Notes

If, on Sept. 1, the anthracite coal fields of Northeastern Pennsylvania become the scene of a brief coal-strike and last week no one expected more than the briefest of curtain-raisers--statistics will show:

(1) 148,000 miners idle, leaving only 10,000 ''maintenance men" to prevent flooding and caving.

(2) 828 mines operated by 135 companies (chiefly by dozen big companies connected with railroads) closed down.

(3) Loss to the miners of more than $1,000,000 per day in pay. Loss to operators oi perhaps $100,000 per day profit.

(4) 250,000 tons per day left in the ground which would otherwise have been extracted.

Meanwhile the anthracite miners have been working at top speed. Every available bin is being used for storage. The operators want plenty of coal on hand in preparation for a long strike. The miners have been glad to get extra pay to put aside for the payless strike days.

In Boston, Governor Alvan T. Fuller of Massachusetts seized th opportunity to educate New England He summoned a conference of New England governors, to which came Governor Brewster of Maine and minor dignitaries from three other states. The aura of importance was supplied John Hays Hammond, Chairman of the Fact Finding Commission appointed by President Coolidge in 1923, Ulyssean councillor, who, after protesting that he in no way represented President. Coolidge, consented to take the chair.

"Anthracite," said Mr. Hammond, "has always been a fetish in New England until the last year or two." "Too long," said Governor Fuller, "our section of the country has stuck to anthracite while other sections never use it." "Anthracite" said Mr. Hammond, "is a luxury and not to be indulged in at too great a cost. We have plenty of substitutes" --meaning bituminous (soft) coal, coke, fuel-oil. That was the lesson Governor Fuller desired to have expounded.

In his suite at the Bellevue-Stratford, Philadelphia, sat John L. Lewis,head of the United Mine Workers. He well realized the implications of Governor Fuller's "lesson." A serious strike in the anthracite fields might ruin the anthracite business, permanently jeopardizing the fortunes of his flock. One way out of this dilemma would be to call a simultaneous strike of the bituminous fields (Pittsburgh territory). But that is out of the of the question because a derangement of the Union-bituminous fields would simply put money in the pockets of men in the non-Union fields of West Virginia.

For 48 hours Mr. Lewis disappeared. It was learned that he had gone to an inn on the outskirts of Harrisburg, there to confir in long-night scerecy with various in henchmen. He returned, said nothing except that a strike in the Pennsyl vania counties of Luzerne, Lackawanna, Schuylkill would certainly be called Sept. 1 unless the operators met his terms.