Evening star., 1925-08-23
PROPOSED SOFT COAL MERGER
is VIEWED WITH SKEPTICISM
Plan to Unite $5OO,OOO,O 900 Holdings, or 80 Per
Cent of Output Into One Combine Considered
Impossible by Officials.

Viewing the projected $500, 900 900
merger of soft-coal properties worked
by non-union miners with a tongue
in the cheek, Government officials
who have been closely watching de-
velopments in the coal fields of the
Nation are inclined to visualize the
proposal as the Utopian dream of
some optimist who hopes thereby to
reduce the price of coal to the ulti-
sells lower than union mined coal.
Dispatches to Washington from
Western and Midwestern points
giving particulars of the gigantic
merger were received with mixed feel
ings in Washington.
Secretary Of Commerce Hoover,
always in the forefront when any
economic question arises for discus
sion by the administration, had heard
nothing of the project, nor had he
been approached to accept the presi-
dency of the merger, as reported.
Other officials of the Department of
Commerce knew nothing of the
scheme, although some regarded it as
business accomplishment little
short of an impossibility. The Hoov-
er presidency was the phase of the
reports which caused not little
amusement, for Herbert Hoover Is
rather out Of popularity with GER
tain bituminouS operators because of
the part he Is said to have taken in
arriving at the Jacksonville agree
ment, one of the precedent making
agreements in the coal industry.
Trade Board Watching.
The Federal Trade Commission
has heard of the proposed merger
and officials were said to be watching
the developments scheduled in the
new dispatches telling of the project.
The Federal Trade Commission ap-
proaches such a proposal with a
viewpoint differing from that of any
other Government agency. 1t Is not
concerned with production nor with
labor troubles. It's chief interest in
such a merger would be the poSsibil-
ity of a monopoly which might have
another corollary-the chance that a
price-fixing combine might come out
of the scheme.
Intrusted with administration of the
Sherman law and other antitrust
legislation, the Federal Trade Com
mission has never been overly pop
ular with coal operators. Its activ'
tiles in the field of collection Of stats
tics regarding price, production, wages
and other incidentals of the most
highly developed industry in the
United States have not added to its
esteem by the coal producers. just
a few years ago certain operators in
the soft-coal fields sued the commits,
sion to prevent obtaining of further
information in connection with coal
mining. The suit was won and the
commission is now under permanent
injunction, although this injunction
it is claimed, would not bar it from
an investigation of the merger scheme
Only a little more than a month age
the commission made public a series OF
findings as a result of an investiga
ton into the anthracite industry in
which it alleged high premium prices
for anthracite coal, charging an an
thracite combination and excessive
gross profits, all paid by the consumer
when he puts coal in his bin.
Legal Branch in Dark.
The legal branch of the Govern
ment knows nothing officially of the
merger, it was said at the Department
of Justice. The latter department
would doubtless not be too keen to
take over inquiry Of another angle In
the coal industry since 1t is now en-
gagged in quite family row with the
hard-coal trust.
Ten great bituminous fields in West
Virginia and Kentucky, producing
nearly 10000, 900 TONS or about sc
per cent of the normal bituminous
output, would be embraced in the
great soft-coal combine, according to
the dispatches out of the West. The
underwriters are reported to be Dill
Lon. Read & Cos. NAa Iece1tM q