RECONSTRUCTION AND PRODUCTION AUTHORIZING THE APPOINTMENT OF A COMMITTEE TO INQUIRE INTO THE GENERAL BUILDING SITUATION AND TO REPORT TO THE SENATE BEFORE DECEMBER 1, 1920, SUCH MEASURES AS MAY BE DEEMED NECESSARY TO Printed for the use of the Select Committee on Reconstruction and Production The committee met, pursuant to call, at 3 o'clock p. m., in Room 1605, the Engineering Societies Building, 29 West Thirty-ninth Street, Senator William M. Calder presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee has met pursuant to Senate resolution 350, as follows: Whereas the general construction of houses, manufacturing establishments, and buildings necessary for the development of the Nation's resources, the production of essential materials, and the amelioration of present housing conditions was curtailed by Federal action during the war and is now seriously hampered by an unprecedented demand for consumables and luxuries, which has diverted capital, labor, and materials into nonproductive or nonessential fields: Therefore be it Resolved, That a committee of five Senators, consisting of three members of the majority party and two members of the minority party, appointed by the President of the Senate, is hereby authorized to inquire into and report to the Senate on or before December 1, 1920 (a) The existing situation in relation to the general construction of houses, manufacturing establishments, and buildings, and the effect thereof upon other industries and upon the public welfare; and (b) Such measures as it may deem necessary to stimulate and encourage such construction work, to encourage popular investment rather than spending, to foster private initiative in building, and to insure cooperation between labor and persons or corporations engaged in transportation, banking, or other business necessary to the development of such construction. Such committee is hereby authorized during the Sixty-sixth Congress to sit during the sessions or recesses of the Congress, at Washington or at any other place in the United States, to send for persons, books, and papers, to administer oaths, and to employ experts deemed necessary by such committee, a clerk and a stenographer to report such hearings as may be had in connection with any subject which may be before such committee, such stenographer's service to be rendered at a cost not exceeding $1 per printed page, the expenses involved in carrying out the provisions of this resolution to be paid out of the contingent fund of the Senate. This is the first hearing of the Select Committee on Reconstruction and Production, appointed by the Senate to inquire into measures to insure the cooperation of persons engaged in banking, transportation, and other businesses necessary to stimulate and encourage construction work of all kinds. During its preliminary investigations the committee has been advised that the great difficulty in the way of active resumption of the building industry is the inability of the manufacturers of building materials to deliver their finished product to the consumer on account of the present transportation shortage. The committee is inclined to believe that the recent car-service orders giving preference to the shipment of coal have operated to the detriment of the building industry and that the coal situation might have been solved by action of another character without involving social and industrial consequences. The committee has begun its inquiry with this phase of the subject and has noted the recent comprehensive report on the New England coal situation submitted to the New England governors by a committee of which Mr. Storrow was a member. We have subpœnaed Mr. Storrow to appear before the committee, believing that his intimate knowledge of the situation would be of value to the committee. We understand, Mr. Storrow, that you were fuel administrator of New England during the war, and that on account of your active interest in the coal situation you were recently appointed by Gov. Coolidge, of Massachusetts, as State fuel administrator; and also that you, together with other representatives of New England, appeared before the Interstate Commerce Commission at the request of the New England governors. Mr. Storrow, we would like you to take the stand. STATEMENT OF MR. JAMES J. STORROW, OF BOSTON, MASS. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Storrow, I have arranged some questions here that I am going to ask you, if you have no objection to proceeding in that manner, and as we go along, if you prefer to digress from any of my questions, you are at liberty to do so. Are there ample coal deposits in this country to-day? Mr. STORROW. Yes, sir; this country is enormously rich in coal. The CHAIRMAN. Is there an ample productive capacity in existing mines? Mr. STORROW. Yes, sir; a productive capacity very materially greater than the consuming requirements. In other words, the mines of this country have the capacity for producing much more coal than the country can burn. The CHAIRMAN. Does the coal production of the country this year bid fair to exceed that of previous years? Mr. STORROW. The production this year is considerably ahead of last year. It is 44,000,000 tons ahead of last year, but running behind the two preceding years. If the consumption requirements are to be considered for the average of those three years, the production this year would be a little below the average, but not much. I can give you the Geological Survey's figures for the production this year. In the first 158 days of this year, the country has produced 262,000,000 tons of coal. In the first 158 days of last year the country produced 218,000,000 tons of coal. In the first 158 days of 1918, 288,000,000 tons, and in 1917, 278,000,000. In other words, we are something like 44,000,000 tons ahead of last year, and we are something like 26,000,000 tons behind the year 1918 and about 16.000,000 tons behind the year 1917. We have been producing this year at the rate of 10 per cent below the record year in the production in this country. The CHAIRMAN. Would that mean that there will be a coal shortage this year in this country? Mr. STORROW. The coal miners' strike of last autumn I think unquestionably reduced the reserves below normal so that to be safe we need an increased production for this year. It is to me perfectly plain that our production has not been sufficient up to the present time or running at a sufficient rate. I do not profess to be particularly competent to pass on that, but from all I hear and all I can learn I have the feeling that it would not take much increase over the production as it is now running this month and last month and the month before to restore the balance. Production this year has been seriously affected by this unauthorized switchmen's strike. The weekly report of the Geological Survey, which gives the production this year geographically, shows a very sharp drop in this heavy black line at the time of that strike. [Exhibiting report.] That has been pretty well recovered from, and the general tendency is still upward, so that I do feel that there was a serious shortage at that time, and there is a shortage now, but it seems to me that it is not very large. There is this special circumstance, however, which bears upon the general condition, and that is up to the present time coal has not been moving to the Northwest via the Lake route, which is the way it must move, in anything like normal volume. In the Northeast we have also rather a special problem, and we have not been getting in the Northeast our normal coal requirements. I do not think the Northeast has dropped as far behind as the Northwestern States, but it is very seriously behind. The CHAIRMAN. What are the natural sources of coal supply for the Northeast and what are the natural channels for coal distribution? Mr. STORROW. Defining the Northeast as New England, all of that territory east of the Hudson River, the sources of supply are the Pennsylvania fields and the fields of West Virginia. I am only speaking of soft coal now. From the Pennsylvania field the larger part of the coal moves from the mines directly to the consumer in New England. The West Virginia coal fields move something like 9,000,000 tons down to the seaboard at Hampton Roads or Baltimore, and it is then carried by barge or steamer up the coast to one of the New England ports and is then either consumed at tidewater or again put on cars and carried inland. I should say that from the Pennsylvania fields a certain volume of coal comes to New York, a fairly important volume, which is particularly distributed to the Long Island Sound ports. Connecticut is the most important. Rhode Island is quite important, and some to New Bedford and Fall River, and a little as far as Boston. The movement through New York to the Sound ports is a very important movement. It is about 12 per cent normally of the total. The railroads all rail pull normally about 40 per cent; 40 per cent is all they can pull. The railroads working at their maximum capacity can hardly pull 40 per cent. The record year for all rail routes to New England were 11,100,000 tons. That was the biggest year they ever have had, they can not |