Shelved Minima

Carter Coal Co. of Coalwood, W. Va. is pleased with itself because it brought the suit which broke the original Guffey Coal Act in the Supreme Court. Carter Coal Co. is now out to duplicate this feat with the Guffey-Vinson Coal Act. This Act set up a seven-man national Bituminous Coal Commission in Washington, with the major purpose of creating minimum prices for soft coal. In a city where frustrated bickering is a fine art, the Bituminous Coal Commission set a new high before it finally produced its first set of minima two months ago (TIME, Dec. 27). Carter Coal at once sought an injunction against them on pea-sized coal prices, on the ground that the actions of the Commission were unconstitutional, and last week it got it from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan. But Carter Coal's thunder was stolen on the same day when the mighty Association of American Railroads, whose members burn 22% of U. S. soft coal, got an injunction from the Federal Court of Appeals in Washington staying all the minimum prices set up to govern railroad buying. The railroads boasted no such constitutional purpose as Carter Coal; they merely maintained that the prices were illegal because the Commission did not take public testimony before creating them.

Coal prices to railroads which buy in bulk have always been substantially lower than prices to home owners and other small consumers and a prime conviction of the Coal Commission is that rebate practices have favored industry and railroads at the expense of small consumers. Therefore, in setting up minima, the Commission arbitrarily raised the price of railroad coal to a level nearer that for small consumers. The A. A. R. protested through John Carson, consumers' counsel, whose job was specially created by the Guffey-Vinson Act to protect the consumers' interests. But the B. C. C. refused to reconsider its action. The A. A. R.'s success in court last week led many another coal buyer to bring similar petitions and it looked as if the whole minimum price schedule would have to be shelved. Said John Carson: "The Commission should suspend these prices permanently and proceed immediately in strict accordance with the Act to establish valid prices. . . ."

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