Evening star., 1946-12-22
Plan New Approach
To Mining Problem
Officials Weigh Control Of Coal
as Public Utility
Ru Gerard D. Reill1

The firmness displayed by President
| Truman and Secretary of the Interior
Krug in the recent coal crisis has quite
properly earned them enhanced public
stature. It is to be hoped that they will
remember that all that has been gained
thus far is a breathing spell. The dis
ruptiye forces which have beset the bitu-
minous industry for the past 80 years
will not be cured by any decision which
the Supreme Court may make. What Is
needed Is permanent plan which
should be formulated now by the Execu-
tive and placed before the incoming
Congress,
When the strike was on, plethora
of suggestions was forthcoming. These
ranged from such theological extremes
as conscription of the miners to ma
tionalization Of the mines. Compulsory
arbitration also was mentioned, al
though, as usual, its advocates failed to
offer any set of standards by which the
arbitration could be guided.
No real progress can be made. how
ever, by viewing in isolation the labor
problems of the industry. Coal experts
in the Government, therefore, are now
canvassing proposal of more compre-
hensive character. In its broad outlines,
this scheme contemplates the establish
ment of an independent commission
vested with the ultimate authority Of
regulating marketing practices, prices
and wages.
Adoption of such proposal would not
mean that the Government would pur-
chase and run the mines, but merely
that Congress would regard the indus
try as public utility. Such step
would not be unprecedented. 1t must be
remembered that several years before
the wartime price control legislation the
Interior Department had been fixing
prices for coal. These efforts were di-
rected at establishing minimum rates,
but the Guffey Act, from which this
authority was derived, also contained
provisions authorizing the setting of
maximum prices.
In a period when "decontrol' is the
watchword, it is perhaps politically un-
fashionable to point out that in limited
fields Government control of prices, II
combined with wage control is not i'm
practicable. A moments reflection on
the Governments wartime ventures into
wage and price controls reveals that the
final debacle stemmed from the original
failure to vest both types of controls in
the same department. Instead one was
delegated to OPA, the other to the War
Labor Board. Although some branches
of organized labor, particularly the
CIO, professed interest in stable prices,
their enthusiasm for higher wages was
SO much greater that the War Labor
Board, not having any responsibility for
the price level, invented such ingenious
methods of circumventing the Wage
Sterilization Act that the board had out
lived its usefulness long before its liqui-
dation. This doomed the effectiveness
of OPA. Had this agency been given
responsibility for both functions, infia-
ton might have been delayed by the
meeting and precarious balance Of the
conflicting forces
It is this lesson which. is con-
tinualfy toverlooked by persons who
propose special arbitration tribunals
or fact finding boards to deal with
wage disputes. Unless the men who
serve on such bodies have respon-
sibilities with respect to the industry
and the consuming public, they handle
the wage controversy in vacuum. The
tendency is to think that If the dis
putants are serious enough to risk q
costly strike, there must be certain
amount of merit on both sides: and
consequently the best thing to do is
to split the difference between the
parties.
Arbitration of wages could become
reasonably scientific process, however,
If conducted by commission charged
with the general duty Of regulating
great natural resource industry so that
the prices charged yield fair return
upon the investment, but are not unjust
to the consumer. Such commission
should also be given full authority to
fix the amount of the tonnage assess
ment for the welfare fund and the scale
of benefits It should have complete
responsibility for the disbursement of
these moneys to the claimants, for the
discretion to dispose of the vast sums
now being collected should never have
been left to the vagaries OF United
Mine Workers politics.
X 4 II X
In developing such plan, the more
useful provisions of the Guffey Act
could be revived 1t is true that the
administration of that statute was not
one of the conspicuous successes of the
New Deal, but this was due in part to
the fact that the personnel of the origi-
nal commission lacked background of
experience in utility reglsation-most of
them being drawn from the industry or
the union. In recent years, however, the
Government has developed number of
competent administrators, both Repub-
licans and Democrats, in various regu-
latory agencies. The names of such
men are rarely in the headlines, but
their industry and ability to reconcile
opposing economic interests has left a
lasting mark upon the agencies in which
they served.
Undoubtedly, any extensive system of
Federal regulation will be resisted by
some of the individualists among the
operators. While some of them, it is
true, can make out plausible case for
showing that Government intervention
i'll the past has contributed to their in
ability to cope with John L. Lewis and