Golden Age, November 23, 1921

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Golden Age . K

A-JOURNAL-OF- FACT ' ’ j?

Not. 28, 1921, Vol. m, No.57

fSB Pub Hiked every other iKfl week at 35 Myrtle Anmiiie, Brooklyn, X. Y., V. B. B.

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SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

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SCIENCE AND INVENTION

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HOME AND HEALTH

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RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

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III Brooklya. N. T., w«tae»d*y, Navambcr 23, 1321 Number 57

Recurrent “Famines”—of Coal

T ITTLE children! Believe everything you •*-* see in the newspaper!

This represents the coal producers’ estimate of the discernment of the common people—and of the uncommon ones. For all the people believe nearly all they read in the public press.

Getting the people to believe what is told is one of the great secrets of success. It both pays and possesses greater potentialities of profit than any other profit-producing plan.

Cold leather is drawing near, and the people should begin to harken for the voice of the profiteer in fuel. For at this time in 1920 the coal barons worked one of the greatest hoaxes in American history. That they did it successfully ia evidenced by the reported half billion profit made out of it.

If the process is to be repeated as the 1921 winter deepens, it will at least be interesting to those in the secret to watch the thing being done. For this war-bom system of fooling the people through the press does the thing gracefully, without the populace knowing that they, too, have been “done”.

What Happened in 1920

IT IS bad enough that the people were told: "There is a conspiracy among coal men to keep prices up and and to restrict the supply”. Such a scarcity, however produced, would have been a genuine shortage of coal, which according to the supply-demand law would entitle the individuals having some of the dusky diamonds to reap the proper profits.

But when the actual deal engineered in 1920 is disclosed, the man on the street begins to wonder whether by any way of looking at it, or by any rule of the game, the coal profiteers were entitled’ to their $500,000,000 profit, or whether tfiey were just common thieves, or high-class shell-game artists. One can have some respect for a circus swindler; for there one expects to be fooled. But to have it happen in the business of keeping the kiddies from fr» iug, and at the hands of chamber-of-commerce dignitaries and frock-coated church officials — well, some things are speakable but some others are unspeakable!

We go into this subject because it ia about time for it to "happen” over again.

That which took place, and which might occur again any year, was related in a select few newspapers—an aristocracy of the press, which the vast majority of the American reading class are not privileged to read. The story was told in newspapers which do not reach the general public. The common, ordinary garden variety of newspapers, read by the common people as a whole, are owned by Big Business, and it will become clear why this numerically great section of the press did not let the truth appear. The facts came out last spring: but as the crisis wps over for the winter of 1920-1921, The Golden Age thought it best to tell the story later on, at about the time when the same thing was liable to be repeated.

The Regular Coal Cheat

THE diagram which is printed herewith shows the general and regular situation in anthracite coal from 1908 to 1921. The heavy line, AC, in the upper part illustrates the variations in the average monthly output of anthracite, ranging from a minimum of 5,164,000 tons a month in 11*09 to a maximum of 6,428,000 tons a month in the war year of 1917. The war gave an opportunity for unusual profit in anthracite; and the miners were permitted to work more than the usual average of a little over 200 days a year, because a bigger profit could be made on full-time coal production than could be made after the war by any of the regular schemas to keep the price up. The years of 1917 and 19,8

■were the only ones in which the anthracite miners had been able to make a good living for a long time, the idle days usually eating up any high pay that might be made from the working days.

There is something about this diagram which indicates clearly that there is an intentional regular restriction of the output of anthracite, with the purpose of keeping the price higher than it normally ought to i>e. This is shown in the two light lines, one solid, DE, and the other, DF, broken, below the heavy line AC.

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The light solid line, DE, indicates the aver' age production of anthracite for each person in the United States in the two census years of 1910 and 1920. In 1910 the per capita production of anthracite was 0.705 of a ton. In 1920 it was 0.650 of a ton. In the ten years there was a decrease in production per capita of 0.055 of a ton or, roughly, a hundred pounds less for each person in 1920 than in 1910.

That this reduction in production was neither accidental nor the result of conditions beyond the control of the anthracite coal operators, is manifest from the consideration that in 1917 and 19^8, when war prices made it pay handsomely to gfet the coal out, the average production of the four years previous of 5,504,000 tons a month was suddenly raised to a monthly average of 6,406,000 tons for the two yean of 1917 and 1918. This was an average monthly increase of 902,000 tons, or 16.4 percent. During this period of increased production the miners worked nearly all of the working days, earned good wages, and were able for the first time in many years, if ever before, to give their families the blessings and benefits of a good, decent American scale of living.

“What has been done can be done,” and the 1917-1918 production could be made the regular rate of production if the coal operators were willing. If the 1917-1918 average had been maintained in 1920 the average production of anthracite for each individual in the United States would have been 0.730 of a ton, instead of the 0.650 of a ton which it was. That about 0.7 of a ton may be considered a normal per capita production appears from the fact that it was the figure for 1910, when the process of gradually reducing the per capita production was not as fully under way as in 1920.

It is difficult for the operators to maintain the objection that they are unable to get the coal out at the former per capita rate; for they were able to do so for two years, in 1917 and 1918. Therefore the conclusion is manifest that the operators do not keep up the 1910 per capita production simply because they do not wish to do so. They have willed that the per capita production shall gradually decrease, because according to the well known supply-demand law of economics a very slight reduction in the supply, when the supply is just at the demand figure, makes possible not merely the maintenance of the price, but the raising of the price to an extent that the change in the ratio of demand to supply would scarcely warrant.

This scheme of figuring the probable demand and then limiting the supply to a figure a trifle below the demand is being practised in practically every one of the basic industries of America. This is one of the lessons which Big Business learned during the war, and from which it now profits hugely and the common people losa hugely.

One of the real problems before Big Business now is how, without attracting such undue attention from the people as to result in adverse political action, to so reduce supply as to be able to raise prices to a point where Big Business will be able to absorb all of the earnings of the rest of the people. This ambition has not been reached as yet, a fact which is evidenced by the other fact that the people still have some money on deposit in the banks and still hold quite a quantity of the Liberty and other war bonds. Some day, some bright and happy day, all the money on deposit in the banks will be deposited by- Big Business and all of the tax free bonds will be in the vaults of the super-men of whom the late President Baer of the Beading Bailway system asserted that it had pleased God to entrust to the men of wealth the management of the big affairs of the country. The enquirer queries whether the god mentioned is not the god of this world. The once-prominent kaiser used to have much to say about “Me und Gott” —the same Gott.—2 Corinthians 4:4.

Good Soil for the 1920 Scheme

THE latter part of 1919 had been marked by some anxiety about a possible coal shortage from a miners’ strike that might happen. This passed over, and the coal situation continued the even tenor of the regular method of keeping production close to demand; but the soil was becoming unusually good for what was to follow when, about April, 1920. the public mind became agitated over the possibility of a railroad strike which might interfere with the obtaining of coal cars at the mines and the shipment of loaded ears from the coal region.

The people had become quite accustomed to having some Government Bureau tell them what to do—during the war; and in April, 1920, whan the war-time regulation of the coal industry had ceased, the Interstate Commerce Commission took up the matter of averting a supposed disaster to come last winter from a possible shortage of coal. In June the Commission took drastic steps to end a coal shortage east of the Mississippi, by giving preference and priority to coal over all other materials on the railroads. This was designed to bring an end to a supposed shortage of cars for the coal industry. The country still being in a prosperous condition, the war funds not having all been expended, ahdJhe war earnings of the people not gone, there was an unprecedented demand for freight and coal cars. The industrial section of New England was given preference over all other parts of the country.

The matter was handled in such a manner as to excite whatever fears might have been latent in the mind's of the people; and fears began to grow and to spread that, with continued prosperity making unparalleled demands upon transportation facilities, there might not be any coal obtainable. The newspapers took up the cry, and there ensued an exemplification of crowd psychology not unlike the press-made war.

Instead of seeking to ascertain the facts and report them to the people, the press accentuated the popular fear, and by suggestion drove the people to a state of mind which had not been paralleled since the war-craze of 1917-1918.

The 1920 Coal Panic

THE newspapers got into action toward the latter part of June, 1920. This is an important date in the transaction, on account of what will be told later in this article. Such headlines as follow, appeared for articles and editorials and gradually drove the people frantic:

“Coal Scarcity.”

“U. S. to Rush Coal Here in Shortage.”

“Coal Shortage Menaces City Transit Lines.” “Chicago Running Short of Coal.”

“Ask Wilson’s Aid to Get Coal Here.”

“Coal ia Sought to Keep Cars Running ”

“Coal for New York Shut Off by Order.”

“Utility Companies Worried Over Coal.” “To Hold Conference on Coal Shortage.”

The hue and cry began on June 18, and the press hounds began to bay in real earnest on June 23. Before the tenth of June—a date that will be seen to have been the most important in the 1920 coal panic — there had been some mention of a possible coal shortage, but nothing like what burst upon the public within ten days after June 10, 1920.

In July the coal worry began to be forced home upon the public. It was the press that frightened the people with lines calculated to arouse the direst apprehensions:

“Public Utilities Here Urge Coal Claims on I.C.C.” “City Utilities Near Coal Danger Line.” "City Gets 300 Cars of Coal, Gain of 50.” “Ottawa Officials on Way to Confer with I.C.C. on Coal Famine."

t "President to Give Entire Power to Commerce ' Board or Revive Fuel Administration.”

“Mine Owners Declare Car Shortage ia Cutting Production by More Than Half.”

"Roads to Break Necks Moving Fuel If Operator! Will Break Necks Mining It"

"Coal Shortage Puts City in Darkness.” "Lowden Saya Coal Crisis Is Appalling.” These were samples out of thousands of headlines, all of a character to rouse the worst fears of a confiding public that believes the newspapers not wisely but too welt

The war dogs of Big Business, the public press, were hard at it again in October, after a little lull. Cold weather was just coming on; and a public mind, already rendered more than anxious, was half crazed by the newspaper articles with head lines such as:

"Cold Weather Bares Big Coal Shortage Here." “Kansans Suffer From Lack of Coal." “Bronx Shivering for Lack of CoaL”

“Flat Houses Short of Fuel and Dealers Unable to Supply Them.”

The month of November kept up the cry of the coal shortage, and the cold weather already felt made the populace fear lest they and their children should soon freeze to death in their homes. The press headlines shouted the refrain:

“The Coal Crisis in New York.”

“Coal Shortage Acute, Appeal to Copeland.” “Fuel for Apartment Houses Lacking, 55 Percent

Have No Fuel on Hand.”

“Belief Asked for City Coal Famine.”

“Staten Island Coal Situation is Acute.”

"Coal Up $1 Here, As City Shivers, Famine Up State.”

“Not a Pound of Coal in Albany Bina." “Doctors' Prescriptions for CoaL” “City Facing Winter Appeals for CoaL” “Copeland Finds Conditions Woeful.”

’ "City Coal Survey Shows All Parts in Critical Need.”

“Fuel Sufficient for Temporary Belief Arrives.” In December the press had almost nothing about a coal shortage. The coal men had loosened up, prices had dropped, and the country was saved.

How BigBasinm Cleared $500,000,009

THE inevitable result of such a press campaign was that the people all wanted coal at the same time, hoarded what coal they could get, bought more than they needed for current use, and cleaned up every pound of eoal that appeared for sale, and the unfortunates that were not among the early birds were crazed by the press-engendered fear that they would die,, they ancftheir wives and children, the next cold wave the Weather Bureau might curse them with.

It was the opportunity which comes only once in a life-time — unless it can be made to come more than .once. No one on earth knows a real opportunity better than Big Business, and the coal industry took advantage to the full of the 1920 mob-mindedness of the newspaper readers.

In 1919 there had been some gradual rises in

coal prices. By March, 1920, President J. IL Lewis, of the United. Mine Workers was officially inquiring, “Who gets the difference between the S3 to 98 cents a ton which is paid to * the miner’s and the $9 a ton for which the coal is sold to the consumer?” The war-time coal situation was being raked over, and such statements were flying about as: ,' i

“Already the miners' representatives have conclusively j demonstrated that one company, whose net profit was in | 1914 $511,000, made a net profit of $3,68G,000 in 1918, i while the nation which bought that coal was fightikg far 1 its life, and another company, whose net profits were $3,000,000 for the two-year period of 1914-1915, was. proven to have made a net profit of $21,000,000 for ths . two-year period of 1917-1918.”

In Ohio miners had placed in the cars of . coal envelopes in which were the question, “We miners got 60 cents a ton for this coal; how much did you pay for it?” and the answers came from Arkansas, “$11 a ton”, and from Texas, “$15.60 a ton”. The bituminous operators in May were denying to Senator Walsh that they had made any great profits. According to VicePresident J. D. A. Morrow of the National Coal . Association in 1917 out of 7,000 operators 6,600 made less than 15 percent, and through 1917 the average operators’ receipts per ton were only $2.26 and through 1918 only $2.61. ,

It was in June, 1920, that the Big Business L, machine went out for real blood. According tn ' : F. P. Hobgood in the New York Times,.“the ; pre-war price of Pocahontas eoal at the mine ; was $1.25, during the war $2.75, but here today $9.0(y’. “There is an abundant supply of coal, ,z‘ according to T. B. Koons, vice-president of the ■ Central Bailroad of New Jersey and other an- j

thorities, but the coal is, being held for higher ,

prices?’—this was in the New York American ' for June 27, 1920 — seventeen days after tha, i for the eoal consumer, fateful tenth of June, to be mentioned later. According to Alfred M. Barrett, acting Public Service Commissioner, “the worst fuel shortage in the history of tha country will confront New York next winter'*, which prediction was fulfilled, by the withhold- , ing of the coal. Mr. Barrett also charged that “coal prices were boosted beyond legitimate limits through ‘pyramiding*, which word he used to describe the piling on of profits and prices > in the process of handling the fuel”. On June 25, under the headline of “The Coal Panic”, the Naw York Times said editorially:

N«ruiu n. 1M1

“It seems like a paradox to say that there is plenty of coal at a time when there seems to be danger of suspending the operation of public utilities for lack of * coal so great that they are paying twice or thrice a normal price. Yet it is officially stated that up to June 3 the production of bituminous coal was 37,000,000 tons larger than last year, ranking third in the history •> of the industry. Nor is the export of coal responsible for the domestic shortage, for the exports through At-• lantic porta have been 4.551.000 tons, about half last year’s, and one-fifth of normal production. There is plenty of coal in the ground, and plenty of willing labor. Nevertheless, the best-informed consumers are the most alarmed. There ought to be some 35,000,000 tons in bins which are empty, and which it will be difficult to fill because of the necessity of moving the crops and the coal for next winter at the same time.” In a hearing on the anthracite industry in July it was stated by W. Jett Lauck, statistician for the mine workers, that "the real profits of the anthracite industry were at least seven times the apparent profits”. It had for many years been known by persons conversant with conditions in the anthracite region that between the railroad bookkeeping and the mine bookkeeping, both railroads and mines being owned by the same people, the mines were seemingly run barely above cost, while the roads charged so much that they wallowed in wealth. Mr. Lauck put it thus:

“The bookkeeping evidences of the unity between the ' railroad* and their coal companies are overwhelming. The railroads established such high rates for the trans. portation of anthracite that it became impossible for a coal company to operate at a profit The railroad coal companies were then supported by subsidies granted in one form or another by the parent railroad company. This was made possible by a bookkeeping 'system which rendered the finances of the two companies practically one. The railroads have carried bonds, made losses good, granted working capital and in other ways assisted the ooal companies financially, charging either a low rate of interest at none at all. . . . The real profits of the anthracite industry are piped off below the surface in terms which the public does not associate with the problem of anthracite. . . . While the margin shown by the production companies for the year 1918 would show a profit 6f. something over $30,000,000, the profits which ** ' the anthracite railroads made out of the transportation of the commodity, when added to the charges attributable to funded debts, etc., and to the profits of the railroad sales organizations, would probably be found # to total nearly ’seven times that amount.”

This is^snly a mere suggestion of the underhand, tricky, and deceitful methods employed by the men of wealth to keep the common peo-

A

pie in ignorance of what is going on, and especially of the profits they are making on what the people have to buy. Some years ago the railroads and the coal companies were outwardly and visibly owned by the same persons. After this was prohibited by law, the arrangement which followed amounted to substantially the same thing, in violation of the spirit of what— in the face of Wall Street's most powerful interests—the courts were obliged to decide was necessary to prevent the robbing of the people by the coal'barons. Like their burglar prototypes the "respectable" bandits of wealth utilise ways that are dark and devious to get the booty they are after.

The statement of Vice-President Koons of the Central Bailroad of New Jersey that there' was plenty of coal was confirmed in an editorial in the New York World for July 18,1920:

“The present disastrous situation ia charged to profiteering jobbers and speculators in coal Bailroad traaka and terminals at various strategic points are found te be clogged with loaded coal can which an purposely being held back by the speculative owners and shippers of the ooal to create artificial scarcitiea sufficient to lift prices 100 and 300 percent above what was paid st the mines. Possibility of such profit*, enables the specular tors to snap their fingers at the demurrage charges cf the roads, which start at only $3 a day per car thus loaded and out of use after an allowance of two days without charge.”

The writer of this article was one of tens of thousands who in 1920 passed mile after mile of loaded coal cars waiting on sidings along the main tracks of the railroads.

The crooked ways of coal were shown in an editorial in the New York Tribune on October 13,1920, just before the big squeeze of the consumers was made: ■

"Investigation by a Brooklyn grand jury shows that a single group of speculators has been holding 11,000 carloads of soft coal in railway sidings at Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Hampton Roads—and this in spite of unprecedented efforts by consumer* to get hold of enough fuel to keep their industries going. How many more such examples are taking place in various parts of the country remains to be seen.

“Government officials are said to have information that while only about one-fifth of the big coal operators have been acting dishonestly, yet the infiuence of that fifth has been so powerful a* to cause financial loss to operators who try to run their business decently. One operator, for example, is alleged to have lost $30,000 in a single month rather than connive at graft. Another, *who had no objection to paying for “privilege*”, mad*

li

a < b ixr “profit” of $2,000,000 in three months’. It appears that where crooked dealing exists, it commences with operators at the mouth of the mines, in conjunction with car distributers who furnish cars to the mines, and that it ‘runs through every later transaction until the coal is actually in the hands of the onnsumar^ ”

With twenty percent of the coal operators crooked and making huge sums, and the honest ones losing or making a bare living, it is obvious that the entire industry must in a brief time gravitate into the hands of the crooks that have the money. The industry tends to become worse and worse, and the hope of reforming it becomes exceedingly remote. The fact that officials of the law appeared to be able to discover only a handful of the coal criminals would indicate where some of the "profits” of the burglars went. The Lever Act was employed to bring these men to terms and protect the public from their depredations; but, as usual with laws designed for the benefit of the populace, it was found unconstitutional, and the act of the court gave to these “malefactors of great wealth” freedom to repeat the criminal coal panic of 1920.

Another of the slick schemes, by dozens of which the price and the profit were kept up, was related in the official hearings of July, 1920:

“The Lehigh Coal and. Navigation Company reported in 1912 that a depletion charge of five cents per ton would pay for all of its coal lands in twenty years. The Federal Trade Commission in 1919 reported that the average depletion charge for that year was 17.4 cents a ton, thus allowing a profit of twelve cents a ton, which is made the basis for further issuance of stock. This hidden profit amounts to $10,000,000 a year.”

According to this statement, if five cents a ton would pay for all the coal properties in twenty years, 17.4 cents would pay for them in six years. As it is announced that the estimated life of the anthracite industry is well over a hundred years the present depletion charge pays for the properties every six years, or sixteen times over in a hundred years. This is in addition to the earnings which the bookkeeping calls^Cprofits”, and the other income which the accountants, who are hired to invent ways of deceiving the public, call by other names.

Incidentally, considering the acts of the men that have done as these men in the coal industry har^ wEpt chance for a fair deal have the workers-jn the coal mines? It is idle to think of fair, honorable, or even decent treatment for them, when the known acts of the coal profiteers are taken into consideration. This fact carries with it the presumption that when difficulties arise between the coal operators and the employes over wages or conditions of work, the * I men are much more likely to be in the right * than are the managers.

A great variety of remedies were put forward during and immediately after the coal panic of 1920. Senator William M. Calder of New York came to the aid of the people, caused r an investigation, and introduced bills for legislative control of the coal industry. The coal operators and agents raised the bogy of national control, nationalization of the mines, Socialism, and government ownership, and the movement finally subsided without anything being written into the laws to protect the populace from further raids. Other reformers sought to have government control of the coal business, government ownership, or regulation by commission after the manner of the Interstate Com- . merce Commission. But all such reforms were put to sleep by unknown interests—who, maybe surmised from the fact that the control of the coal industry is in the hands of the same wealthy group that control the other chief industries of the country. It is easy for politicians* to forget the common people, after a crisis has been passed. It is through politicians all over the world that the men of wealth maintain their control over the people.

Not a few suggestions appeared for the betterment of the distribution of the coal by means of new engineering devices, the manufacture of electricity at the mine, and many other schemes.

Haw the Panic Was Manufactured

NEVER has there been such a concrete demonstration of the necessity for the separation of . men of wealth from the control of the public press, as the 1920 coal panic. For the press played no small part, wittingly or unwittingly, in the preparation of the psychological soil anti the working up of the people so that they desperately hid against one another and forced the price of coal up to unheard-of-figures.

The story was told in a select few papers of limited circulation, and for obvious reasons never appeared in the general run of Wall-Srreet-owned newspapers. People that wish to get the news should patronize some such papei as Labor. of Washington, D. f’., which on February 19, 1921. played the searchlight on the coal panic in an article by Charles M. Kelley: ;

i

• '

“Big Business enjoys its little joke—if it is at the expense of the public.

“The group representing the coal industry got over a huge hoax upon the people last year, when it frightened the public into believing a terrible fuel famine impended, and started everybody filling empty bins at the highest prices ever paid for coal. Lurid alarms of millions freezing forced competition in bidding that brought profits of several hundred percent to the clever gentlemen who perpetrated the pleasantry.

“AH last summer and.fall newspapers devoted many columns of space telling about a coal famine, a scarcity of railroad cars and other adverse influences that combined to make approaching winter a dreadful prospect New England was reported as being down to a two-days’ supply, while the Middle West was bare to the boards. There would not be enough coal to go around, the papers said, and urged the public to face the situation courageously and place orders for fuel at any price.

“The public was completely taken in, and probably never would have known they had ‘fallen’ for a fake calamity howl, had not a confidential report of the proceedings of a meeting of the directors of the National Wholesale Coal Association come into the possession of Congressman George Huddleston, of Alabama md by him presented to Senator La Follette’s committee on manufactures, which is conducting hearings an the Calder coal control bill, and incidentally getting some facts concerning the methods of coal men that put them in. a class all by themselves among profiteers.

"At a gathering of the directors of the coal association held in Cincinnati, June 10,19£0, the sessions were given up almost entirely to a discussion of an ‘educational’ campaign that had been launched by the publicity committee. Chairman Peabody explained to his associates the desirability of stimulating demand for coal as the alternative of a substantial reduction of prices. Large industrial concerns, he said, were holding back orders, in the expectation of getting better terms. Unless some plan was devised that would put the public in a buying mood it would! be necessary to close mines or lower prices, a most embarrassing situation. If prices were cut, he explained, it would be difficult to justify an increase later when demand reached its peak.

“The chairman dilated at considerable length on the influence of the press and suggested that operators be assessed a small sum to promote an ‘educational campaign’, He knew fifteen or twenty editors who would be amert&ble to reason, and he presumed that other operators could apply pressure where it would do good.

“Chairman Peabody said that he had discussed the subject with 'my dear friend, Melville E. Stone, of the Associated. Press,’ and he had agreed to send out a number of articles &> the members of the association, telling about the-famine that faced the nation. In fact, Mr. Stone had already sounded out the public, and the result was gratifying and instantaneous.

“Mr. Brewster, a member of the committee, told what happened in St. Louis. There the editors had taken seriously the Associated Press reports and wrote editorials beseeching their readers to buy coal, declaring that prices would be much higher before they were lower.

“ ‘And,’ Mr. Brewster naively continued, Sre ware able to close five contracts that had been hanging firs, These men had been balding out for lower prices, and we had almost given up hope of closing their contracts. But the dispatches and editorials did the trick for ua’

“No more dickering about prices, no more holding back by buyers. Coal men were besieged with demands and were offered prices so high that soma of them wore ashamed—almost—to accept them.

“ ‘Those who had been demanding lower prices,* Mr. Brewster said, ‘thought they had better get under cover. Those five contracts will reimburse ua for our share of the cost of the campaign.’

"Mr. Peabody stated that the association had $200,000 in its treasury for ‘education’ purposes, but suggested that a referendum be had on an assessment of members for additional funda. The little work already done, he explained, justified further expenditures in this direction. A levy of one mill per ton would produce about a million dollars to ‘educate* the press.

“That inspired A. M. Ogilvia to suggest that a portion of this sum be devoted to paid advertising He imagined that the effect of this disbursement would ba to ‘change the attitude of some newspapers that have been annoying us. They will know/ he added, ‘that we are paying them, and will act accordingly.’

The Coal Propaganda

HE best joke of all was the way the publicity ex-

I«‘rts took in the Cleveland manager of the Associated Press.

“The head of the department, in his report, said this manags sent out a thousand-word statement prepared by the publicity department, ‘and assumed all responsibility for if. He had changed ‘scarcely a word’.

“By omitting all reference to the coal association, it was stated, the obliging Cleveland manager ‘gave the article a very good effect, as it was not recognized aa propaganda’.

“The committee patted itself on the back, and the publicity manager patted himself on the back, and everybody was in a jolly humor. ‘My good friend, Melville Stone,’ was given a word of appreciation for valued services rendered in ‘educating’ the public, and the press was referred to in glowing terms as ‘the great molder of public opinion’, and meriting ‘more attention from this association’.

“Their combined efforts had enabled the operators to defray the expenses of the campaign out of the increased profits of two days’ coal production.

“The association voted increase of salaries to all its officers—presidents, secretaries, publicity promoters, law-

yen and 'representative**—and then wmt into secret •onion to determine what price* should be charged the public tor 'rescuing it frem a famine’.*

Among other items in the foregoing report Ba Bent out by the Federated Press were the following, showing that the newspaper coal scare culminating in the fall of 1920 was operated partly at least through the Associated Press: “A letter written by John Pratt, publicity director * et the Naiteaal Coal Association in Washington, to a coal operator with reference to a meeting of the operaton io Cleveland, and dated October 30, 1980, and which was produced at the Senate committee hearing, dedared that following the meeting the Associated Prem had carried a news repert of o’® 1,000 words to its 8,600 or more newspaper plants, written by its Cleveland manager after consultation with Mr. Pratt

“ The great advantage ot this report from the operators’ viewpoint/ the letter went on to say, 'lay in the fact that the National Coal Association nowhere was quoted as authority for the Associated Press statements, the Associated Press making them on its own responsibility. In this way they ware of more convincing effect than had they been qualified with the inference of parti-unship?

“The minds of Americans must be ‘prepared', and from time to time appear ‘news' stories purporting to show haw serious the coal shortage is."

In the press-made coal panic the railroads were blamed for not having the can to carry the coal The truth was that the ears were lying on sidings loaded with coal, and earning demurrage charges which the operators and middlemen and retailers in the $500,000,000 conspiracy were glad to pay out of the multiplied profits from the "scarcity".

Furthermore, the anthracite-carrying railroads are to all intents and purposes owned or controlled by the same men that own the mines. If a mine owner actually wanted cars for his mines, what is to hinder himself as railroad owner from getting the cars to the mines tn double-quick order!

Are There to be More Coal Panics?

TTHE excuse of The Golden Age for publish--L in^utems a year old is that they are news to most readers, who have read nothing but the newspapers which are partners in the thievery of the coal men. Another excuse is that it is not impossible that the coal men and the newspaper men may be'planning to “pull off” another coal panic—and then again from year to year—until the public learns that nothing which appears in one of the Big Business newspapers is to be believed at face value, if at all, until verified from other sources.

As late as April, 1921, it was stated that "this press campaign is still proceeding vigorously with a view to the future”.

In the New York World for May 8,1921, for example, a despatch published what looked like more of the coal barons’ propaganda to get the public ready to be frightened again in the cold season of 1921-1922. Mr. Elkins, be it not forgotten, is from West Virginia, and has been known as one of the prominent coal magnates of that bituminous district The despatch ran: “Washington, May 7.—Senator Elkina at Wert Virginia issued a formal statement today urging the public to lay in its winter supply of coal aa usual at this tuna of year, instead of waiting until the cold months again are at hand. He said that upward of 200,000 miners were out of employment because of the lack of demand for coal, and that their dependents were in distress.

“Senator Elkins also declared that a sudden restoration of a market and an attempt to crowd the hauling of the bulk of th* nation's coal into ths fall and winter months would place upon the railroads a burden which they wen admittedly unable to discharge.

" That will simply mean,’ he added, 'a repetition of the so-called “coal famine" of last year, which was, per as, a oar famine.’ *

Yes—miles and miles of loaded cars waiting on sidings for a big rise in profits would produce another car famine.

The 1920 coal famine owed its inception to a famine of orders for coal and the prospect of an immediate drop in prices, which the newspapers bravely prevented. .

Recent Propaganda

ANOTHER bit of preparation of the public . mind appeared in an article in the April 6, 1921, issue of Commerce and Finance of New York, by Alan H. Temple, entitled "Galloping Toward a Coal Famine’', which says in part, with the old familiar “famine" ring:

“Dr. George Otis Smith, head of the Geological Survey, says that a revival in trade will bring a greater demand for fuel than the railroads can cany, a famine in coal, and congestion in many lines. Operators second his warning. , . . Phil H. Penna, secretary-treasurer of the Indiana Coal Operators' Association, said recently: TPhen the revival of business came [1919-1920] everybody wanted eoal at once, and the railroads did not have equipment enough to haul it. That wu the cause of the condition of 1920, and just a* sure aa the sun rises and seta we are going to have the same condition on the day the revival of business sets in in this country, and consumers begin to look about for a supply of coal.... Those who are familiar with the coal trade can plainly see the time approaching when we will have market conditions similar to those of 1920. No responsible operator wants to see a recurrence of such a situation. . . . Although the mines can produce plenty of coal, the railroads will not have the equipment to transport it, and the same frantic bidding we witnessed in 1920, with resultant high prices, will obtain.’ . . . Perhaps consumers who read the warnings put out will say they are only more propaganda for higher prices. Coal buyers remember the excessive charges they had to pay !a.~t fall and the unconscionable profiteering of which many operators were guilty. They distrust operators.”

It is to he hoped that readers of The Golden Age may become thoroughly awakened to the methods of the eoal industry combined with the newspapers—and likewise of other industries. Some of the people have their- eye-teeth cut. A writer in Labor for September 10,1921, says:

“The publicity men of the Illinois Coal Operators’ Association urge liberal buying of fuel at this time with a prediction that next spring the coal industry will be tied up with a great strike. As damnable publicity, this is worthy the attention of the government. With winter coming rapidly, with coal production far below normal, and with the railroads admittedly in no condition to meet the demands that will be made upon them, cold-blooded mercenaries set out to alarm the public.”

That there was no scarcity of coal in 1920 is manifest from the average monthly production of anthracite in the foregoing diagram, and from official statements that exports were less than usual in 1920, and that the production of bituminous was more than usual.

Anthracite is still high, though not too high for the operators, nor for another coal panic, if the operators should decide to apply to the public the deft touch of propaganda through the newspapers. Let the press sower belch forth the fumes of fear of freezing, and the populace will again respond with competitive bidding and will force the price of their own fuel to the 1920 top.

Coal in New York is $6.64 a ton higher than in 1^13, an increase of a hundred percent. Of this advance $1.47 is increased transportation and $2.70 increased mine wages, a total of $4-17, or 63 percent of the total increase. At wholesale coal is 134 percent higher than in 1913, which contrasts with the 25 to 50 percent increase of other coipmodities.

Commenting on this disproportion, the New York Trust Company says:

“The lack in the anthracite indnitry of compelling business reasons for deflation may make it necessary for the big men of the industry to takq strenuous methods to relieve the situation for the consumer. A situation of this kind often leads to agitation for Government control or ownership, or price fixing, or interference of other sorts, the disastrous consequence* of which have been only too apparent whenever an industry has boon subjected to them.”

Does the hint of “strenuous methods-’ bear the odor of lower wages, of West Virginia eoal region brutalities and denials of constitutional rights;’ Are the anthracite miners, too, to be made the object of such attacks as have been made on other workers! For the railroads “cannot afford” to lower transportation costs, and relief for the consumer has to come out of wages.

Thievery Based on Fraud

HE reported half-billion of profits taken in from the eoal panic was obviously thievery based upon lying; and the guilty par-ties were the coal operators, middlemen and retailers and the Big Business newspapers, together with some government officials who aided in the famine predictions. The moral title to these profits is as valid as the title to any other stolen property. The moral title is particularly indefensible when there is taken into consideration in connection with the theft, the fraud perpetrated on the people by lying reports in the public press.

The Golden Age goes on record, however, that these thieves are not to be held as fully responsible for their misdeeds as they, would be, were they not as much victims of a system created by the great adversary of humanity as are the buyers of their coal. Being straight or crooked depends much oh environment. A burglar brought up among burglars is not so much at fault morally as he might be were his environment better. A coal operator or dealer usually lives in an atmosphere of wealth, of disregard of the populace, and of tolerance of sharp practice. Most of the coal men are more or less prominent church members. The fact that their Christianity is an hypocrisy must morally be set over against the fact that their world is a world of hypocrisy, pretension, and deceit. What they, like other men, need is a better system, a better world, and this the coming Golds* Age will soon supply.

But such men know that they ought not to do wrong, and they ought to know that there is a limit to evil-doing. There nndonbtedly arrives the hour when individuals and classes must come into judgment, whether their deeds have been good or evil, and when they must render an accounting to the great Judge. Such a time of rt>r>ironing js here; and we would commend to these men the words of the apostle Paul, and beseech them to mend the ways of the coal industry, to try to do right, to observe the Golden Rule in dealing with the people. These men are unfeeling in dealing with employes and judge them disdainfully, and often unmercifully. Of the coal “malefactors of wealth” the apostle Paul says:

“The fact is [the translation is Weymouth’s] that in the stubbornness of your impenitent heart you are treasuring up against yourself anger on the day of anger—the day when the righteousness of God’s judgments will stand revealed. To each man He will make an award corresponding to his actions; . . . upon the self-willed who disobey the truth and obey unrighteousness will fall anger and fury, affliction and awful distress, coming upon every man and woman who deliberately does wrong.”—Romans 2:5-8.

“But of this be assured: in the last days grievous times will set in. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, profane. They will be disobedient to parents, thankless, irreligious, destitute of natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers. They will have no self-control, but will be brutal, opposed to goodness, treacherous, headstrong, self-important. They will love pleasure instead of loving God.” —2 Timothy 3:1-4.

And'the Lord through the prophet David also warns:

“Be [truly] wise now, 0 ye [financial] kings; be instructed [in right doing] ye judges [financial rulers] of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss [make up with] the Son [Jesus Christ and His teachings], lest he be angry, and ye perish [through the wrath of the disdained common people] from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.”—Psalm 2:10-12.

How much more satisfying it would be to do business on a plan that would meet the approval not only of fellow men but of Godl Would that the men of wealth might heed!

“A Little Nonsense Now and Then”—Plus A Midsummer Night’s Dream

By Lawrence Lusni Lewis

IF YOU ever intend to ride through California, whether on train, auto, or Missouri mule, let it not be in August. Take due warning and be assured that if you do come through in that month all your dreams, if you have any, of California’s being a garden of Eden will be dissipated into a cloud of dust on a gusty day.

From January to June Eden is indeed here; and from Sierras to the Coast Ranges the great valleys lie laughing in the sunlight, kissed by poppy-scented breezes and clad in robes of living green.

But August! No wonder my little Dorothy asked, as we were flying southward through FresirtKon the Sante Fe, if August was derived from the two words Aw and Dust. I agreed that it probably was, and also Gust.

As we sat by the open window that scorching midsummer day, breathing the dusty gusts and trying have to admire the scenery of the beautiful San Joaquin Valley, which was indeed marvelous, I apologized to Handet and murmured to myself:

"To shut, or not to shut—that is the question. To shut, to roast, perchance to suffocate—Ahl There’s the rub.” Not to shut—the swirling dustladen zephyrs bring some relief from the heat, but also coat us, both inside and out, with thick layers of fine, fertile alluvium.

My blue serge suit begins to resemble a piece of war-torn khaki from a front-line trench, my nostrils and throat itch and burn, my tongue is dry and parched despite frequent ablutions with twenty-cent bottles of soda-water. I taste all the varieties of soil over which our rushing train is taking us. Truly I had counted on seeing, smelling and touching this fine country, but to taste it! This is indeed an unexpected pleas—

“Tickets, please!” The conductor stands before me. I explain, as politely as I can under the circumstances, that I gave him the tickets not five minutes ago. He very rudely inform* me that I did not. By that time the dust had penetrated to my very soul. I splutter and drip with anger and perspiration; the last vestige of my collar melts away; and the only reason that I do not rise up in dusty wrath and grind the poor specimen of fallen humanity into atomic powder is my remarkable development in the Christian graces of kindness, humility, meekness, love, forbearance and longsuffering—and the fact that he is a larger man than myself.

That spoils the rest of the day for me. I essay in vain to focus my attention upon my dusty papers and still more dusty books. I try to divert my mind by gazing on swiftly passing Edenettes of vineyards and orchards, inviting homes in green groves and gardens, vistas of palms and eucalypti, pastures of alfalfa and Bermuda grass, splashed here and there with the delicious gold of wild sunflowers. But alas! They are all besmirched, tarnished with the leaden hue of dust, with a dusty sun glaring in torrid heat al>ove the vineyards between whose endless rows lie rows on rows, miles on miles of trays of drying raisins—dusty raisins!

Or is my dn.<tv viewpoint due to the cloud of desiccated mother earth with which my hurtling train envelopes met Let us hope so. At least, it is a comfort to know that raisins are thoroughly washed at the packing houses before being sent to the consumers.

At last evening comes. We have left Bakersfield behind and are eating supper. It was a dandy good supper, when the headess of the family (I being the head of the family, she logically would bear the feminine equivalent as her title — thus we avoid disputes on this much mooted point) had packed the same — with neat roast-lamb and fig-jam sandwiches along with lovely grapes and fresh Calimyrna figs of unequaled flavor and sweetness. The heat of the day has somewhat abated, but not so the dust. .We have forgotten our salt and pepper, but we do not miss them—all the seasoning we want— and more—comes through the window. We are approaching the Tehachapi ranges, and the Edens of the valley have been eclipsed by the wild deserts of the foothills. We know this without looking out; for we can taste the alkali, the sage brush and the chaparral in our sandwiches!

But now another agency of torment mocks us. A train fly has taken possession of our seat. Have you ever met a train fly—a trained train flyd Now) I am striving to bring up the children in the way that they should go, and to this end am trying to set them a model of Christian virtue ; but the patient training of a life-time was completely and forever demolished in one hour by that rascally fly. At present, when I am giving the tots certain needed paternal admonitions, I can see a rominis^nt twinkle coming into the corners of their- eyes and—the mischievous little imps — I know what they are thinking of — that fly!

He, she or it, whichever it, she or he was, discovered us as we had commenced on the figjam sandwiches. She, he or it promptly commenced also. We promptly objected. Many a painful slap against seats and windows did my poor hand suffer, but Mr. (we will decide to call him Mr.—he was too rude to be a she, or even an it) Fly did not even bat an eye. On the contrary, he seemed to be all eyes—and wings. In spite of my strenuous and murderous efforts, he leisurely described a few zig-zags in the air, like a sailor on shore before the 18th Amand-ment went into effect, and settled back comfortably on the sandwich.

I begged, I implored, I entreated — to no avail. I made sundry uncomplimentary remarks —for the which I am now heartily ashamed— with reference to the entire family tree— or, rather, to be more exact, the family manurepile—of the entire tribe of flies from Adam fly to this most exasperating fragment of winged offal that ever—but there he was again!

And now, to add direst insult to injury, he quenched his thirst by quick jabs at the corner* of my mouth, and the sting of his filthy proboscis as he drew out his mouthfuls of moisture maddened me beyond expression. Oh! For a hand six feet across! Oh!—Ah! At last!

I leap to the window, shut it with a bang, sit baek with a Napoleonic grin and fold my arms in victory. At last! I have out-maneuvered our foe; our troubles are over. With unbelievable stupidity he had for a moment settled upon the window-sill—the outside sill—so that we now had the ecstatic joy of sitting back in blissful and happy comfort and regarding him through a solid thickness of window glass as he sat there meditatively scrubbing his sloppy nose with those germ-laden — and fig-jam laden — paws of hi*.

I could feel his cold, calculating glance upon me through those myriads of greedy eyes—but I cared not. For one solid minute I felt akin to the great conquerors of the past—to Alexander the Great, to Genghis Khan, to Julius

Ctesar; and none of these, I am sure, felt more keenly than I the supreme exhilaration of a hard-fought battle victoriously won.

But alas! And alack! How short, how transient, how evanescent is human bliss! How hollow all earthly joys and comforts!

I had just begun to enjoy the scenery. The ranges of the Tehachapi, blue in the approaching twilight, were drawing ever closer; the tang of the cool night air came soothingly through the car; sunset—glorious, incomparable California sunset — was adorning the heavens. For some moments my eye dwelt in rapture upon the ravishing hues of crimson that wreathed the Western horizon. I smiled in pure happiness. I forgave the dust, and even the conductor, and looked at the window sill for one more happifying glance at our erstwhile tormentor— but he was gone! Momentarily my joy was increased tenfold. I pictured the insect wallowing in our smoke some miles to our rear, struggling, but in vain, to regain his fig-jam supper—and then, sailing over the plush seat behind us, came—my fly! •

I could swear that he was grinning from ear to ear—if flies have ears. I cursed my obtuseness. Of course, he had simply gyrated back and through the next open window behind us.

But woe upon woe! Truly, troubles never come singly! New light was shed upon the phrase “single blessedness". Up to now I had a single fly. Nowmy fly had brought along another, his twin brother, doubtless, who had been stationed by Chief Knight Fly to plague the next seat below us, but now sent as a reenforcement to make and wage relentless war, secretly and openly, against protesting, helpless us.

The unequal combat was soon over. I pawed and smacked and waved and struck until my arms dropped in sheer weariness. A merciful faintness stole over me, my reason tottered, all my senses became numbed. I had just time to fold my coat at the head of the seat and, as we shot through the first of the eighteen tunnels of the superbly picturesque Tehachapi pass, I dropped over dead—asleep!

Whether it was the fly, the dust, the copy of The Golden Age that had been handed me in San Francisco, or all three, but as I slept I dreamed; and I dreamed that I was the personification of the human race—the entire twenty billions of them rolled into one— and that I was being buried under a pile of foul dust by two monstrous flies, each as large as a barn, and labeled respectively, Sin and Death.

■ I struggled and kicked hopelessly for what seemed like six thousand years, and at last was about to be completely submerged despite my most desperate efforts. But at the very moment when I realized that all was over and called upon the Lord for help, a glorious light burst suddenly about me, a radiant being like unto the Son of Man took me by the hand and lifted me from the dust, brushed me clean with Hie own beautiful hands, and then bade me look about. I did so, and what a sublime transformation!

Instead of dust was a garden, an indescribably lovely garden, with exquisite, beauteous birds and animals, flowers and fruit trees, springing fountains, with green, entrancing vistas opening endlessly on every hand. I looked about for Sin and Death, but they were nowhere to be seen. Instead, I heard a voice, so vibrant with melody and infinite love that every fibre of my being thrilled with joy and adoration. I listened to every precious word as the divine Speaker invited me:

“Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”. “There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away. Behold, I make all things new.’*

Errata—Numbers 53 and 54

The item on page 780, Number 53, of The Golden Age regarding an occurrence at Glasgow should have been indicated as occurring at Pla is tow, suburb of London.

In The Golden Age Number 54, page 25, “aboriginal man” should read “aboriginal Man” (Man in this instance being the distinctive appellation of an ethnic group). On the same page Sha should read Shi. Onthe same page Kyuslm should read Kyushu. At the bottom of page 26 Kheftin should be Kheftiu. On page 27, near the bottom Gisle-ban should be Gish-ban and Akkad should be Erech, a Sumerian citystate.

Thoughts on Astronomy

DURING -the current generation marvelous discoveries have been made which bid fair to revolutionize our whole theory of science and to require the complete revision of our opinions concerning astronomy, chemistry, geology, and physics. When I went to school the La Place hypothesis was taught as an established fact; hut today the foremost authorities reject it as not only unproven but improbable. Contrary to the long-accepted theory of La Place, astronomers now assert that there is no real evidence that nebulous matter is ever formed into stars. One astronomer believes that the latter are the result of “radiation pressure”. Stars are globular bodies of gas, wherein the complex structures of the atoms are broken down, and the entire mass is homogeneous in construction. Their high temperatures produce not light, but radiant energy, which he declares to be “the prime factor which fashioned chaos into stars”.

Other astronomers question the supposition that either the earth or the sun was ever different in structure from what they are today. They deny that the interior of our planet is fluid, or was ever so; but on the contrary that through gravitation pressure the core of the earth has a density greatly exceeding anything near the surface. The core of almost pure iron is intensely heated by self-compression, but is rigid and without cracks, the lighter material being forced to the surface, where it forms an outer layer some six miles thick. If the earth’s core were “molten matter” they declare that the crust would have tides like the sea.

We used to be filled with awe at the expectation of the earth’s growing steadily colder throughout the ages, until after “millions of years” it would become utterly frigid and barren of life. Now they assert that there is radium enough in the earth to supply heat and power forever.

It seems to be the general opinion among Bible Students that our planet is the first one to be inhabited in the universe; and indeed Scriptural testimony appears to confirm this view. Against this view, however, astronomers claim that our sun is not one of the oldest stellar bodies nut ’rather, so to speak, middle-aged. Stars affe classified according to magnitude, or degree of brilliancy, and also according to color. The oldest stars, such as Antares, Betelguese

By 0. L. Bosenkrans, Jr.

and Aldebaran, are red. Some slightly less ancient, like Arcturus, are coppery hued. Etamin in Draco is orange. Solar stars, such as Capella, Pollus and Fomalhaut, are yellow, like our sun. Sirian stars are white, and are considered to be of the most recent origin. Procyon is called a sirian-solar because it is yellowish white. Vega, which is bluish white, is supposed to be one of the youngest of stars. Curiously enough, Sirius, which is now white, was referred to by ancient astronomers as red; and we have examples of stars which are variables as to color. Such a one is Dubhe, one of the “pointers” in the Great Dipper, which changes from yellow to ruddy every 54| days.

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