12 



The Florists^ Review 



July 5, 1917. 



ing that they will be required to pay 

 no more than the price fixed, but at the 

 same time will suffer the disappointment 

 of not being able to buy for less. 



Now that the price has been fixed and 

 the question of cost settled, the grower 

 is interested in knowing whether or not 

 ho will be able to get an adequate sup- 

 ply. 



While coal producers and dealers have 

 asserted that the extraordinary demand 

 was the reason for the high price of 

 fuel and that the inability of the rail- 

 roads and other carriers to transport it 

 from the mines to the points of con- 

 sumption was the reason for a short- 

 age, many of those who have paid the 

 bills and have had trouble getting coal 

 have been skeptical. 



On this point the government officials 

 at Washington were told by one of the 

 coal men at the conference that if there 

 were ample car facilities, ' ' we could 

 cover this country with coal, and that 

 would fix the price." 



Mine operators have had and are 

 having considerable difficulty with the 

 labor problem. Men willing to work 

 in coal mines have been and are scarce. 

 Before the war the ranks of the miners 

 were recruited from immigrants. The 

 beginning of hostilities shut off immi- 

 gration. Those already at work in the 

 mines were attracted from this employ- 

 ment by the better wages paid for un- 

 skiUed labor in other occupations. 



Labor Mine Owners' Problem. 



Mine operators have tried to meet 

 the situation by increasing wages. 

 Three times in nine months there have 

 been voluntary increases granted to the 

 miners. Apparently they have not been 

 great enough to hold the men, as there 

 is a shortage of labor in nearly every 

 field. In others there are strikes threat- 

 ened. 



Wages in the West Virginia field have 

 been raised by the action of the United 

 States Steel Co., which owns twelve 

 mines there. The company, fat with 

 war profits, has been giving its em- 

 ployees some of the surplus by increas- 

 ing wages from time to time. Other 

 coal operators in the same field were 

 forced to do the same or lose their 

 miners. 



But, with all these increases, there 

 have been continual desertions of the 

 mines by the men. It is expected, how- 

 ever, that the government will adopt 

 some method by which the mines will 

 be adequately supplied with labor. If 

 the mines are, the estimated possible 

 annual production of 600,000,000 tons 

 of bituminous coal will take care of 

 the needs of the country, and there will 

 be no shortage. 



Following the announcement of the 

 action of the mine operators, coal deal- 

 ers declare that there were numerous 

 cancellations of orders that had been 

 placed by consumers. The attitude of 

 the latter is supposed to be that there 

 is no reason to buy coal in advance of 

 the time of need, as there will be no 

 difference between the price in July and 

 in October. 



This action is liable to bring about a 

 fuel famine in the fall, the coal dealers 

 assert. They say that the maximum 

 mine production every week of every 

 month is necessary to produce the coal 

 the country needs. Cessation of demand 

 during the summer is going to make the 



demand in the fall and winter months 

 just so much greater. 



* ' Consumers expect that the coal 

 mines can produce in the first three or 

 four weeks of the fall their winter's 

 coal supply," said one man in close 

 toucli with the mining industry. "They 

 will be disappointed. Unless the con- 

 sumers keep on buying and storing coal 

 there will be a famine worse than last 

 winter. The demand during the sum- 

 mer has been equal to the supply and 

 there has been accumulated no reserve 

 stocks of coal. Consequently when the 

 increased demand comes there will be 

 no supply to meet it, except what is 

 daily produced by the mines. 



Famine in Fall Predicted. 



' ' There is every reason to believe 

 tliat should the mines be able to satisfy 

 the demand in the fall, there will not 

 be cars enough to transport the coal. 

 When the railroads begin to move the 

 crops, expected to be greater than ever 

 before, and the government requires 

 thousands of cars to transport troops 



raVERY now and then a well- 

 u9 pleased reader speaks the word 

 which is the means of bringing a 

 new advertiser to 



Such friendly assistance is thoroughly 

 appreciated. 



Give us the name of anyone from 

 whom you are buying, not an adver- 

 tiser. We especially wish to interest 

 those selling articles of florisPs use 

 not at present advertised. 



FLORISTS* PUBLISHING CO. 

 530-60 Caxton BIdg. Chicago 



It was then predicted that the Inter- 

 state Commerce Commission would 

 grant the increase in freight rates asked 

 by the railroads. Since that time the 

 commission had the subject under con- 

 sideration and June 25 decided to allow 

 the railroads to charge 15 cents per 

 ton more in the district north of the 

 Ohio river and east of the Mississippi 

 river. The increase became effective 

 July 1. This automatically increases 

 the cost of coal to the consumer that 

 much. 



The representative of one of the 

 largest mines in the Pocahontas field 

 of West Virginia was asked what he 

 considered a legitimate charge for Po- 

 cahontas coal delivered to the consumer 

 by a coal retailer. He asserted that 

 the cost at the mine, plus all transpor- 

 tation charges and $1.20 per ton for 

 wastage, handling and hauling and the 

 retailer's profit, is the basis upon which 

 the retail price is fixed. 



Therefore the grower, now that the 

 price of coal at the mines has been 

 fixed, when he goes into the open mar- 

 ket for fuel can easily learn whether or 

 not the price the retailer asks him is 

 fair. 



COAL PRICES EXORBITANT. 



and war supplies to the Atlantic sea- 

 board, the mines are sure to be left 

 without an adequate number of cars. 

 Then the consumer who has waited until 

 the fall months to get his coal supply 

 will be disappointed." 



Apparentl5^ there is nothing to be 

 gained by waiting to get the fuel sup- 

 ply. And should this analysis of the 

 coal situation now and in the immedi- 

 ate future be near the truth, there ap- 

 pears to be much that can be lost. 



Chicago coal dealers, representatives 

 of mines, agree that the maximum price 

 fixing will have a beneficial effect upon 

 the coal situation. They declare that 

 it will be a protection to the legitimate 

 coal man and have a deterrent effect 

 upon the other type of dealer, the lat- 

 ter being blamed in many quarters as 

 the person responsible for the attacks 

 that have been made upon the business 

 as a whole. All retailers under the 

 new agreement will have paid the same 

 price for coal. Consequently they can 

 sell at the same price. 



Freight Rate Increase Allowed. 



In The Review of April 19, the fuel 

 situation at that time was discussed. 



U. S. Will Not Accept Maximum. 



When it was announced that maxi- 

 mum prices to be charged for coal at 

 the mines until such a time as the Fed- 

 eral Trade Commission had investigated 

 the cost of coal production had been 

 fixed, there was a belief prevalent that 

 the prices of coal had been reduced. 

 An analysis of the action of the coal 

 operators, however, disclosed that in- 

 stead of reducing the prices of various 

 kinds of coal, it had merely confirmed 

 the prices already in effect and which 

 florists theretofore had been required 

 to pay. In a few cases the belief that 

 the government had fixed the price stif- 

 fened the backbones of some coal deal- 

 ers, who had been willing up to that 

 time to sell coal at prices less than the 

 maximum fixed. 



Members of President Wilson's cab- 

 inet quickly issued statements disclaim- 

 ing that the government had anything 

 to do with fixing the prices announced. 

 Secretary of War Baker, who by virtue 

 of his office is president of the Council 

 of National Defense, characterized the 

 action as a purely voluntary one on the 

 part of the coal operators. He said that 

 the government had made no attempt 

 and had no power to fix the price of 

 coal. In concluding his statement, Sec- 

 retary Baker said: 



Baker Calls Prices Unjust. 



"The Federal Trade Commission has 

 been directed by the President to as- 

 certain for his information the costs in- 

 volved in coal production. The infor- 

 mation which I have from that and 

 other sources, I think, justifies me in 

 believing that the price of $3 suggested, 

 or agreed on, as a maximum, is an exor- 

 bitant, unjust and oppressive price." 



Secretary of the Navy Daniels took a 

 similar view of the situation. He said: 



"I am from Missouri; I must be 

 shown. I am not going to pay any price 

 until we know what it costs to produce. 

 We are now making an investigation to 

 see what it costs to produce a ton of 

 coal. Were we to pay $4 at the mine, 

 it probably would cost $5 at the 



