Evening star., 1950-02-12

Wdf Ld6OF bO0Fut WOfl0 war " ana CO.
svihor Of The Industrial code.")
Congress and the country were
told, more than Is years ago by
an outstanding inyestigative body,
what can and should be done
about the coal industry. just as
President Truman has been told
by board of inquiry what to do
about the eight-month-old 1949-
so coal contract dispute.
The United States Coal Com
mission. created September %,
1922, did a monumental job of
fact finding, plus constructive
recommendations. It was COM
posed of men SO eminently quail
fled for the task that it is more
than passing mystery why
nothing was done about its report
beyond publishing it and bury
ing 1t in the Federal archives.
John Hays Hammond, famous
engineer and inventor, headed
that coal commission. Associated
with him were these notables:
Thomas r. Marshall, time
Governor Of Indiana and later
Vice President of the United
States, who came within q hair
breadth Of becoming President
when Woodrow Wilson was
stricken; Clark Howell, the dis
tinguished Atlanta, Ga, journal
ist and publisher; George Otis
Smith. for many years director
Of the United States Geological
Survey; DR.. Edward T. Devine,
economist and educator of top
ranking, and Charles P. Neill,
former United States commits
sioner Of labor.
YEAR-LONG STUDY
The commission devoted year
to intensive investigation and
study of the coal problem, and
made its report on September 20,
1928. However, not until some
20 months later, in May, 1925,
was the report published in per-
manent form.
That publication came when the
country was keeping cool with
Coolidge" when not in a. state of
hysteria over an unprecedented
bull movement in the stock mar
ket. Coal production had been re-
sumed after the brief bituminous
strike of 1922. and it seemed then,
as it has seemed at frequent in
tervals since that time, that it was
easier to wiggle through one coal
crisis after another than to under
take permanent preventive meas
ures.
In the present coal crisis there
is a wealth of material in that
report to call for its resurrection
and evaluation. In its release of
September %. 1923. the commits
sion said:
Food and water alone outrank
coal among the necessaries of life
An uninterrupted supply of these
three is a requirement of modern
life. But coal is the real founda-
t1on OF that great industrial and
transportation structure which
enables people to live in America
and be supplied with all the things
necessary for their health, COM
fort and convenience.
LARGE SOCIAL VALUE
THE first step toward protec-
ton OF this public interest is a
better public understanding of the
coal business - to which society
has given a larger value and
special opportunity.
The Government and the lead
ers of the coal industry both are
blamable If the public has no
proper conception of what coal
means to the country, what con-
d1t1ons and handicaps have to be
met in the mining and distribu-
ton OF coal, what economies can
be effected, what advance is
needed, and what can be done
IN bettering living and work.
ing conditions"
AS to the place of the union
IN the picture, the commission
held:
The history of the last 80 years
affords conclusive evidence that
the UMWA has been the potent
agency in the betterment of the
miners working and living condi-
tions. and it is necessary today
for the protection of the stand
ards that have been maintained.
However, unless the union accepts
in practice the principle that the
public interest is superior to that
OF any monopolistic group, wheth-
er employers or employees, and
gives satisfactory guarantees of
a fair and orderly adjustment of
controversies in other ways than
by the exercise of economic force
(strikes, etc., the public will not
view with sympathy the efforts
OF the union to extend itself over
the whole field of the industry. !"
URGED FULL PUBLICITY
In concise terms, the commits
sion made three negative recon-
mendations:
| Against naturalization of coal
mines:
Against compulsory arbitration;
and
Against the Incorporation of the
miners union as means of fix
ing union responsibility.
| With respect to the last it said
that union voting strike rem
ders itself responsible for acts