Evening star., 1947-07-14
Coal
Continued From First Page.>


bare statement that it amounts to
an increase of about As cents per
hour III the wages of miners. 1t
is unfortunate that the public does
not yet fully understand, through
the complicated details OF the agree
ment, what is the actual impact of
this settlement upon the cost of
producing coal.
"The major features of the wage
settlement are these: The miners
receive a daily wage of $13.05 in
stead of $11.85, this being the $1.20
increase recently awarded in other
major industries. The working day
becomes 8 hours at straight rates
instead of 9 hours, of which hours
have been at straight time rates and
2 hours have been at overtime
premium rates. Overtime is paid
for Saturday work only if it has
been preceded by days of work in
that week, and the employers will
no longer find their schedules dis
organized by the inclination of some
miners to work on the overtime Sat-
urday and to lay off on some other
day. The employers also pay an
additional S cents per ton into the
welfare fund.
Increased Output Expected.
When the most important coal
operators and steel producers in the
country made this settlement they
asserted that it would be of great
benefit to the country by making it
possible to continue full production
and employment for long period.
We can all agree that a coal strike
would have seriously endangered
our prosperity. But whether this
settlement does permit that pros
perity to continue depends in very
large degree upon the decisions of
these business managers themselves
as to how they will deal with their
costs and prices in the light of this
settlement.
I'm their explanation to the pub
lie and to their stockholders of the
reasons which led them to make
this contract, these business leaders
have emphasized the desirability OF
certain provisions and conditions
which they assert will increase pro-
ductivity and Offset a considerable
part of the increase in money wage
rates. It is quite impossible for
them, they say, to make any esti-
mate of the savings in costs which
will accrue from the regularized
work day and work week. from the
increased effort of workers who
enjoy better wages and greater Sc
curity, and from the improvement
in plant efficiency which 1t Is always
the duty of management to create
and in the present situation is even
more emphatically the obligation OF
these managers to secure.
Cost Increase Uncertain.
"In view of the uncertainty as to
whether or how much mine costs
Of coal may be raised, the people
of the country have the right to
demand that their prosperity shall
not be imperiled by immediate in
creases in the price of coal and in
the price of steel. It is only reason
able to ask coal and steel producers
to wait until a fair test has been
made of the actual effects of the
wage advances under conditions of
maximum production. If prices are
raised at once and a wave of in
creases in related prices upsets our
economy, we never. will know what
would have happened If the coal
and steel managers had been will
ing to wait.
"The risk involved by continuing
present prices of coal and steel long
to learn what the increased
costs Of production will actually be
under the new wage agreement is
not serious, especially in view of the
fact that such action will greatly
reduce the hazards of renewed in
f1ation. The producers of coal and
steel have been enjoying their full
share of the high profits which are
flowing to industry today in our
present prosperous economy. am
sure that they, as responsible lead
ers Of industry, will want to invest
a portion of those profits in the
of business stability
and prosperity for all our people,"
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