The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-03-21
By ANNA ROCHESTER.

FOR soft-coal miners in the United States the
unemployment crisis began several years
ago. 1t grows worse year by year. The pres
ent depression in all capitalist industry throws
more miners out of work, but the shutting
down of mines, the replacement of men by
machinery, and speed-up on the job for mine
workers who still hold their places in the in
dustry have been progressing steadily ever since
the final collapse of the coal boom in 1928
Coal mining was one of the first great in
dustries to reach the stage of permanent crisis
toward which all capitalist industries have
been blindly heading. And bituminous inter-
ests have been fighting for survival with all
the familiar technique of naturalization; price
cutting, cost-cuting, wage-cutting, new ma
chlnery; small inefficient mines shutting down;
large, low-cost mines growing larger; strong
companies merging and extending control, weak
companies driven to the wall.
Details of the picture vary in the different
countries, but everywhere except in the Soviet
Union the coal capitalists have been carrying
on desperate war for profits and throwing
the cost of their struggle on the workers in
mass unemployment, worsening of working
conditions, and lowering of living standards
About one worker in four has been thrown
out of the coal mines in recent years in the
three leading coal countries: the United States,
Great Britain and Germany. In these three
countries together, the number of men who can
find jobs in coal mining has fallen by at least
100000. Hours are longer than they were,
and in Great Britain and the United States
wages have been pushed steadily downwards.
Everywhere speed-up is increasing the hazards
underground.
Here in the United States, more men were
employed in soft-coal mining in 1928 that at
any time before since. From the peak that
year-with 705,000 workers-the number had
dropped to $4,000 in 1928 No later totals
are yet available, but the steady advance of
mechanization the closing of additional mines,
and the present slump in coal production have
certainly thrown more. thousands out of the
industry.
Just what happened in the coal industry
to cause this permanent crisis which began
seven years ago and promises more serious
unemployment for years to come?
The coal industry in the United States for
, many years before the war had the capacity
to produce more coal than the country needed.
In 1913-which was good year"-there were
mines and miners enough to produce 635 900
tons of bitumnous coal, although the actual
output was only 4S7,000,00O TONS This chronic
surplus capacity meant that operation was
always irregular and high percentage of loss
es was always characteristic to the industry.
1t was a chaos of gambling competition for
profits. All the worst features of capitalist
development were exaggerated in coal.
In every industry under capitalism, "pros-
perity" depends on a steadily expanding mar
ket, for capacity to produce tends to outrun
the capacity to sell the product When the
market cannot be further expanded production
is stalled, surplus capacity lies idle, workers
are unemployed, and the industry faces crisis.
This is the general situation in American in
dustries today. 1t is the basis of the present
depression in the capitalist world. 1t is the
most importan. source of the war danger.
But American coal mining reached this stage
Of permanent crisis seven years ago. 1t had
been chronicaly carrying . surplus capacity
far greater than that in other industries. The
boom demand for coal during the war could
have been met by the mines and miners at
work in 1913. But the drive for war profits
led to wild fever of further expansion. In
1920 the tonnage produced approximately the
same as the tonnage of 1879 was larger by
one-fifth than the tonnage Of 1913. but the