Slate Clean

It is sometimes said that the U. S. coal industry, disposed as it is to overproduce, needs a good strike about every three years. For the nation as a whole this is certainly no formula for wealth and plenty. The six-week soft-coal deadlock that ended last week caused serious and conspicuous economic damage. Retail trade in the strike area dropped 15% to 20%. Estimates of the total loss of purchasing power ran as high as $100,000,000. Though last week's settlement came in time to prevent large-scale stoppage of factories, ships or railroads, the effects of the strike will continue to be evident in chart and index for weeks to come.

For the bituminous operators, however, the strike was by no means an unmixed evil. On April 1 total bituminous coal stocks had piled up to 40,550,000 tons--nearly a six-week supply at the average rate of U. S. consumption (1,000,000 tons per day). Not all this accumulated coal was shoveled away during the strike.

Some coal users shifted to oil. Anthracite operators not strike bound, jumped production 49%, despite a price rise of 15-c- per ton. But the 40,000,000-ton pile of bituminous was burned down to some 20 to 25,000,000 tons, leaving coal's statistical slate clean.

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