The Telegraph Courier

HAMMOND SAYS
USE 'BIG STICK'

Chairman of Coal Commission Favors Drastic Action in Crisis.

PRESIDENT MUST ACT

Washington-
The time has come for the government to use the big stick" on the coal industry, in the opinion of John Hays Hammond, chairman of the United States Coal Commission, and other members of that body who have been laboring to prevent a walkout of anthracite miners Sept. 1.

Executive action, following emergency authorization by congress, is suggested by Hammond and approved by other members of the commission, by which the government, in a situation such as exists today in the anthracite fields, would take over the operation of the mines and the transportation, distribution and marketing of the coal.

"The time has certainly come to establish control in the anthracite industry," says Hammond. "Coal is quite as much a public necessity as gas, street railway service or other services or commodities that have been brought under public regulation.

Respect Public Interest.

"The guiding principle in coal production as in these other enterprises must no longer be maximum profit to the owners, but maximum service to the public.

"The president of the United States, should be authorized by Congress to declare that a national emergency exists whenever through the failure of operators and miners in the anthracite industry to agree upon terms of employment or for any other reason there is a suspension of mining operations, seriously interrupting the normal supply of anthracite fuel, and to take over the operation of the mines and the transportation, distribution and marketing of the product, with full power to determine the wages to be paid to mine workers, the prices at which the coal shall be sold and, subject to court review, the compensation to be paid to land and mine owners.

Special Session Doubtful.

Whether this recommendation will result in the calling of a special session of congress by President Coolidge, to ask for a grant of the specific powers outlined, or whether Coolidge will find some means of accomplishing the same result by different means, now seems uncertain. The need for prompt, vigorous action makes some alternative, if any such can be found, seem most desirable. For, on the basis of recent performances, prompt action by congress on so controversial a proposition would be most unlikely.