September 16, 1922





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





357







Coal Industry Must Be Stabilized

The coal-carrying roads, despite the serious handicaps
caused by the shopmen's strike, are making systematic
efforts to rush fuel from mines to market. This indicates
an alertness on the part of the railroad managers which
cannot but be encouraging to the great mass of citizens who
are worrying over the winter's fuel supply. It answers
quite satisfactorily the assertions of strike leaders that the
railroads, because of inadequate equipment, would fail the
public in the fuel crisis.

It must be kept in mind, however, that no matter how
Vv'ell the coal-carrying roads do in this emergency, they
cannot haul to market in a few weeks the tonnage of coal
which usually comes in to the metropolis during the sum¬
mer months. To expect them to do this would be to expect
an impossibility, entirely disregarding the vital fact that
even if the railroads had not been crippled by the shopmen's
strike the supply of fuel at the mines has been far below
normal because of the miners' strike.

A serious shortage in the quantity of coal available to
the public this winter must be expected. This is demon¬
strated by so competent an authority as Air. Sydney A.
Hale, Editor of Tlic Coal Trade Jour'nal, who points •out
that even with the railroads furnishing 100 per cent, service
and the miners working at top speed from now on, it would
be physically impossible to make up the loss of tonnage
during the twenty-three weeks the mines have been idle.
In proof, Mr. Hale points out that the average yearly ship¬
ments of anthracite during the seven years ended last De¬
cember were 70,369,571 gross tons, and that in only two
years of that period have shipments exceeded the average.
In 1917 the total shipments were 77,133,305 tons, and in
1918 the total was 76,749,919 tons. Shipments last year
dropped to 67,617,713 tons, and the figures for the seven
}ears represent an average monthly shipment of 5,864,130
tons. The highest monthly shipment on record was in
March, 1918, and totalled 7,726,717 tons. Mr. Hale notes
that if this rate could be maintained without break for the
rest of the current coal year, which he regards as highly-
improbable if not obviously impossible, the shipments for
the year would total 48,511,446 tons, or 21,858,125 tons
less than the average for the last seven years, and 19,106,-
267 tons behind the last calendar vear. It is obvious, there¬
fore, that the emergency can be met only through the ex¬
ercise of the greatest care in the use of this year's supply of
coal, and by resorting to fuel substitutes wherever possible.
In this connection some excellent suggestions have been
made by the Xew York Building r^Ianagers and Owners'
Association.

The application of war-time methods to regulate the dis¬
tribution and selling-price of coal gives promise of as square
a deal to coal consumers as could be hoped for in the cir¬
cumstances. At the same time, these are emergency meas¬
ures adopted to meet an emergency which ought not to
have arisen. The plight of the public, worried over an
inadequate supply of coal and with higher prices for what
will  be available  harassing  them,  will  put  the   strongest





kind of public sentiment back of efforts to get the coal busi-
litss on a permanent sane basis. Secretary Hoover summed
up the situation accurately when he declared in a New
'^'ork address early this week:

"\Mien the public can be made the victim of infinite loss
;ind_ suffering by such disagreements as we have witnessed ;
when the whole Nation can once every two years or less be
pushed to the edge of the precipice of want and commercial
collapse; when our public utilities, hospitals, schools, and
kitchens are dependent upon short rations of non-union
coal; when the Federal Government is forced to interfere
with business and transportation to secure even this move¬
ment to essential points ; when we are brought to consid¬
eration of price fixing against extortion in peace time; when
hundreds of thousands of workers not only in the industry
but outside of it are thrown into skimping and starving;
V. hen the Nation is made to suffer the shame of Herrin and
rampant crime that has followed in train of strikes—then
some examination of our industrial sanity is called for."

Secretary Hoover declared that the two problems which
must be solved are: first, the employer-employee relation¬
ship ; and second, the economic reorganization of the coal
industry. As ^Ir. Hoover pointed out, the present rela¬
tionship of employer and employee in the industry com¬
prises a periodical national danger, because with national
organization and national disagreement it means national
stoppage. In the end, as he so pertinently declares, the
issues of the struggle are consciously or unconsciously im¬
posed Ijy pinching the welfare of 99 per cent, of the public
vv'ho are not parties to the quarrel. Through subsequent
]<rices the public pays the bill and the public, therefore, has
a right to a voice in this whole business.

"Surely fair play can be obtained," !Mr. Hoover believes,
"for employer and employee in our civilization without
warring on the public. But it is not sufficient to shirk the
issue hy saying that there must be fair play. W'e must dis¬
cover the machinery by which fair play can be delivered to
all sides, ^^'e must have continuity of production in this
essential commodity under righteous conditions of employ¬
ment if we are to maintain the welfare of the nation at all."

Efforts in Congress to bring about tlie reform called for
by Secretary Hoover are making progress. Such an in¬
quiry into the mining and distribution of the nation's coal
supply as is proposed should be completed before next
Spring and remedies found which will prevent in future
the constant recurrence of the disagreements between
miners and operators which cost the public so dearly.





Great Building Boom in the South

The national building boom of 1922, which has made the
current >ear an historic period in the annals of the con¬
struction industry, is showing a greater ratio of increase in
the Southern States than in any other section of the coun¬
try. An exhaustive survey of the building situation in
sixteen Southern States was recently undertaken by G. L.
Miller & Co., Inc., of .\tlanta, and it shows a remarkable