coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

24 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
SUPREME COURT HANDS
DOWN SEVERAL DECISIONS.
Mining corporations must pay the corporation
tax imposed by the Payne-Aldrich tariff act, according
to the decision Dec. 1, by the U. S. Supreme
court.
Eight or ten million dollars have been paid to
the government by such corporations, under protest,
and 500 suits and claims were started to recover
the money.
The case came to the court through Stratton's
Independence, limited, of Colorado, which unsuccessfully
contended that proceeds from ores mined
by a corporation from its own premises was not
"income" within the meaning of the corporation
tax law, but a conversion of capital into money.
The court also held that the corporations were
not entitled to deduct the value of ore before it
was mined as "depreciation." Chief Justice White
and Justices McKenna and Holmes dissented on
the latter point.
The Illinois child labor law was sustained as
constitutional in the case of Arthur Beauchamp,
a 15-year-old boy, who recovered a verdict of $4,500
from the Sturges & Burn Manufacturing Co. for
laceration of his hand in a press. Justice Hughes
announced the decision. The company also defended
on the ground that the boy represented he
was more than 16 and, being more than 14, should
be held responsible for his statement. The court
held the company employed him at its peril.
The Lackawanna railroad must pay a $2,000
fine for transporting its own hay to feed mules in
its mines. That, in the opinion of the court, was
a violation of the commodities clause of the Hepburn
law and a conviction in a lower court was
sustained.
Rates on grain and other commodities over the
Louisville & Nashville railroad were approved by
the court in the so-called Kentucky state rate case.
The decision of the federal court, of that state,
affirming the McChord law, enabling the Kentucky
state railroad commission to fix reasonable rates
on intrastate business, was held valid.
Five coal freight discriminati-)n cases against
the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. were decided in
favor of the company by the ITnited States Circuit
Court of Appeals at Philadelphia, Dec. 4. Five
coal operators obtained judgments in the Eastern
District court against the railroad. These were
reversed on the appeal of the company in all the
cases, which were argued early in November. The
operators were the Carbon Coal & Coke Co., John
Langdon. Mt. Equity Coal Co.. J. Herbert Sweet,
et al., executors and Eichelberger & Co. The damage
that had been assessed by the verdict in rase
of Carbon Coal & Coke Co. alone was over $5S,U00.
WEST VIRGINIA COULD SUPPLY
WORLD'S COAL - IFTY YEARS.
According to figures just given out, the state
of West Virginia could supply enough bituminous
coal to keep the world going for the next 50 years
if all other coal mines were to shut down.
The United States government estimate shows
that only one state in the union has more coal
than West Virginia, and a table recently com'
piled by a large insurance company sets forth that
niining in that state is as safe as any place else
in the world, safer than in most states.
By a late calculation of the world's reserve there
are 4,000,000 million tons of bituminous coal still
unmined, and of this amount 271,080 millions are
in America. Dr. I. C. White, the West Virginia
state geologist, declares there are 55,000 million
tons of unmined coal in West Virginia. The entire
world uses a little over a billion tons a year.
Recently a man interested in conditions under
which miners work in West Virginia, made a trip
through the Fairmont region and found in that
field alone 25 per cent, more men could find lucrative
employment. Mine owners in that field are
putting up new houses and are spending thousands
of dollars to improve living conditions.
They expect that the coming year will be the
most prosperous in the history of the state, and
that men employed in the mines will have an
opportunity to make more money than ever.
OPEN LETTER TO MINERS AND OPERATORS
Mr. John P. Reese, president of the American
Mine Safety association, has sent out the following
letter:
To the Coal Operators and Miners' Unions of the
United States.
Gentlemen:—As president of the American Mine
Safety association, I consider it my duty, as well
as a pleasure, to call your attention to and invite
you to join and support this "Joint Movement"
for safer mining in the United States. This organization
is one that should receive the moral
and financial support of every miner and operator
in the country regardless of any and all other
considerations. Associate membership can be
securey by any coal company or any organization,
local union, or group of mine workers at a cost of
ten dollars ($10) per year. Can you afford to
fail or refuse to tr.'-_ out such membership? "Do
it now" by making application to Mr, H. M. Wilson,
Fortieth and Butler streets, Pittsburgh, Pa.,
who is secretary-treasurer.
Hoping this appeal will not be in vain, I beg
to remain. Yours for safer niining,
(Signed) JOHN P. REESE,
President American Mine Safety
Association.