Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 245, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1920 — COAL DEALERS GOUGE PUBLIC [ARTICLE]

COAL DEALERS GOUGE PUBLIC

Gov. Goodrich of Indiana Exposes Widespread Profiteering by Operators. IS MINE OWNER HIMSELF Executive Says Not Only Operator* but Distributor* ai Wtti H«ve Re celved Excess Profit* —Call* New Law Fight Proof. Indianapolis. Ind.. Oct. 11.—“Beven-ty-flve p«y cent of all the coal operators of the United States have been charging exorbitant prices for their coaL” Gov. James P. Goodrich of Indiana, for ten years president of a coal mining company and today a mine owner and retail distributor of coal in his own state, made this unqualified statement to a correspondent for the .Chicago Daily News during an Interview In his chambers at the statehouse. Charges Wholesale Profiteering. The governor asserted that not only the operators, but the distributors of coal as well, have as a class been receiving excessive profits for coal ever since the war began. ft was Gov. Goodrich, Who 14 the man behind the state fuel commlsison, which has Issued maximum price lists cutting the price of Intrastate coal in Indiana in half. It was Gov. Goodrich who conceived the idea for the bill, helped push Lt through special sessidhs of the state legislature and senate last July, and the governor said today he would follow the fight । through for reasonably priced coal. I

Tve dealt In coal long enough to know the business from the ground up,” he said, “and I know that Indiana In the last four years has made altogether too many coal millionaires. It’s high time the public Is protected.” "If they drive me too far,” he said softly. ’Til publish in the newspapers what It Is costing each of them to mine coal and what they are getting for it They couldn’t stand up under such a move and they know It. Unless they comply with the law we have passed ki this state I shall make their business public. We have the facts. Our expert accountants have been over their books and we have their statements made before the fuel commission.” New Law Fight Proof. Gov. Goodrich is chuckling over a fight planned by the operators to have declared unconstitutional the fuel act giving the fuel commission power to regulate the price of coal in Intrastate shipment. The operators aren’t wise yet to the fact that the bill was drawn by the two best corporation lawyers in Indiana and approved by the best known corporation counsel In Chicago, that these three men have pronounced It fight proof. The two men who drew It did so during the war for “patriotic reasons.” They drew it after a memorable conference between the governor and the Indiana coal operators shortly after the United States declared war with Germany. Gov. Goodrich had called in the coal men to, talk the price of coal. He being a coal dealer, they bn me with broad smiles on their faces and evident joy in their hearts. They smiled until the governor turned on them and sold he thought SUS to $2 was a fair price hi the mine for bituminous coni.

The upturned corners of their mouths came down at once into puckers of dissent No. sir: that wasn’t enough. > “After that Francis E. Peabody of Chicago went down, to Washington to handle his dollar a year job,” Gov. Goodrich said. “Mr. Peabody set the price of coal at $3 or $3.50, I don’t remember which. It was way too ■ high. Peabody didn’t have any business to use his official position to try to protect his own company. “I went down to Washington and did everything I could to have a reasonable price put ..on coal, one not higher than $2 a ton at the mine. “I was taken sick and was several weeks recovering. As I was convalescing the President set the price at $2.35 a ton. That was way too high, but I couldn’t change it. The coal, operators, as a result, made more durfhg the war than they were entitled to. They’ve been making much more than that since. Lowden Wouldn’t Co-Operate. “When the war was over I hoped the federal government would keep some hold on the price of coal. None was kept. Coal kept going higher and higher. Odr people here were desperate. I tried to get the President to do something. He wouldn’t. Finally I called a special session of the legislature and had presented the bill drawn for me during the war. At the same time I got Gov. Lowden on the telephone and asked him to do the same. Gov. Lowden didn’t think the

I bill would stand up. He said it wouldn’t hold In the courts. ’ “However, it has held thus far. I Federal Jndge Baker upheld it. Judge Bilker held the state has the right to regulate the cost of necessities. ! “If the federal government wishes to know the. truth about the price of coal, why doesn’t the federal government examine the excess profits paid by the coal operators of this and other states? Why doesn’t the federal government publish them? Thqy would tell the whole tale.” — - -