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Mahc'H 25, 1020 



The Florists^ Review 



21 



other organizations in New York city 

 on or about May 26 to decide on con- 

 certed action regarding the quarantine. 

 ,T. Edward Moon, president of the Amer- 

 ican Association of Nurserymen; W. N. 

 Craig, of Brookline, Mass., and John C. 

 Wister, president of the new American 

 Iris Society, who were the speakers at 



the meeting, each referred to the quar- 

 antine and severely criticized it. 



At a largely attended conference of 

 the National Association of Gardeners, 

 held at the Engineering building, New 

 York, March 18, resolutions were unani- 

 mously adopted pledging the support of 

 the society to efforts being made to 



modify Quarantine No. 37. It waa 

 voted, on motion of W. N. Craig, to co- 

 operate with the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society and other organizations 

 and to send delegates to a /?onf"rence 

 to be held in New York city in May to 

 consider the best ways and means of 

 changing the exclusion act. 



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CALL OFF COAL CONTROL 



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WILSON LIFTS COAL LID. 



Accepts Majority Commission Report. 



Bemoval of government regulation of 

 the coal industry and fuel prices makes 

 certain a rise in cost of coal beginning 

 with the new coal year, April 1. 



President Wilson announced, March 

 23, his acceptance of the majority re- 

 port of the coal commission as binding 

 on the bituminous coal mine operators 

 and miners. In a public letter he called 

 upon the operators and minors to sum- 

 mon their joint conference, to put the 

 findings into effect as soon as possible. 



At the same time the President with- 

 drew government control of the price of 

 bituminous coal, so that the twenty-seven 

 per cent wage advance for miners, rec- 

 ommended by. the report, might be ab- 

 sorbed in the price the consumer would 

 pay after April 1. The commission esti- 

 mated this wage advance at $200,000,000 

 a year. 



No Price Fixing in Peace Time. 



The majority report does not touch 

 upon the question of future coal prices, 

 as beijig without its jurisdiction. The 

 minority report states that "it seems 

 apparent that the additional thirteen 

 per cent now called for should be taken 

 care of by the operators." On this 

 point the President says: 



"There is at present no provision of 

 law for fixing new coal prices for peace 

 time purposes and unless and until some 

 grave emergency shall arise which in 

 my judgment has a relation to the emer- 

 gency purposes of the Lever act, I would 

 not feel justified in fixing coal prices 

 with reference to future conditions of 

 production. 



"I am aware that at present, as a 

 result of the shortage created by the 

 coal strike and of the consequent inter- 

 ference with transportation, as a result 

 also of the unexceptionally unfavorable 

 winter, the demand for coal continues 

 active. I desire to impress upon the 

 coal operators the extreme importance 

 not only of their complying to the full 

 extent with the laws against combina- 

 tions in restraint of trade and against 

 profiteering but also of their exerting 

 themselves aflSrmatively to. prevent ex- 

 acting of unreasonable prices for coal. 



Warns Against Profiteering. 



"I am sure the public fully appreci- 

 ates the desirability, where practicable, 

 of leaving commercial transactions un- 

 trammeled, but at the same time I am 

 satisfied the public will find ways to 

 protect itself, if such liberal policy shall 

 appear to result in unreasonably high 

 prices." 



The President wrote the operators and 

 miners that it was "essential to the pub- 

 lic welfare that the agreements be con- 



cluded at the earliest date practicable, 

 so that the uncertainty as to the fuel 

 supply may be ended and that the con- 

 sumers may be able to make contracts 

 for their coal supply." 



The executive order withdrawing gov- 

 ernment control of prices removes vir- 

 tually all government control of coal, 

 placing the fuel administration in vir- 

 tually the position it held before the 

 miners struck November 1. 



Main Features of Award. 



The report proposes a three months' 

 winter storage supply for the govern- 

 ment, public utilities, railroads and do- 

 mestic consumers, beginning July 1 each 

 year, that the interstate commerce com- 

 mission propose lower rates for coal 

 shipments during that period, that steps 

 be taken to minimize the car shortage 

 and that the federal reserve board per- 

 mit federal reserve banks to favor as 

 eligible for rediscount paper drawn 

 against coal in storage. 



The outstanding features in the deci- 

 sion of the majority of the commission 

 (Henry M. Robinson, representing the 

 public, and Rembrandt Poole, repre- 

 senting the operators) are as follows: 



An increase of wages to tonnage 

 workers of twenty-seven per cent over 

 the wages in effect Ocotober 31, 1919, 

 including the fourteen ])er cent increase 

 already granted. This amounts to ap- 

 j)roximatelv $96,000,000 a year more 

 than the Garfield award and $200,000,000 

 a year more than the wages last Oc- 

 tober. 



The 6-hour day antl the 5-day week are 

 not granted; the 8-hour day is retained. 



In refusing the demand of the miners 

 for a 30-hour week, the majority of the 

 commission said that, if the work day 

 were shortened by one hour, it would be 

 equivalent to an additional cost of more 

 than $100,000,000. 



The President's action means that the 

 coal dealers can ask what they like for 

 coal and that an increase of approxi- 

 mately twenty-five per cent in miners' 

 wages must be assimilated by the con- 

 sumer. 



NEW THREAT OF COAL STRIKE. 



Just as the government finished its 

 work in preparation for prosecuting 

 more than a hundred operators and 

 miners of the central competitive dis- 

 trict charged with a nation-wide coal 

 conspiracy in violation of the Lever act, 

 the alarming report came this week 

 from the mine workers' headquarters 

 and from officers of the operators that 

 the door has been thrown open for an- 

 other tie-up of the bituminous coal fields 

 which may prove more paralyzing to the 

 industrial world than the strike of last 

 fall. 



It is pointed out by mine leaders that 



the present contract in force between 

 the operators and miners expires March 

 31 and that unless a new contract is ar- 

 ranged before that time the nation will 

 face a general shutdown then. 



Experience shows that without a con- 

 tract in force the miners will not return 

 to work. 



President Wilson's plan of having the 

 operators and miners work out their 

 contracts for the new coal year begin- 

 ning April 1 is said to be in direct con- 

 trast with the basis upon which many 

 of the indictments of the 125 operators 

 and miners named were drawn, and that 

 such a conference would be another vio- 

 lation of the Lever act, provided the 

 present indictments bring about convic- 

 tions. 



Information among the operators and 

 workers' officials is that the prosecution 

 is proceeding upon the hypothesis that 

 all joint conferences to negotiate wage 

 contracts have been and are illegal since 

 the passage of the Lever act, August 

 10, 1917. 



All of this, operators point out, sizes 

 up the pinch in which thoy find them- 

 selves in spite of President Wilson's re- 

 quest to get together on the majority 

 report of the coal strike commission, 

 which in itself gives presidential sanc- 

 tion to the collective bargaining prin- 

 ciple. 



PROPOSE COAL DIRECTOR. 



A remedy for the coal situation grow- 

 ing out of war conditions has been pro- 

 posed in a bill introduced in the Senate 

 by Senator Frelinghuysen. The aim is 

 to provide complete means of publicity 

 through a federal coal commissioner, to 

 be appointed by the President and con- 

 firmed by the Senate, with a salary of 

 $10,000 a year and a bureau of officials 

 and employees able to cope with the 

 work hecessarily involved in the plan. 

 This coal commissioner would be em- 

 powered to investigate production, dis- 

 tribution, storage and sale, and to re- 

 quire from producers, operators and 

 miners every form of information in- 

 volved in the industry. The organiza- 

 tion, the management, the practices, all 

 come under his jurisdiction. Retail 

 dealers and consumers also are to be re- 

 quired to ^ive the coal commissioner all 

 required information as to the condi- 

 tions of the trade. The wages and 

 working conditions, terms of employ- 

 ment, living expenses and all similar 

 questions on the miners' side are also 

 embraced in the powers of the commis- 

 sioner. 



The interstate commerce commission, 

 the federal trade commission and all de- 

 partments of the government are re- 

 quired to cooperate with the coal com 

 missioner in getting out the needed in- 



J 



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