Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-11-05
The Coal
Industry

Industry deal Of palaver
about the coal in
dustry. AS usual, the politicians
were patting the miners on the back,
telling them what wonderful assets
to the nation they are, and carrying
their demagoguery further by crit
icism of the mine owners every now
and then because it was popular with
labor to attack employers. Mtogeth-
er, it was a rather sorry spectacle
and, I think, did not do credit to
either side to any extent.
But in this report, I want to
stress a very much less obvious
phase of the problem than was made
apparent in any of the electioneer-
ing. With all of the verbiage cast
aside, with all of the political hood
winking forgotten, there is a very
deep and difficult problem in the
coal industry. think it can be sum-
married. in one question: What is
the future Of coal, the coal industry,
and the thousands of men who know
no other source of livelihood than
that which they exc out in the
bowels of the earth?
This question, if proper analysis
is made, encompasses more than
the usual factors that operate in
economics. It does that because of
policies of the federal government,
among states and among municipal
tiles. Because of the attempts to
influence votes, the whole question
has got into politics and that of itself
is ruinous, an obstacle to a scienti-
fic solution.
Not so many years ago coal mine
owners and coal labor units had
what amounted to a monopoly on
our fuel supply. Then came oil, oil
with all of the scientific development
that followed in it's wake. Despite
this, operators and labor leaders
continued to take their toll from the
hapless user of coal for fuel, be that
user great factory or an individual
consumer in furnace or round oak
stove. But that was not all. Electric
ity came along with it's constantly
increasing automatic control. First,
of course, in the larger communities
and later it came to villages and
farm homes. Still, the mine owners
and the coal labor leaders followed
an unwise course. still, they con-
tinued to take their toll and before
they fully realized what the circum-
stance was, they had succeeded by
their acts in building up a desire on
the part of millions of people to
use some other sort of fuel. The end
is not yet, and that is why the
subject is most important at this
stage of our history.
During the Roosevelt adrninistra-
ton we have seen an impetus given
+, 49,. to public owner
Fu0tlc ship of power
Ownership plants never
equalled. hink
much of this development has gone
on in a hit-and-n.iss fashion and
that eventually the public will pay
for the shiftless methods employed
in development, but that is beside
the point. The present question is
whether our nation is going to con-
tinue to expand public ownership in
such a way as to ruin an industry
that is as much part of our basic
economic structure as any other
unit of our natural life. I think some
times it goes beyond that for the
reason that, unless people awaken to
the fact that they are being hood
winked to a considerable extent by
public ownership propaganda, it is
likely to spread and public owner
ship will become a frankenstein,
parasite on our body public.
When referred to the destruction
of a great industry, had in mind
the thought that the consequences
will run in two directions. Yet, para
logically as it may seem, tn ey
constitute a cycle. 1t works out like
this: AS the demand for coal de-
clines, it is quite natural that pro-
duction costs go up. When production
costs 60 up, they eventually reach
the point where further dirninu-
ton occurs in demand. When that
decline in demand occurs, there is
only one answer: Labor is thrown
out of work because you cannot
produce and have those products
piled high in storage. 1t takes money
to keep labor and machinery occu-
pied. The coal itself, after being
removed from the mines, represents
money and it is subject as we'll to
deterioration. So, the ultimate to
be expected on this side of the pic
ture is an industry dying of dry rot.
On the other side of the problem is
an equally important factor at work.
1t takes an immense amount of cap
itai, massed in corporate form, to
maintain going concern whether
that concern be coal mining, rail-
reading or any other of our great
industries. These industries operate
largely on funds obtained through
the sale of stocks and bonds of the
corporation. But it has always been
true, and human nature shows no
signs of changing, that capital is
not attracted to, it does not seek
investment in, declining industry.
There you have a possibility at least
of insufficient funds to carry through
for the coal mining industry until it