Evening star., 1925-08-29
Soft-Coal Strike Menace.

A walkout Of the bituminous miners
workers. now limited more strongly
than ever. would affect the coal-burn
ing public seriously and might tie ur
industry in this country. The Gov
eminent is laying its plans to aid in
the rapid distribution of soft coal
after the anthracite mines shut down
September l in accordance with the
strike order already issued. A suspep
son of work by the union miners in
rhe bituminous fields might force the
Government to act decisive!y il the
coal controversy to prevent great suf
fering and damage to business the
coming Winter.
The President, unfortunately, has
been given by Congress no power to
act, though Congress has had repeat
ed warnings and the advice of experts
and its committees and commissions
urging that the Chief Executive be
empowered to act in an emergency
A shutdown of both the anthra cite
doubtless would be 4 signal for d call
of a special session of Congress to
give the President authority to deal
with the situation more effectively
And Congress, with the aroused senti
ment Of the people prodding it, might
and probably would, take action al
last.
The effect of simultaneous suSpen
sion of work by the union miners in
both the anthracite and the btu
minous fields would be to curtail
greatly the output Of coal. 1t would
not, however, halt production entirely
Indeed, the production of bituminous
coal today is about two-thirds from
non-union mines and one-third from
union mines. The anthracite field, on
the other hand, is completely union
lied. With the production Of btu
minous coal averaging more than
100000 tons d week, II all the non.
union mines continued at work and
some OF the others now idle were put
into operation, the country would no,
be entirely without coal, but a serious
shortage would necessarily soon come
The union miners in the bituminous
field have a problem entirely separate
from that Of the anthracite workers
Under the so-called Jacksonville agree
ment, entered into February 16, 1924
the terms of the old agreement. keep
ing in effect wages at the peak OF
1920, were extended from March 81
1924, until March 81, 1927.
Under the Jacksonville agreement
production OF the non-union mines has
increased and of the union mines has
decreased. The situation briefly is
this: The bituminous industry, since
1890, has been ready at all times to
produce from so to 100 per cent more
coal than the country requires. The
present annual capacity of the indus
try is estimated to be 900 900 0OC
tons, though the average annual out
put for the last six years has been less
than 5O0,0o0,000 tons.
Clearly, there are too many mines
and too many miners. 1t was the
hope of the trainers of the Jackson
Vile agreement that the high-cost
mines would be forced out of business
and that a more sound and economical
basis for the industry would be reach
ed. Many mines have been closed
But the union mines, where the wages
have been higher, and which in many
ease are older and not so we'll equip
ped for handling coal economically
have suffered more than the non-unior
mines. In some cases the union miners
have asked the operators to abrogate
the Jacksonville agreement, so tina,
wages might be reduced and the unior
miners kept at work. In some Of the
nonunion mines soon after the Jack
sonville agreement was signed wages
and the non-union field mines became
iow-cost mines. From producing two
thirds of the soft coal mined the
union mines have dropped to one
third.
Several of the operators of unior
ulIlSS nave yleluSu " the pSllllOn Ol
rhe miners to revise the wage scale
downward, SO as to continue in com
petition with the non-union mines
Thus the Jacksonville agreement has
been abrogated. Two such abroga
tions have recently taken place il
Ohio. The union has protested vigor
ously. John l.. Lewis, internationa
president, has charged a conspiracy
on the part of the coal-carrying roads
and big consumers to put the unior
out of business.
Demands have been made that the
Government take steps 10 see that the
Jacksonville agreement be lived up tt
by the operators. The extent of tn,
Governments responsibility in tn,
Jacksonville agreement may become
an important issue.
With it's membership dwindiing il
the bituminous fields, the union i:
faced with a difficult problem indeed
1t may be argued that a sympathetic
strike at the time of the anthracit,
suspension would do much to bolster
up the organization. Certainly tn,
threat of such a strike is likely to b,
used to force the operators to live III
TO the Jacksonville agreement.