The cost of coal has become unbearably high. It places a great burden on
our industrial and domestic life. The public welfare requires a reduction
in the price of fuel. With the enormous deposits in existence, failure of
supply ought not to be tolerated. Those responsible for the conditions in
this industry should undertake its reform and free it from any charge of
profiteering.
The report of the Coal Commission will be before the Congress. It comprises
all the facts. It represents the mature deliberations and conclusions of
the best talent and experience that ever made a national survey of the
production and distribution of fuel. I do not favor Government ownership or
operation of coal mines. The need is for action under private ownership
that will secure greater continuity of production and greater public
protection. The Federal Government probably has no peacetime authority to
regulate wages, prices, or profits in coal at the mines or among dealers,
but by ascertaining and publishing facts it can exercise great influence.
The source of the difficulty in the bituminous coal fields is the
intermittence of operation which causes great waste of both capital and
labor. That part of the report dealing with this problem has much
significance, and is suggestive of necessary remedies. By amending, the car
rules, by encouraging greater unity of ownership, and possibly by
permitting common selling agents for limited districts on condition that
they accept adequate regulations and guarantee that competition between
districts be unlimited, distribution, storage, and continuity ought to be
improved.
The supply of coal must be constant. In case of its prospective
interruption, the President should have authority to appoint a commission
empowered to deal with whatever emergency situation might arise, to aid
conciliation and voluntary arbitration, to adjust any existing or
threatened controversy between the employer and the employee when
collective bargaining fails, and by controlling distribution to prevent
profiteering in this vital necessity. This legislation is exceedingly
urgent, and essential to the exercise of national authority for the
protection of the people. Those who undertake the responsibility of
management or employment in this industry do so with the full knowledge
that the public interest is paramount, and that to fail through any motive
of selfishness in its service is such a betrayal of duty as warrants
uncompromising action by the Government.