number will be added
to as the strike continues or becomes
more effective. Other thousands OF
workers who handle coal somewhere
along the line between the railroad ter
minal and the consumers bin likewise
will have idleness thrust upon them
! and passing from them to the workers
cannot operate without coal yet an
| other wage loss item is to be chalked
up.
In the early days Of strike such
as the one now under consideration
only the haziest estimates can be
made as to its direct effect upon other
| are Of necessity incomplete and no.
toriously inaccurate. 1t may be
| significant to note, however, that q
| large steel mill in Youngstown, Ohio,
| that had been closed down for long
| period was scheduled to resume work
| the first week in April and did not
do SO because of the strike and
threatened coal shortage, and that
other large steel plants in the Pitts
burg district were closing down or re-
ducing their scale of operations within
| few days after the strike was called.
To the wage loss of all these work
ers is to be added the productive value
of their labor had they been employed,
for every man at work produces some
thing of value to society that is lost
irrevocably when he is idle. Natural
ly each mans productive value depends
upon the nature of his work, and to
arrive at this item in the cost of the
coal strike one mans estimator
guests as dependable as the nexts
Perhaps the most illuminating concep-
t1on of the value of time when use
fully employed is conveyed in the old
copybook aphorism, Lost, yesterday,
somewhere between sunrise and sun
set, two golden hours. each set with
sixty diamond minutes; no reward is
offered for they are gone forever
A Loss Everybody Shares
But every member of society, be he
business man, professional man,
farmer. workman or parasitic idler,
must share in this loss occasioned
when days wage is not earned and
hence cannot be spent and the product
of a days labor has not been realized
and is gone forever Everybody has
seen town or small city largely de-
pendent upon one business or manu-
featuring establishment 'go ahead"
when that establishment suspends op-
erations for period, and a like dead
ening effect more or less serious,
must be felt in every section of the
country when so essential an industry
as coal suspends operations or is only
partially productive and hundreds Of
thousands Of wage earners go on an
Indefinite vacation.
This deadening effect. moreover, ac-
cording to economists, began with the
first serious threat Of the coal strike.
They point out that with the opening
Of the present year there was a very
general determination to pull the
country out Of the slough of business
depression and bring about that ire
turn to normalcy' of which so much
has been heard and so ttle realized
for many months. Men in all lines of
endeavor were planning to get under
full swing again. and perhaps to ex
tend or expand their operations. New
enterprises were projected bankers
were more optimistic, credits were be-
coming easier, capital was seeking
work to do instead of hole in Ehich
to hide. The road to prosperity
seemed open again.
Then came the controversy between
the coal miners and operators, with a
practical certainty Of a strike on the
first of April. Better wait and see
what happens instead Of 'tUp and at
'em" became the watchword in the bus
mess and commercial world and there
again is found very indifinite but
none the less real item of loss that is
to be added to the real cost Of the
coal strike.
Lost profits to coal operators, lost |
freight revenues to railroads Tan enor-
nous sum in the aggregated; lost prof
its to all middle-men and dealers who
handle coal, and lost profits to all in |
dustries and businesses affected ad-
versely by a real or threatened coal |
famine, are other items in the total bill |
which the country must pay because |
the men who own the coal and the men |
who dig it would not set their house in |
order before March 81.
It will be long time before anyone
will hazard an estimate as to what this |
total cost is in cold, hard cash, but one
thing has been made certain already
it will be enough, Optimsts among
members of congress and other leaders
IN public affairs agree, however that
whatever the bill is it will not be too
much If it arouses the pupblic until |
measures are taken to avoid similar !
1ebacles in the future.