Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-03-29

Miners and operators alike recognize the i'm
portance of cultivating public sentiment. Both sides
are sending broadcast special pleas setting forth
their own respective arguments. These appeals arc
sent out for the purpose of influencing public SEN
tinlent and causing an opinion to be created in favor
of one side or the other. Ali of this mass Of ma
terial adds not one whit to the information Of the
public, because the statements are biased, their ac-
curacy is open to question, they are made not for
the purpose OF informing but of prejudicing the pub
lie, and the public has no means Of knowing what
other facts there may be which have a bearing OF,
the situation.
With the present conditions existing; which
menace his pocketbook, his comfort, and perhaps
the very existence of his business, the plain Citizen
IS helpless: Ifc knows that he is obliged to pay more
iii proportion for his coal than for any other I'M
|portant commodity which, he must buy. That is
the one tact of which he is certain. But why this is
so he does not know, and he has no means of finding
out. If he complains to the retailer who supplies
him he is met with the admission that prices are al
together too high, but the retailer processes himself
helpless. The responsibility, he is told, lies farther
back, with the railroads, the dock companies, the
and the producers. If he investigates furth-
er he will find each OF the other groups disavowing
responsibility. The railroads, he is told, cannot make
ends meet even at present freight rates, and they
cannot reduce rates until they are permitted to re-
duce wages: The jobber can show that he is max
ing only a few cents a ton for handling. The min
ing companies have their alibi in the excessive cost
~~ WV ~AhSA' > AlAok WY ak NCpl
on starvation wages while the operators pile up
great fortunes.
This leaves the purchaser Just where he started.
lie knows no more than he did when he started.
Every material statement that he has heard has
been contradicted, and he has no means of ascer-
tanning what the facts are.
1t may be that ultimately the government will
have to assume the direct handling of the coal mines.
1t is to be hoped that this point will not be reached,
for the government is already attempting more
things than it can do we'll. But something must be
done to rid the country al this ever-present fuel
nightmare. In the meantime, the government has
not done, and is not doing what it can do and should
DO to aid Ill the solution of this problem. There is
every reason to believe that with the public in pos
session OF the essential facts, so presented that the
ordinary human being could understand them, most
OF the difficulties would vanish.
The public wants to know. and it has q right to
know, what is the matter with the coal situatior.
l here is Just one authority that can inform it, and
that authority is the United States government.
Without taking over a mine, without assuming re-
ssPots1o'llty tor wages or prices, the government can
list every item OF expense from taking the coal from
the bowels OF the earth to it's delivery to the con-
sumner. 1t can show the cost of coal delivered at the
mouth of the pit. delivered on the boat at Cleveland,
at Duluth, the cost of screening and re-
grading with the wastagc. the selling price at each
transfer. the rail charges into the interior, and the
price paid by the local dealer. The government has
access to all this information, and It has authority
to present it to the public. The issuance of bull
letins covering these and similar facts, not once in
several years, as the result Of some Investigation
put regularly, just as other market facts are pub
llshed, would put the public in possession of infor-
NATION on which it could reach conclusions with GER
talnty. And when those conclusions were reached,
they would constitute a basis of action. No BODY of
strike agitators, and no combination Of mine own
es could stand up long in pursuance of an unfair
policy against publicity of that kind.
The great trouble lust now is that the nrhI;c
doesn't know, and the government is not helping it
to find out.