This Is the Report of One of Six Committees Surveying the Price Problems of American Indus Tries and Trade
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This is the report of one of six committees surveying the price problems of American indus tries and trade. The other five committees deal with steel and iron, oil, automobiles, textiles, and distributional costs and re tail pricing. .• _ . __~._ .......... _ . ..&-.~..L _ ~ ___ ..., SERVANTS OF INDIA SOCIETY'S UBRARY. POONA 4. FOR INTERNAL CIRCULATION To be retarDed 00 or before the last date stamped below i I i''t... 6 JAN 1970 I • !21 FEB\31u I 2 ~ ~~~ 191&1 PRICE STUDIES Number One Dhan.. jay:orao <.aJ;!~ l~ IllimillUllml GIPF.-i)UNE~12a20 Officers GEORGE SOULE, Chairman DAVID FRIDAY, President W. L. CRUM, Vice-President SHI!PARD MORGAN, Treasurer JOSEPH H. WlLUTS, Executive Director W. j. CARSON, Assistant Executive Director MARTHA ANDERSON, Editor Directors at Large CHESTER I. BARNARD, President, New Jersey Bell Telephone Company HENRY S. DENNISON, Dennison Manufacturing Compa"y GEORGE M. HARRISON, President, Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship ClerIcs OSWALD W. KNAUTH, President, Associated Dry Goods Corporation HARRY W. LAIDLER, Executive Director, The League for Industrial Democracy L. C. MARSHALL, Johns Hopkins University GEORGE O. MAY, Price, Waterhouse and Company SHI!PARD MORGAN, Pice-President, Chase National Bank GEORGE E. ROBERTS, Economic Adviser, National City Bank BEARDSLEY RUML, Treasurer, R. H. Macy and Company GEORGE SoULE, Director, The Labor Bureau, Inc. N. I. STONE, Consulting Economist Directors by University Appointment WlLUAM L. CRUM, Harvard HARRY ALVIN MILLIS, Chicago WALTON H. HAMILTON, Yale WESLEY C. MITCHELL, Columbia HARRY JEROME, Wisconsin JOSEPH H. WlLUTS, Pennsylvania Directors Appointed by Other Organizations FREDERICK M. FElKER, American Engineering Council DAVID FRIDAY, American Economic Association LEE GALLOWAY, American Management Association MALCOLM MUIR, National Publishers Association WINFIELD W. RIEFLER, American Statistical Association MATTIU:W WOLL, American Federation of Labor Research Staff WESLEY C. MITCHELL, Director G. W. BLATTNER FREDERICK R. MACAULAY ARTHUR F. BURNS FREDERICK C. MILLS SOLOMON FABRICANl DAVID L. WICKENS MILTON FRIEDMAN LEo WOLMAN SIMON KUZNETS EUGEN ALTSCHUL, Associate RELATION OF THE DIRECTORS TO THE WORK OF THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH I. The object of the National Bureau of Eoonomic Research is to as certain and to present to the public important economic facts and their interpretation in a scientific and impartial manner_ The Board of DirectOR i. charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the work of the Bureau iI carried on in Itrict oon(ormity with this object_ I. To thil end the Board of DirectOR shall appoint one or more Di- recton of Research. 50 The Director or Directon of Research shall submit to the memben of the Board, or to its Executive Commillee, for their formal adoption, all .pecific propooall ooneerning researches to he instituted. 4. No Itudy Ihall be published until the Director or DirectOR of Jle oearch lhall have lubmitted to the Board a summary report drawing allen tion to the character of the data and their utilization in the study, the nature and treatment of the problems involved, the main oonclusions and such other information &I in their opinion will serve to determine the suitability of the Itudy for publication in acoordanee with the principles of the Bureau. 5. A topy of any manuscript proposed for publication shall also be sub milled to each member of the Board. If publication is approved each member il entitled to have published also a memorandum of any dissent or reservation he may express, together with a brief statement of his reasons. The publication of a volume does not, however, imply that each member of the Board of Directon has read the manuscript and passed upon its validity in every detail. 6. The results of an inquiry shall not be published except with the ap proval of at least a majority of the entire Board and a two-thirds majority of all those memben of the Board who shall have voted on the propooal within the time fixed for the receipt of votes on the puhlication proposed. The limit shall be forly-five days from the date of the submission of the .ynopsil and manuscript of the proposed publication unless the Board ex tends the limit: upon the request of any memher the limit may be extended lor not more than thirty days. 7. A topy of thil resolution shaIl, unless otherwise determined by the Board, be printed in each topy of every Bureau publication. (Resolution 01 October 25, 1926, ..evised FebrtUJry 6, 19JJ) Report of the Committee on Prices in the BITUMINOUS COAL INDUSTRY Prepared for THE CONFERENCE ON PRICE RESEARCH National Bureau of Economic Research New York· 1938. Copyright, 1938, by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. 1819 Broadway, New York, N. Y. All Rights Reserved yC.i.p35;$f ):7~.): ~<g/ Printed and Bound in the United States of America by H. Wolff, New York. Designer: Ernst Reichl Preface THE report of the Committee on Prices in the Bituminous Coal Industry is published by the National Bureau of Eco nomic Research for the Conference on Price Research. This Conference is composed of representatives from universities and governmental and private research agencies interested in the advancement of knowledge in the wide field that is roughly defined by the term 'price economics'. As the result of a meeting in November 1935. called at the initiative of a committee representing the National Bureau of Economic Research and departments of economics in a number of American universities. a permanent. autonomous organiza tion was created to stimulate and coordinate research deal ing with costs. prices. and related topics. The present membership of the Conference includes the Universities of Chicago. Columbia. Cornell. Harvard. Minnesota. and Pennsylvania; the American Institute of Accountants; the National Association of Cost Accountants; the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. the Bureau of Labor Statistics. and the Central Statistical Board; the Brookings Institution; the Food Research Institute of Stanford University; and the Na tional Bureau of Economic Research. As its initial undertaking the Conference elected to sur vey five industries-bituminous coal. cotton textiles. petro vii viii PREF ACE leum, steel, and automobiles-for the purpose of defining the industrial and economic problems that center about prices, ,appraising existing data available to research work ers and outlining programs of needed research. The present study is the first product of these investigations. In no industry, perhaps, are issues involving prices of more interest to the public and to economists and of greater concern to public administrators than are those of bitumi nous coal. Here are problems of competition among rival producers and with substitute products; here are regional zones, imperfectly defined and cutting across one another in diverse ways, yet placing their impress on the pattern of production.and distribution; here are varying grade.s and qualities, with corresponding price differentials; here are found a wide variety of users, ranging from households to railroads and great manufacturing industries; here are in tricate connections between producers and carriers, and ownership relations that complicate pricing and distribu tional problems; and here, more recently, have been intro duced elements of federal price control that are of especial interest, not alone because of their bearing on the organiza tion and operations of this industry, but also because they exemplify issues of far wider import. The objectives of Professor Fisher and his associates are clearly set forth in the gpening pages of this monograph. With imagination, objective detachment, and rigorous fi delity to scientific standards of accuracy they have under taken an experimental, exploratory survey of the tangled problems that center about bituminous coal prices. Their major purpose has been to clear the ground for needed re search, rather than to make substantive contributions of their own, but the report that embodies their findings con tains much that has value in its own right, as an addition to our knowledge of the bituminous coal industry. This report points the way to research that will be of ob vious and immediate value to the industry and to govern ment, and of no less utility to those who are concerned with the more general aspects of economic organiiation today. it PREFACE a is the hope of the Conference that the studies outlined in the report will be undertaken by interested agencies and in dividuals--by governmental bodies. organs of the industry. private research agencies. and favorably situated students. The Committee has indicated needed action. The field. is open for the active work. In defining some of the major problems that beset the in dustry and outlining research that will illuminate these problems. the Committee on Prices in the Bituminous Coal Industry has amply fulfilled its original purpose. But the work of the Committee has done more than this. It has pro vided a convincing demonstration of the possibility of dis interested cooperation in attacking contemporary industrial problems. Under the skillful and tactful leadership of Pro fessor Fisher, a group of men of widely different connec tions. having a common interest in the economic problems of this troubled industry. were able to sit down together and explore. objectively and dispassionately. ways and means of obtaining a better understanding of the organization. oper ation. and market relations of the industry. Here. as in other fields ill which the Conference on Price Research has sought to effect similar cooperation. good-will, and an active desire to clarify and solve perplexing issues have been encountered invariably. There are grounds here for hope that. on a wider front. such cooperation in the study of industrial ills may generate the knowledge essential to their solution. The future activities of the Conference will be directed toward the furtherance of this cooperation. FREDERICK C. MILLS. CHAIIIMAN Executivt! Commillt't'. Conference on Price Rest'arch ANNE BEZANSON (University of Pennsy/tJ,mia) M.