Evening star., 1923-01-18
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

Americans are oft accused of waste
| fulness What we waste would wholly
support some thriftier people. There
exists in Washington an Institute of
Economics, founded by the Carnegie
Corporation. II has just become a home
| owner, through the beneficence of its
president, Mr.. Robert S. Brookings. who
has donated to it an eight-story build
ing as its national headquarters. It is
equipped. therefore, it may be assumed.
to investigate, and perhaps solve. the
problem as to what is Americas 8 great
est waste. If that is not the most i'm
portant problem for an institute of eco
nomics, what can be?
! We strain at gnats and swallow cam
els OF waste. The capital is agog over
the accusation of the Coal Fact finding
Commission that retailers and railroads
and mine operators are profiteering at
| the expense of the innocent bystander-
the consumer-who is paying from SIC
to SIS ton for anthracite, which used
to cost less than half its present extor-
tionate price. But is that waste?
| Why make fuss over being gouged
IS ton or more by the handlers OF coal,
when all that they take from US is put
| into circulation? That is not waste, at
all, any more than grinding up wheat
\ into flour is waste; il merely changes
4 the form of matter or money. The
| scientific axiom on the indestructibility
| Of matter answers as to the supposed
\ waste III being ovcrCharged by dealers,
| who in turn are robbed by railroads
! or grocers or lawyers or Clothiers. Il
| simply stimulates circulation; it de-
stroys nothing.
| 4 4 4 i;
| But here is waste: There are more
| than 100000 extra coal miners in the
| coal fields. If they worked full time
| they would mine too much coal to
| enable the operators to sell at the
present high prices, and SO they aver
age only 203 working days year. ac-
| cording to the fact-finding commits
sion. The other 100 working days,
| which each man wastes each year, are
paid for, but are lost, for the men
do nothing in those days to earn
| their pay. That pay is secured
through inflated wages while they do
| work, for the miners receive pay
enough TO support their families. not
203 days. but 365 days. That 100 days
| labor lost is absolute waste, for the
miners. while idle, do nothing else;
their potential energy might as well
! be pardlyzed. They are droneS who
must be fed, while contributing nothing
! to society. Waste. waste! The lost
time can never be made up, no mat
| ter how hard an effort be made.
Wasted, forever.
x K x
1t is an artificial condition of So
ciety which tolerates such profiigacy
of time-the most precious asset of
mankind. 1t is robbery of civilization
which enables a conspiracy of op-
orators and miners to hold up all
| men for an artificial price, lest a
full normal output (which would
| come from full-time work. might
force down the price, until most of
| today's shivering and freezing would
! be stopped Time lost in unproduc-
tiveness can never he sifted out of
eternity, like clinkers sifted from the
burned-out Goals, and regained to warm
over again.
This is the great problem which
we would put up to the Institute OF
Economics. How shall we save un-
productive lost time? Not by agree
ments to stop production. Every
; such agreement Is treason to man
kind. 1t is the duty of every able
| bodied and able-minded man to work
| full working time. The world owes
no drone living.
= :; < i
| Ii was proposed, last 4ll. at the time
of the coal strike, that legislation should
be adopted which would require all coal
/ mines to make yearly contracts for full
working time Of their miners. and the
Interstate Commerce Commission was
to see that only such mines as made
/ such full yearly contracts would get car
service. The result of such policy
would close down the less profitable
mines. force into other employment the
! surplus miners, and stabilize the mines
| which employed the miners the year
| round. This proposition came from no
less authority than President Harding.
Yet, since the strike ended, nothing
| more has been heard of that sane plan
TO reorganize the industry on which all
| other industries are dependent. The
| peace and prosperity of the whole peo-
| pie rests upon that stabilzation. One
third of all that the nation spends for
fuel. therefore, is waste. Not that all
! that third goes 10 the support of the
| surplus, bGt idle. miners, though they
get the lions share of it, but the rest
goes into the waste Of TRANSFORMATION
/ decentralization and the upset conditions
of the market. enabling constituencies
dealers. wholesale and retail, to take
advantage of "the innocent bystander."
| x X j: x
| There is nothing unreasonable in the
plan to concentrate facilities upon the
mines which give year-round contracts
1
I year. There is nothing unreasonable in
/ expecting the miners TO work 300 days
since they eat 365 days. 1t is econom-
! ical TO favor the mines which are most
favorably situated as to the ease of pro-
duction and ease of transportation The
| one great waste--the 100 days of idle
ness mot counting 80 Sundays and Il
I days for holiday)-is an ineXcusable
I leak in our American economics.