Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-04-22

strike, or some official action to
relieve the situation, was promised when
public begins to fec the pinch of the coal
shortage. There are experts who contend
that the public was pinched from the mo-
ment the strike was threatened and such of
these experts as are not engaged on one side
or the other Of the wage controversy are
now busy computing the costs Of the strike.
Their figures are at once interesting and
startling.
The average citizen probably goes his Sc
rene way without thought that the coal
strike is hurting him until suddenly he finds
that he cannot get coal when he wants it, or
must pay a higher price than he was charged
for his last order, and 1t is at this average
citizen that the experts are aiming their
broadsides Of statistics Thus David L. Wing,
who has studied the coal problem for years,
says:
Since every cost or waste in coal produc-
ton, whether it be Of natural resources, or
man power, or of capital, must eventually
be borne by the coal consumer. it is not
enough for the man in the street merely to
read the news of threatened strikes, grumble
over high prices and talk of profteering and
summary legislation. He must realize that
this Is problem which he, too, must CO.
operate in solving, by bringing about an in
tellfgent public opinion without which no
sound and equitaI lie settlement of the coal
problems of this country is possible"
From 1910 to 1913 strikes caused 1O.6
per cent of the idle days in the bitumnous
coal industry. The figure for the year 1919
was still larger, and for the current wear it
may be one to challenge public attention. AT
any rate, the prospec1 warrants consideration
Of the cost Of the strike that began April l.
Exact compilations of strike costs are i'm
possible. The Bureau of Labor statistics long
since abandoned efforts in that line, for even
this government agency could never secure
complete T6DOrtS
loss in wages and loss in products, and at
the same time there are so many items en-
tering into the cost Of a strike that are in
definite and susceptible only of estimate or
approximation.
Giving the Public Jolt
/ However, in the case of a basic industry
such as coal the statsticans have more in
forming data with which to give the pub
lie jolt. First of all they point out that a
total cessation of coal production and ex-
haustion of coal supplies on hand would re-
suit in the complete industrial and CONNER
cial paralysis Of the nation: famine and
death would speedily stalk the land and
chaos ensue. Government itself would break
down and civilization totter and fall. That
is the possible ultimate cost of coal strike
and is beyond reckoning in money. Nothing
like that would ever be permitted to happen,
of course. but the picture is one to be borne
in mind.
/ Getting down to dollars and cents, the first
item is the wage loss of the mine workers. If
there are 100000 miners idle as a result of
the strike their loss each day totals at least
$4,200,000 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 err laid off the first week
of the strike-one system alone laying off
16,000-and their number will be- added to
as the strike continues or becomes more eff
fective. Other thousands of workers who
tween the railroad terminal and the con-
sumer's bin likewise will have idleness
thrust upon them, and passing from them to
the workers in manufacturing esta bish-
ments that cannot operate without coal yet
another wage loss item is to be chalked up.
In the early days of a strike such as the
one now under consideration only the haZ-
lest estimates can be made as to its direct
effect upon other industries, for reports of
shutdowns are of necessity incomplete and
VIGOROUSLY inaccurate. 1t may be signifi-
cant to note however, that 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 Pittsburg district
were closing down or reducing their scale
of operations within a few days after the
strike was called
to be aided the productive value of their