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The Florists^ Review 



Apuil 1, 1920 



Thursday, March 25, President Lewis, 

 of the United Mine Workers, received 

 an acceptance from Thomas T. Brews- 

 ter, representing the operators, of a pro- 

 posal for a joint conference between 

 •operators and soft coal miners in New 

 York city during the last few days of 

 March. The delay in Mr. Brewster's 

 acceptance was due to the fact that the 

 operators, following the government's 

 indictments against many of them at 

 Indianapolis for participating in joint 

 conferences with their men, referred 

 Mr. Lewis' invitation to their lawyers 

 for advice; the acceptance was sent as 

 soon as a favorable opinion had been 

 received. 



This conference may result in a set- 

 tlement acceptable to the miners, but 

 the history of previous conferences 

 holds out little hope of such outcome. 

 In what condition will a strike find the 

 country? 



Small Supply and Heavy Demand. 



According to a rough estimate, at the 

 beginning of the strike last fall coal 

 production was 40,000,000 tons behind 

 what it should have been and the strike 

 doubled that deficit, which by this time 

 is yet greater. Most industrial estab- 

 lishments have largely exhausted their 

 reserves and now are going on a week- 

 to-week basis rather than on a 2 or 3- 

 month reserve basis; this is true of 

 growers as of other coal-users. The rail- 

 roads, which use one-fourth to one-third 

 of the coal produced, have nearly come 

 to the end of their reserve supply, even 

 with confiscation to help them. 



The summer's demand will be excep- 

 tionally heavy. When the export re- 

 strictions are removed, Europe will call 

 for at least 50,000,000 tons, about four 

 times last year's export. Because of 

 the personal hardships of last year, the 

 domestic consumer will to some extent 

 buy sooner, beginning in June or July 

 rather than in August. While uncer- 

 tainty as to general prices is making 

 manufacturers wary of embarking heav- 

 ily in new enterprises, the present de- 

 pletion or diminution of their coal re- 

 serves will make their minimum demand 

 a large one and, if the economic situ- 

 ation gains soon in stability, they will 

 call yet more for coal. Growers them- 

 selves, with the formation of their na- 

 tional organization and the Cjjrtainty of 

 an effective continuance of the publicity 

 campaign, will have to meet a demand 

 for flowers which will keep their green- 

 houses operating at full capacity; con- 

 sequently, their own coal needs will be 

 large. 



High Prices for High Wages. 



Not only will the increasing demand 

 make coal difficult to obtain and high- 

 priced when obtainable, but the wage 

 awards for the coal miners and rail- 

 road workers will help to raise the price 

 of coal. The increase in freight rates 

 is expected to be nearly, if not quite, 

 fifty per cent, the exact amount de- 

 pending upon the decision of the inter- 

 state commerce commission as to what 

 rates are necessary to pay the increased 

 wages and at the same time give the 

 roads their legal minimum earnings of 

 five and one-half per cent. That in- 

 crease may not come till September 1; 

 "it will not come later. A Chicago coal 

 dealer stated that, in his belief, a fifty 

 per cent raise in freight rates would 

 add, for the Chicago buyer, $2 a ton to 



eastern coal and 80 cents a ton to coal 

 from southern Illinois. 



In view of past negotiations, the in- 

 crease in the miners' wages can hardly 

 be less than the twenty-seven per cent 

 recommended by the majority report of 

 the commission; it is estimated that that 

 will raise the price of coal by from 60 

 cents to $1 per ton. A strike can have 

 no other effect that to increase these 

 prices even further, as well as making 

 coal still more difficult to obtain. 



Various other elements contribute 

 each a share to the complexity of the 

 coal situation. Senator Frelinghuysen 

 has introduced" a bill in the Senate to 

 provide for the appointment of a fed- 

 eral coal commissioner, with large pow- 

 ers and responsibilities, as noted in The 

 Review last week. The indictment in 

 Indianapolis of more than a hundred 

 operators and miners has thrown a cloud 

 of uncertainty over the use of collective 

 bargaining in the coal industry. At 

 present, too, there are, on the one hand, 

 various suits being pushed to test the 

 constitutionality of the Lever act or 



The Editor is pleased when 

 a Reader presents his ideas 

 on any subject treated in 



As experience is the best 

 teacher, so do we learn 

 fastest by an exchange of 

 experiences. Many valuable 

 points are brought out by 

 discussion. 



Good penmanship, spellins and 

 Krammar, though desirable, are not 

 necessary. Write as you would talk 

 when doing your best. 



WE SHALL BE GLAD 

 TO HEAR FROM YOU 



else prove that it does not allow the 

 railroads to have "a just and reasonable 

 profit" and, on the other. Senator 

 Frelinghuysen 's bill to repeal the act 

 insofar as it relates to coal. 



To Encourage Summer Buying. 



Other attempts are being made to find 

 a more permanent solution of the prob- 

 lem. At a meeting in New York city 

 of the American Institute of Mining 

 and Metallurgical Engineers in the lat- 

 ter part of February, a plan for all-the- 

 year-around coal merchandising was 

 outlined by Eugene McAuliffe, director- 

 general of conservation of the United 

 States Railroad Administration; as a 

 result, a committee of fifteen was ap- 

 pointed to study ways of stabilizing the 

 bituminous coal industry. The Kansas 

 state court of industrial relations is 

 planning to make an intensive study of 

 every phase of the coal industry. 



The transportation committee of the 

 Chicago Coal Merchants' Association is 

 working on a plan for a 25-cent differ- 

 ence in freight rates during the mouths 

 from April to August; this saving 

 would be more or less completely passed 

 on to the consumer to induce him to buy 

 rarly and the railroads would compen- 

 sate themselves by charging 25 cents 



more per ton during the other months 

 of the year, making a 50-cent difference 

 between the summer and winter rates. 

 Another plan which has been suggested 

 is that the operators and wholesalers 

 should agree to make the price of coal 

 to the consumer 50 cents per ton less at 

 the beginning of the light season and 

 then increase it 10 cents per ton each 

 mon^^^ 



A(^^onal factors affecting the fu- 

 ture are that the further electrification 

 of the railroads will help to lessen their 

 demand for coal, since the coal at power 

 stations can be burned more economi- 

 cally; the development of hydroelectric 

 power will effect a permanent saving in 

 coal and a consequent decrease in the 

 total demand, and the greater use of 

 fuel oil will also relieve coal of some of 

 its burden, especially if the production 

 of oil is stimulated, as it may be, by 

 the government land-leasing bill. 



Buy Coal Early. 



While these various factors may be 

 kept in mind by the grower in making 

 his own appraisal of the situation in its 

 succeeding developments, their effect 

 can hardly be large or immediate 

 enough to change radically the prospect 

 for this summer. Whether or not the 

 miners strike, the demand is certain for 

 some time to be much greater than the 

 supply and the price will be raised soon 

 to cover the increase in the coal miners' 

 wages and later during the summer to 

 take care of the increase in the railroad 

 workers' wages. The possibility of a 

 sudden, catastrophic drop in all prices 

 remains, but it is only a possibility. 

 Similarly it is possible that the next 

 few months will see a comparativelv 

 permanent settlement of the wage dis- 

 putes and a sufficient betterment of 

 transportation facilities to allow a 

 steadily increasing production of coal, 

 but even then the demand will take care 

 of it all and call for more. 



MINERS WIU. CONTINUE WORK. 



The scale committees of the bitumin- 

 ous operators and mine workers agreed 

 March 29 to make the monetary provi- 

 sions contained in the award of the 

 bituminous coal commission, as affirmed 

 by the President, become effective April 

 1 and that the mines continue in opera- 

 tion pending the working out of a new 

 agreement. 



All local unions of the United Mine 

 Workers in the central competitive 

 fields were notified immediately by tele- 

 gram, John L. Lewis, international 

 president of the mine workers, an- 

 nounced. 



"This action will avoid any necessity 

 for cessation of operations," Mr. Lewis 

 said, "and will fully protect the public 

 by continuing the supply of coal after 

 April 1, pending the negotiation of a 

 new contract." 



Springfield, 0.— The Springfield Flo- 

 ral Co. has recently changed hands and 

 now is known as the Springfield Floral 

 & Fern Co. The active parties are 

 Louis R. Niles and William S. Macken- 

 zie, the latter having acted as secretary 

 of the old company since the death of 

 R. R. Mills. He has been connected with 

 Mills Bros., builders' supply dealers, for 

 the last eleven years. It is planned to 

 push the business and enlarge the estab- 

 lishment.' 



V.' . 



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