New Britain herald., 1925-07-30

bu9 NNShI anu tNo~9Nhi NNHNi"NN for "complote" recognition oN the union, which means the check of" system.
 The threatened strike in the bitumnous fields is based upon q different premise, as the wage agree ment, negotiated in February, 1924, still has 20 months to run, eXplr- Ing on March 31, 1927. The present threat of strike Is based upon the assertion that many operating com panles in West Virginia which arc parties 10 the agreement have ahro- gated 1t.
 The 1922 strike in the anthracite fields was estimated 10 have cost the miners s14S,000,000 in lost wages and the operators sSQ0Q0,o0o in maintenance of idle properties. It is safe 10 assume that all of this cost was passed on to the consuming public, which Is usually the case in such matters. Even the Harrisburg agreement of 1923, which caused an average increase in the labor cost of a ton of coal so cents, the advance was entirely passed to the public despite the idealistic request of Governor Pinchot that the opera tors absorb part of it.
 There is limit to all things, and in the nature of economies there is a limit to the production costs Of anthracite coal so far as it affects the public purse. The average price of anthracite at the mines in 1913 was sS.53 a ton; in 1925 the average cost has been s9.06 a ton; the peak followed the 1923 strike, when 1t was se.62 a ton. The cost to the consumer depends upon the distance anthracite Is transported, including the necessary costs of wholesale and retail distribution. T e average price of a. ton of stove coal to con- sumers in 1913 was between seven and eight dollars, depending upon the distance transported from the mine. The average price today 1' around s16 and SIT, depending upor the kind of coal.
 Anthracite coal has 10 compete | with bituminous coal and If all the anthracite in the country were sud denly eliminated the nation coulc continue to be heated. High grade hituminous coal Is almost universal ly used for heating purposes west O Ohio and in the south. It is said tt give of more heat than the samt quantity of good anthracite and hal q lower ash content. but anthracite is preferred in the cast because 0 it's cleanliness, ease of regulation and smokeless combustion. Pyra
 miding of production costs i'll th'
 case of anthracite would perhap
 have a bad effect upon the industr'
 as whole and the availability an'
 increasing use of substitutes are ih
 cl,Icd in the arguments by anthra
 cite operators granting furthe
 wage increases. The consumption 0
 anthracite per capita has decreased
 and there was less of 1t mined II
 1924 than in 1913 for instance, Il
 to13 there were 91,524,922 ton
 mined. in 1924, according 10 tn estimate of the Geological surNe!
 inc tonnage mined was a0,214,0NC
 During the strike year or 4'+| oli'
 546S3,o22 tons were mined, but 1qo3 production had gone to S5' 339,oo9 tons, The highest tonnag in the history of the anthracite ln dustry was mined in 1911 durln the war, the total being 99,611'Sl and in the following year onl slightly less. But "back to nol
 malcy" in the anthracite industl l has meant the return to no mor and in some years less, producto than in 1913, despite the tncrea'
 in population. These figures ought be of significance to miners ar