The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-04-17

of the coal strike has come one out
standing fact-King Coal is sick.
There is substantial agreement on
that point among the economists
and other experts, although there
may be bitter differences when it
comes to prescribing and admins
! tering the remedy that is to put the
old king on his feet again.
Hearings before congressional
committees and widespread news
paper and magazine discussions
have been the means of registering
in the public mind the idea that
there is something radically wrong
with the coal industry aside from
the controversy between the oper-
ators and miners over wage rates
and working conditions. 1t has
been apparent, indeed, that the min
ers at least are determined to draw
public attention to what they con-
slider fundamental weaknesses and
defects in the industry, rather than
permit it to be concentrated on the
question of wage increases or de-
grasses, and in this they seek to
avoid an error of policy which they
made two years and half ago.
In 1919 the miners in the blum
nous fields carried their fight with
the operators to the point of strike
or shutdown without taking the
public into their confidence as to
the why's and wherefores of their
action All that the people of the
country were permitted to know
was that the miners had made wage
demands which the operators would
not grant and that as a result there
would be no coal produced for an
indefinite period. The people knew,
of course, that winter was coming
on, and that a winter without coal
meant hardships that would speed
lily become intolerable; they did not
know, they were not informed and
they did not inquire whether the
strike was justifiable or unjustifi-
able. Consequently the miners went
into the fray without that support
ing public sentiment without which
it is claimed that labor never has
won and never can win such a
struggle with capital. The strike
of 1919 was lost before it was fair
ly started.
This year it has been evident from
the outset that the miners were
wooing public opinion, and it is to
that end that their leaders have
gone to such lengths to explain the
coal industry. Thus attention is di-
rected to their president, John L.
Lewis, when he goes before the
house committee on labor and tells
the committee and the country that
the coal industry is diseased in
dustry.
Over-Manned and Overturned.
By a diseased" industry econo-
mists mean one that has something
organically wrong with it, or that
has been developed in a way to
make it structually weak. In the
case of the coal industry it is said
that the primary trouble is due to
extent and method of development.
First of all, there are too many
mines and too many miners. The
coal needs of the country, including
both domestic consumption and eX-
ports, are not to exceed 28,000,000
tons a year, according to experts of
the United States geological sur
yey, while the annual productive
capacity of the bituminous mines is
in excess of 7O0,000,000 tons and
probably nearer 800.000,000. There
are mine workers to man these
mines, hence the coal industry may
be said to be over-deYeIoped to an
extent anywhere from 80 to 40 per
cent.
This means that all the coal that
the country requires can be pro-
duced in approximately 215 days
operation of the mines in a year
that has 30S working days and 165
days in which the miners and their
families must live. 1t means also
that the overhead expenses of the
operators go on relentlessly when
no coal is being produced, thus add
ing a big item to the cost OF coal
which the public must pay. Just
what the total item of lost man
power and lost expense of manage
ment may be is a matter of ap-
proxima ton, but experts agree that
it is well in excess of half billion
dollars annually.
Mr.. Lewis computes the labor
loss alone at 100000 man-days
each year and he told the house
committee that the productive value
of one mans labor for q day was
not less than SO. There may be
differences of opinion as to this, but
Mr.. Lewis points to the $3.50 basic
day wage of the soft coal miners in
support of his figures and it is GER
tain that the productive value of la
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