The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-01-26
Continued from page u
clared soft coal to be "the worst
industry We have.

Continued from page y
clared soft coal to be "the worst
functioning industry" We have.
Too Much Coal
That problem may be visuaized in
these figures: The soft coal industry
can easily supply 7OO,OOO,OOO tons Of
coal a year and with slight mechani-
cal and physical expansion could pro-
duce billion tons. But the country
needs only little over 500,000,OOO
tons a year, and that figure declines
constantly due to the efficient COM
bustion of coal and the wider use Of
water power and oil, Nevertheless
more and more mines are opened,
with over-p production ever becoming
more serious problem.
Expansion is proceeding most rapid
~ in West Virginia and adjacent
Kentucky, and Virginia, where most
of Americas finest soft coal is pro-
duced. Lewis and his crowd have
scuttled the union in West Virginia.
Operators there have not only high
grade, but low cost COAL with mar
kets readily available at low freight
rates in New England, New York,
the Atlantic seaboard, the cities of
the Great Lakes and on the Ohio
River.
Use Starvation.
Competitive union-mined coal Of
Pennsylvania and Ohio is slowly be-
ing shut out of these markets, while
the union miners are either driven
out Of the coal fields or starved out
slowly by unemployment.
Soft .coal production last year was
578,000,OO0 tons, or 60,000,000,O00
over the mark for 1925. Of this ex-
cess production, 20,0OO,00O went to
England above the normal foreign
export, while 4O,0OO,000 tons went
into storage. Added to this storage
figure IS the carry-over from 1875
and the excess left by more efficient
use of coal in locomotives, boilers
and furnaces, so that on December
the total in storage was estimated
at bO,OOU,UUO tons
Storing Ammunition.
This is far above the usual re-
serve. And why?
The expiration of the Jacksonville
agreement on March / leaves the
probability OF a strike of union soft
coal miners on April /. The coal
trade, therefore, has encouraged the
accumulation OF a huge surplus in
an effort to break the strike. With
West Virginia, kentucky and half Of
Pennsylvania in non-union hands,
the operators and industrialists hope
to take care of all normal demands by
the use of the surplus and heavy pro-
duction in the non-union territory.
Treachery In Fight.
Thus the Miners union must deal
not only with the treachery of En-
peror Lewis, but with the critical re-
suits of his criminal policy in allow
ing the operators 70 take West Nir-
ginia, key to the national coal stu
alton, away from the union.
Two startling examples Of the coal
production from a union to a nom
union basis are given in two traffic
reports.
Shipping Significant.
The Pennsylvania Railroad in 1920
ran largely through union coal terri
tory. Then it carried II per cent Of
all the coal transported in this coun-
try. Now it carries but 8 per cent.
The Chesapeake G. Ohio runs
through the very heart of the nom
union districts. In 1920 it carried 10
per cent Of the nations coal, or less
than the Pennsy did. Today it carries
q per cent. All so-ealled southern
roads which carried but 40 per cent
Of the country's coal in 1920, now
transport GO per cent. The southern
territory includes West Virginia,
Kentucky and states to the south.
The other example is Detroit. In
1919 the auto city drew two thirds Of
its coal from the southern field. To-