COAL: Pax Pennsylvania

” I made no threats whatever. The settlement was brought about by my insistence that the principles proposed were right and just.”—So said Gifford Pinchot, Governor of Pennsylvania, in announcing that the anthracite strike was concluded to all intents and purposes, one week after it officially commenced. The Governor’s four points for compromise and peace (TIME, Sept. 10) embodied chiefly a 10% increase of wages for the miners (instead of a 20% increase for contract miners and $2.00 a day for day workers, as demanded) and the abandonment of the check-off (demanded by the miners) . The eight-hour day had already been agreed to.

The Story of the Peace. Governor Pinchot, locating the miners in one room and the operators in another, proceeded to deal separately with each. He took to each group the other’s proposal. The first to give in were the operators, who acceded to the Governor’s plan. Next day the miners did likewise. Both protested that an injustice was being done them, that they yielded only out of consideration for the public. As soon as a general agreement was reached, both parties entered a joint conference to settle the miners’ lesser demands. A convention of the miners was called to meet at Scranton on Sept. 17 to ratify the contract so reached.

The Cost of the Peace. The eight-hour day will add about $2,500,000 to the cost of mining. The 10% increase in wages will add about $30,000,000 more. Governor Pinchot estimated the cost of anthracite would be raised, at most, 60 c. a ton at the mines. It is generally expected that the public will pay this increase in a magnified form.

The Profit for Pinchot. As usual in the solution of such strikes, there is political byplay.

Governor Pinchot is credited with securing anthracite for the country for the coming Winter, and the Governor is spoken of as a possible favorite son for Pennsylvania in 1924. The President sent the Governor a telegram of congratulation on the conclusion of the strike. The Governor did not publish the message. It was inferred that the message implied that the Governor had acted as the President’s agent, and that the Governor wished all the credit for himself. The conjecture is not improbable.

Governor Pinchot is debited with a probable increase in the price of coal to the public. Against this charge he took refuge in a letter to the President in which he advocated: 1) that the operators should assume ten cents of the increased cost of 60 cents a ton in coal; 2) that the Coal Commission should publish a detailed analysis of costs to determine how much the operators should bear of the increase; 3) that the Interstate Commerce Commission should reconsider coal freight rates with a view to absorbing part of the extra cost of anthracite. He also in a letter to 30 state governors suggested that they take measures to prevent profiteering by wholesalers, jobbers, etc.