Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1917 — ANOTHER COAL POINT OF VIEW [ARTICLE]

ANOTHER COAL POINT OF VIEW

in a 'recent issue the l - ; . r Herald discussed the coal s. .' n and 'seeing nothing in the : .? t - . to tend to-relieve the shortage advised its readers to buy their., nest winter’s supply of coal now. :e lieving that the price would of necessity go higher. This would perhaps have been true under the old regime and methods of operation, and th<; Herald's advice would no doubt have been timelv and conservative, but V the federal government and states have taken concerted a:tlon to bring about relief from the prevailing high prices. This action has., attracted nation-wide anemias and a reader of the Herald who seer success in the effort, write.- tse editor of the Herald as follows: Morris, Illinois, July 11.— To tie Editor; On the front page u: tinissue of the Herald of July 11 was an article entitled ‘"Buy Your Coal Now.” In this article you say: “Between now and the Ist of next April the bituminous mines will hav*e to produce 52,0{HJ,000 tons more coal than they did last year if the bigger demand is to be satisfied. This means that all the mines in the nation will have to run twenty-three more days in tie nest nine months than they were able to run in the corresponding period of last -year. This means, further, that they will have to get. somewhere and somehow, the added cars to carry the coal. The job seems almost hopeless. Last year mines ran 230 days.’’ Your investigation has been superficial and your conclusions are erroneous. If your advice is followed by. the coal consumer; generally it will have the effect of robbing the ultimate consumers of- coal of hundreds of 0 millions of dollars in the next thirty days. It wii; benefit no one except the coal dealers and will enable them to unload on the '“public vast quantities of coal at about two and one-hali times the price that coal should retail at on the market at this time.

I, too, have . been studying the coal situation. I derive my information from a report recently made by the federal trade commission, contained in house document 19 3, and also from a report made by the department of .the interior within the last ten days, and in a full summary of the entire eoai situation of the country made by Senator Pomerene of Ohio, and contained in the Congressional Record of July 5. <• The fact is that there is no car shortage except such as the coal barons and the transportation companies have purposely created dor the purpose of boosting prices. Tie par shortage claimed by the railroad companies is about IbO,<HKP cars. The freight car supply is now over 2,700,000. These cars can be so utilized by the coal and railroad companies as no increase their present deficiency by an equiv alent of about 700,01T0. Therefore if the coal companies and the railroads use. the cars they now have there will be no car shortage, hut a great’surplus of cars. The evidence available further discloses that the coal operators can and ought to produce coal at the mouth of the mine at a maximum price of $1.50 per ton. This coal ought to retail to the ultimate consumer at not to exceed $3.25 to $3.50 per ton, and to charge $7, $8 .or. $9 a ton for coal is simply robbery. Your advice to your readers should be: “Do not buy your coal now. Wait until corigress enacts house bill 4961, which provides for national security and defense by encouraging production, conserving the sup ply and controlling the distribution of food products and fuel.” The probabilities are that coal will then be less than half the existing price. At any rate you should not create' a coal panic among coal consumers at this time, but should lay (before them the facts and then let every buyer act on his own responsibility. . I write this letter because I believe the Herald is one of the fairest newspapers published in Chicago, and that, you . have been misinformed and misled regarding your alleged facts in reference to. coal. J. W. RAUSCH.