Evening star., 1923-03-04
NEXT CONGRESS TO SEEK
CURE FOR COAL ABUSES
National Lawmakers Aroused by Short
age and Excessive Prices to
Necessity of Action.
BY &. GOULD LINCOLN.

4
- OAL is to be a burning issue
II at the next session of Con-
~ Sress. And that is no joke.
| The suffering that some of
the people have endured this winter
! as a result of the coal shortage; the
| enormous prices which they have had
| to pay-prices much in excess of the
| high water mark reached during the
war-will force the coal question to
! the front, and. the legislators who
are hoping for action say, will bring
results.
| OF course, it has been said that the
{ ills of the coal industry-or of any
: other industry, for that matter-can-
! not be cured by legislation. But that
: is an argument usually put forward
! by opponents of any reform. There
are pessimists, however. even among
; the senators and representatives who
are anxious to do something to re-
! lieve the fuel situation and to pre-
vent these constantly recurring short
! ages of coal and the suffering they
bring in their wake, who point out
! that the coal industry has been too
strongly intrenched; that all efforts
made for the last four or five years,
and in still earlier years. have been
unavailing because of the influence
, of the coal operators and the coal
carrying railroads.
/ To WHIT on Report.
/ Admittedly there will be no attempt
, at legislation--in all probability
| until the United States Coal Commits
sion makes it's report and recommen-
dations. But this report will be made
! in plenty of time for consideration
at the next regular session of Con-
gress. It is said. Undoubtedly the
| views of the commission will carry
| much weight.
! There are three things relating to
! coal that the consuming public is
| vitally interested in today. First.
-, that there shall he a sufficient supply
! Of coal; second, that the price of coal
/ shall be reasonable; third, that the
| coal shall be coal that can be used as
! fuel and not filled with Impurities
! which make it of little fuel value.
! The public has suffered this winter
from d shortage of coal, the high
| prices and the poor quality of coal
| sold at large prices.
Standards and Grades.
| One of these matters, it is said. at
tleast can be dealt with by legisla-
tion-the quality of coal sold. A Sc
rious attempt will be made to estab-
ilish reasonable standards and grades
! of coal by federal legislation for coal
entering into interstate commerce
! and coal sold in the District of CO.
/ lumbia In some of the states where
coal, particularly anthracite, is used
in large quantities standards Will be
sought this year through the state
legislatures. But it Is pointed out
that uniform government standards
for use throughout the country woulo
ibe a far better method of getting at
the evil of impure coal.
! Senator Walsh of Massachusetts is
the author of d pure coal' blll-in
fact, of two such bills. The erst ne
| offered proposed to have the Depart
noent of Commerce fix the standards.
The second he offered authorizes the
| bureau of mines to tackle the JOB OF
/! establishing these standards.
Favored by Mines Bureau.
This second bill followed a report
to the Senate by the bureau of mines
| In reply to a Senate resolution Offer
ed by Mr.. Walsh asking whether the
bureau believed 1t would be adv1s-
able to establish standard grades OF
coal. The bureau said that it did
favor such legislation and pointed out
that there have been very many COM
plants received by it this winter that
coal, particularly anthracite. has been
unfit for use as supplied to the con-
sumers. The bureau made investiGa-
tions of the coal sold here in WASH
! ington. and in two especially agGra-
! waited cases the bureau, at the re-
quest of the United States attorney
for the District of Columbia, analysed
coal delivered to consumers and found
that the anthracite coal in question
was running 30.5 per cent and in the
other 37.4 per cent ash content.
! Further, the bureau examined sam
pies of anthracite coal taken from
number of coal yards here. These
samples we're not analyzed, but were
divided into three parts-clean COAL