Evening star., 1927-11-09

ventilated than is generally under
stood. In fact, much greater weight
of air is pumped into the average
| mine every day than weight of coal is
taken out Of it.
So. too. with the suggestion of Pres
/ ident Harding's Coal Commission that
the Interstate Commerce Commission
be empowered to refuse railway sid"
ing 10 mines believed unnecessary in
the district To date the public has
felt that this gives too much power
of industrial life and death into the
ha nds Of a small group.
Furthermore. of the country's 5000
odd mines. almost one-half have no
railway siding anyway. lt you are
lucky enough to have coal on your
farm. whom would you trust to de.
eide whether you should or should
not take few truck or wagon loads
down to the town siding to enjoy the
velvet of a peak-price market?
Immensely less favor also has been
given to the radicals proposal that
we taxpayers should authorize the
Government to borrow say. five bill
lions from us, buy everybody's mine
and then close down whatever ones 1t
likes. Even then politically hired
managers and miners would pretty
surely push up production costs. The
moment this price got above certain
world market level fleets of .coal-laden
ships would fill our harbors from the
efficient and. therefore, cheaper mines
of Great Britain or the continent.
The Coal Commission, nevertheless,
was certainly right in contending that
the industry is definitely "tinged with
4 public interest" Such "tinge" may
not show us how to get the miners
out of the trenches by Christmas, but
it does put it up to lis consumers to
know how we can help permanently
to get cheap and abundant fuel with
out compelling its producers, whether
unionized or not, to live below decent
American standards.
Suggested Remedies.
Here are some suggested remedies:
I. We could greatly reduce over.
expansion by regularizing mine opera
tion if we manufacturers and house.
holders would fill our bins in the
Summer instead of waiting till snow
flies In January and February alone
we burn enough coal to fill the Pana-
ma Canal. But in April and May. both
our orders and our use fall off badly.
and the triple whistle begins to give
a spasmodic call to work.
II. We can work to the same end.
also, by instructing the Interstate
Commerce Commission to authorize
the railways, first to give lower freight
rates in Summer. and, second. to store
more Of the coal they themselves use
tnearly 80 per cent of the entire sup
ply).
III. We can ask financiers and
business men why they don't give to
coal thus stored the same kind and
amount of credit and borrowing power
they give now to wheat. for instance.
This is immensely more practicable
than formerly, now that we know
better how to prevent spontaneous
". We can get the Government
to free the unioniZed operators from
their recent fear that they will be
punished under the Sherman anti
trust law if they get together suf.
ficiently to meet strongly organized
union Of workers with a strongly or
eanized union of employers, or, for
that matter, to join the farmers in
trying cooperative marketing. All
this would be possible without increase
Of prices.
At present, the operators distrust
each other more than they do the
union. Unionized Pennsylvania. Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois fight non-union-
lied Kentucky and West Virginia, and
then each fights the other.
Approves Conference Plan.
All this is always true Of every
sick industry-dog eats dog to avoid
starving. Secretary of Labor Davis
IS therefore right in proposing that
the industry hold Nationwide con-
ference to prove that it knows its
own mind and its own business and
can put its house in order"
Perhaps exactly this idea of coop
grafton is at this moment behind the
of American Federation Of
Labor leaders November IA in Pitts
burgh. AS everybody knows, VIII
lam Green, president of that body, is
eager to extend to every field Of Amer
can industry the same, ideals which
nave proved so effectfve between THE /
and the union workers