Edwin H. Conrades, Pres. Edmund C. Donk, Vice-Pres. Wm. F. Gould, Secy & Asst. Treas. Geo. F. Bogue, Treas. & Asst. Sery. GOOD COAL FOR EVERY PURPOSE STOCK EXCHANGE BLDG., ST. LOUIS, MO. Edwin H. Conrades, President O. S. Conrades, Vice-President F. W. Risque, Secretary-Treasurer ST. LOUIS MATERIAL & SUPPLY CO. We are PRODUCERS of washed SAND and GRAVEL, WHOLESALERS and RETAILERS of full line of BUILDING MATERIAL with exclusive connections and seven retail yards and a delivery system that insures service. 314 Fourth St. ST. LOUIS THE BROADENING HORIZON. And in truth what the engineer most properly deals with is that which can be measured, weighed and numbered. These are the certainties of the engineer; so far he finds a solid footing and clear views. But the province of formulas and constants is restricted. Even the mechanical engineer comes at last to an end of his figures, and must stand up, a practical man, face to face with the discrepancies of nature and the hiatuses of theory. After the machine is finished, and the steam turned on, the next is to drive it; and experience and an exquisite sympathy must teach him where a weight should be applied or a nut loosened. With the civil engineer the obligation starts with the beginning. He is always the practical man. The rain, the winds and the waves, the complexity and the fitfulness of nature are always before him. He has to deal with the unpredictable, with those forces that "are subject to no calculation;" and still he must predict, still calculate them at his peril. His work is not yet in being and he must foresee its influence; how it shall deflect the tide, exaggerate the waves, dam back the rainwater or attract the thunderbolt. Nay, and more; he must not only consider that which is, but that which may be. Robert Louis Stevenson. The engineers of our country represent an intellectual possibility for service possessed by no other group. It is therefore an augury of real social development when the engineers of the United States join together for purposes of public service. This association (the Federated American Engineering Societies) has the unique value among the associations that it can not have any material interest for its purpose. No engineer can receive any material benefit from it. It can advance no economic interest. It can not therefore be charged with any ulterior motive. It is accepted by the whole American people who have become acquainted with its objectives, as being clearly single-minded. The birth of this society marks the evolution of the engineer into an interest in public affairs. With his intelligence, his experience and training, and the unique knowledge that he possesses, not only of the material but the intangible values amongst our people, he is now organized so that his united voice may become heard outside of his profession. Herbert Hoover. MEETINGS IN PROSPECT. March 31st-A paper on "Recent Developments in Concrete," by Col. H. C. Boyden of the Portland Cement Association. Note the date -Friday evening instead of Wednesday. April 5th-A symposium of the needs of St. Louis-Streets and Sewers. Discussion by C. H. Fisk, Director of Streets and Sewers; W. W. Horner, Chief Engineer of Sewers and Paving; Edward Gengenbach, Assistant Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. April 12th-Ladies' Night. An illustrated talk on the Parks and Playgrounds of St. Louis by Miss Sarah Wolf, Supervisor for the Director of Public Welfare. The talk will be followed by a dance. April 19th-A paper on "Modern Ice Plant Design and Operation," by S. E. Lauer of the Pilsbry-Becker Engineering and Supply Co. THE BITUMINOUS COAL SITUATION. An abstract of a paper read before the Associated Engineering Societies of St. Louis by Eugene McAuliffe, President of the Union Colliery Co., March 1, 1922. Under The year 1921 was a disastrous one for mine owners. the lash of unemployment mine labor has, in a measure at least, stepped down from the pedestal it occupied during 1919 and 1920. Individually, the majority of mine workers are receptive to the theory that all prices based on war and post-war conditions must be liquidated, but unfortunately their leaders refuse to either endorse or counsel a sane solution of the coal mining problem, which is a problem of the whole people. All union mine wage scales, anthracite and bituminous, expire by limitation at midnight March 31st next. What will occur after that date is problematic, but one definitely determinable element is in sight today; if the union bituminous and anthracite mines located north of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers close on April 1st, the psychological effect on all industry will be other than beneficial. There are four elements that enter into the production of coal: (2) The labor, skilled and unskilled, required for produc- (3) The transportation instrumentalities and service necessary to carry the coal when produced, to the consumer. (4) The consumer, who must agree to purchase the coal and pay the cost of necessary transportation between the mine. and point of consumption. These four elements are indissolubly related and, taken together, constitute our whole citizenship. It may be said, therefore, that we are all in the coal business. The United States contains one-half of the known coal reserve of the world, and produces half of the world's coal. The requirements of the nation, together with the nominal tonnage exported to Canada, and the limited volume used for bunkerage and export overseas, requires a normal production of approximately 550 million tons of soft coal and 90 million tons of anthracite, a total of 640 million tons. The United States Census Bureau estimates the total investment in bituminous coal mining properties as of the year 1920, at $1,904,450,123.00. This, based on an annual production of 550 million tons, would represent an average investment of $3.46 per ton of annual production. Coal in place is valueless to the consumer. He is interested in the cost at the plant or in the bin. The two principal factors involved are the price charged by the producer and transportation. On January 12, 1922, the average spot price of coal, mine run basis, f.o.b. mines, was $2.13 per ton. On the following day the Vice-President of the B. & O. Railroad testified before the Interstate Commerce Commission that the average freight earning on bituminous coal was $2.27 per ton. Therefore, without intervening agencies, the operator gets 48.5 per cent and the railroad 51.5 per cent of the delivered carlot cost to the consumer. Of the $2.13 received by the operator, 67.8 per cent went for labor, 12.6 per cent for supplies, 10.8 per cent for other operating expenses, and 8.8 per cent for mine general expense, which does not include federal income or excess profits taxes. Following is the average margin per ton for ten months of 1921, reported to the Interstate Commerce Commission, January 19, 1922, by 532 operating companies, out of which must be paid interest on funded and unfunded debt, federal income and excess profit taxes and dividends: Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. The cost of producing and transporting coal must come down. As the capital goods or savings invested are fixed in quantity, it remains for the directing force to get more out of the investment. To do this calls for an increased measure of efficiency in mine management. Much has been done in the way of installing larger units. The installation of mining machines, power haulage in place of animal haulage and the equipment that makes the mining and preparation of cleaner and better coal possible, represent great strides toward betterment. The loading of the coal at the face, which work now absorbs approximately 70 per cent of the total mining cost, must yield to mechanical loading machines, which are now loading lead ore in the Southeastern Missouri lead belt for 15 cents per ton. Such machines are being developed fast. They are in fact just around the turn and would be here now doing their part toward the ameloriation of labor if it were not for the opposition of labor itself. The drilling for and firing of explosives, a work now divided between hundreds of men in the larger producing mines, should be taken over by the operator who could quickly develop a few skilled men who, equipped with portable power drills, would not only reduce the labor and cost of this feature of mine work but, in addition, reduce the percentage of fine coal now made, improve the quality of all coal produced, and further, add immeasurably to the safety of mine work. One of the major responsibilities that attach to the owners of coal properties is that of building up an official mine staff which must be divorced from the working force. Unfortunately these men, usually honest, ambitious and industrious, frequently suffer not only from the tradition of years of work at the mine tace but, due to the instability of the industry, hesitate to separate themselves permanently from the status of workmen, compelled as they are to at times go back to the ranks to obtain a livelihood. Broadly speaking the mine staff, or that portion which comes in immediate contract with the mine labor, feels more closely related to it than it does to the capital investment. The item of supplies is one that must be studied carefully by all operating heads. A coal mine offers vicious opportunities for waste. Many of the makers of the items that bulk large in capital and operating costs have, like the union mine workers, refused to deflate their war and post-war prices. The operator who fails to scrutinize each and every cent that goes into his costs, falls short of his duty to the property he represents. With 67.8 per cent of the cost of production paid for mine labor, that element of cost must be revised. The officers of the United Mine Workers' Association hold that this one industry must either insure full working time to all who gain foothold therein, regardless of the fluctuations in demand for coal made by the consumer, or otherwise pay a unit wage sufficiently high on such days that work is available (and the individual cares to work) to provide the standard of living they desire. There are today 150,000 men depending on the industry over and above those needed to supply the demand, an army equal to thirty per cent of the nation's mine working force. Mining is a vital and fundamental industry. Its workers should receive good, fair wages, but the problem of caring for the fluctuations in volume of business between years of activity and depression is one that cannot be cured by excessively high wage rates. The wages paid mine workers today in the union fields runs from 100 to 250 per cent above those paid in the non-union fields. One represents an excessive wage that is strangling all industry, while the other extreme suggests a wage too low to maintain even the most conscientious worker. Neither condition is such as to best serve the nation's welfare. I have a definite feeling that unduly depressed wages are even less defensible than those which are inordinately inflated. Whenever wages are considered, the offense of voluntary absenteeism from work exceeding 10 per cent, which is common to the mine worker, must not be lost sight of. Absenteeism represents a condition that has grown up gradually, and is an uncontrolled privilege suffered by no other industry. Under the contract the mine worker cannot be approached on the question of absenteeism providing he reports on alternate days on which the mine works. During periods of active work, 25 per cent of absenteeism in individual mines is not uncommon. What office, factory, or mill organization would tolerate the continued absence of 10 to 25 per cent of its employes, suffered without even the formality of notice? The annual turnover due to the migratory and shifting habits of mine workers represents an economic loss in excess of that suffered by any other form of industry. There are some splendid men in our mines; that is evidenced by the fact that approximately 35 per cent of the men on the payroll earn 60 to 75 per cent of the wages paid during each two weeks period. This better element, however, is dominated and overrun by the irresponsible minority who vociferously exploit the "rights of labor." It is the total transportation effort of the nation's railroads expressed in millions of freight ton miles and millions of passenger miles that the nation must in some way pay for. During the past three years these payments have been made in the form of treight and passenger rates supplemented by lump sum payments made by the United States Government, the government collecting the sums so paid through taxation. Every element of wasted transportation effort constitutes an offense against the whole people. To summarily cut the cost of producing a product like coal through the medium of wage reductions made so low as to encourage actual criminality on the part of wage workers located in one section of the country, while an arrogant politically-entrenched union refuses to recognize the necessity for the deflation or war-made wage scales in another section, with the resultant transfer of tonnage to the depressed wage section, is fundamentally unsound. Such a condition means the starvation of the investment in capital goods and labor located in the high wage section, the submergence of labor in the low wage area, and the wasteful expenditure of |