The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-05-13
Coal VIII
Be Higher

presently, as a result of the pas
sage of this legislation, you and I
and every other person who uses
soft coal will be paying higher
prices.
The increase in price that will re-
suit, however, is not the only phase
of the Guffey-Vinson law that seems
to be open to criticism. There are
many who believe that in passing
the Guffey-Vinson bill (and it was
done under the lash of administra-
ton leaders) our government has
taken a step which is very close to,
even actually a step toward, fas-
cism in America. 1t is an action
so near to the policies of fascism in
Italy that close students of the Mus
solini plan say they can hardly dis
Germ any distinction.
Let us see what the Guffey-Vinson
law does. 1t permits all soft coal
producers in the United States to
organize as in a monopoly under
government control. True, the gov
eminent is supposed under the law
to fix the price of soft coal but actu-
ally the law is going to work out so
that the producers and the mine I'M
ions will establish the prices, SUBJ
ject to the approval of govern
ment commission. It will work
out this way because the law has
actually legalized the right of the
producers to agree on the prices
they will charge by virtue of the
fact that those prices are based on
the production costs in regional
areas.
1t is provided in the law that the
United States shall be divided into
% regions or sections. The United
States coal commission is empow-
cred to prescribe the prices, both
minimum and maximum, to which
coal from each of these areas or re-
gionS may be sold. In that man.
ner, the law guarantees that the soft
coal producers shall gain an accept
able rate on their investments. Since
labor costs enter directly into pro-
duction costs-indeed, they consti-
tute a major factor-it becomes
plain that whatever wages labor de-
mandS and obtains influences the
level of the production costs and the
result is a change in the selling
price to the consuming public.
Thus, when John L. Lewis, presi-
dent of the United Mine Workers of
America and head of the G. I. O.,
determines that the mine workers
are not being paid sufficiently high
wages, he demands an increase
from the mine owners. The mine
owners or producers, now that the
Guffey-Vinson monopoly law has
passed, simply submit the new costs
to the coal commission and it has no
alternative but to approve an in
crease in the selling price. In conse-
quence, therefore, every bucketful
of coal going into your stove and
every shovelful that goes into the
furnace of home or the fire box
of factory carries an additional
tax that has been legalized by law.
So, we see the bulk of the coal in
dustry pass from the field of free
competition into the form of a mo-
nopoly under government control.
If that can be described otherwise
than as fascism, I am ignorant of
what constitutes fascism.
There re m aims the question
whether the law promoted by
-. Senator Guffey of
question Pennsylvania and
Validity Repre- sentative
Vinson of Ken
lucky is constitutional.
It will be remembered that the
Supreme court once threw out the
original Guffey-Vinson law. 1t threw
out that law because it held that the
original legislation attempted to fix
hours and wages for workers and
that, in accordance with the unani-
nous decision of the court when it
invalidated the NRA, was an illegal
act by congress. The labor pro-
visions alone were discussed in the
litigation at that time. But in the
current Guffey-Vinson law, those OBJ
jectionable factors have been omit
ted. There is no way to discover
whether the Supreme court will find
the monopolistic practice authorized
in the current legislation to be i'm
proper except the bunch that such
declaration of policy by the con-
gress is not in conflict with the con-
stitution directly.
Some members of the congress
opposed the -Vinson bill be-
cause they believed it to be uncon-
stitutional. There were so few of
those, however, that the house of
representative debated the bill
only a day and a half and the SEN
ate debated it only few hours.
Some sections of the soft coal in
dustry objected to the bill but they
were quickly re-
Backed signed to the in
by LeUis tangible fact that
it would become
law because of the power that John
L. Lewis welded over congressional
leadership. The chief reason for
the division of sentiment among the
coal producers was that there is
wide range of costs among the pro-
ducers. There are many mines
which have low production costs and
consequently they are able, or were
able under open competition, to sell
at lower prices than many of their
competitors. There is another Sec
ton of the mining industry where
production costs are high and in
consequence that section of the in
dustry was barely able to scrape
out living return. Under the new
law, the high cost mines will be
assured of a reasonable return and