(The letter referred to is as follows:)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Washington, April 7, 1926.

Hon. JAS. S. PARKER,

Chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR COLLEAGUE: I desire to enter my appearance before your committee as being heartily in favor of legislation at this session of Congress that will give adequate power and authority to the President to act in an emergency to br ng about the mining, shipment, and distribution of anthracite and all other kinds of coal or fuel.

Kindly have my appearance entered in the record of the proceedings of your committee of this date.

Very respectfully,

The CHAIRMAN. We will hear Mr. Fish.

JOHN J. KINDRED.

STATEMENT OF HON. HAMILTON FISH, JR.. A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Mr. FISH. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I am not one of those that cares to blame Congress for its sins of omission and commission, but it seems to me that there is a time when we should speak plainly, and I believe in this instance the public are entitled to know the whole truth and nothing but the truth as it affects the coal situation.

In my opinion, Mr. Chairman, this is the biggest issue before Congress affecting the health, the lives, the comfort, and the happiness of millions of coal consumers.

It seems to me it is far more important even than the Mellon tax reduction bill. It affects a great many more people. It affects not only the comfort but the pocketbooks of a great many more people than the Mellon tax reduction bill. It affects primarily the poor people, millions of poor people who can not afford to send lawyers here to represent them before your committee. The rich man can pay the few additional dollars that are added on his coal bill by unscrupulous anthracite-mine operators in order to make up for their losses in the strikes, but it is a great hardship to the wage

earners.

This great multitude of people of the middle class and of the poorer classes are unheard.

I want to emphasize the fact that there is a great deal of discontent among these people, and I believe rightly so. They hold Congress responsible for the failure to act; not only this Congress but the last Congress and the Congress before; not only Republicans but Dem

ocrats.

President Harding sent a message to Congress asking for coal legislation. President Coolidge sent two messages to Congress asking for action on coal legislation.

As far back as December 6. 1923, the President sent a message to Congress urging specific action, saying that it was urgent at that time, and with your permission I am going to read you just a part of that message; it is the President's annual message to Congress, dated December 6, 1923, relating to coal.

Mr. NELSON. We have had that read to us before.

Mr. FISH. I will just put it in the record, if I may, but I would like to read two lines of it, with your permission.

This legislation is exceedingly urgent and essential to the exercise of national authority for the protection of the people.

(The message referred to is as follows:)

THE PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 6, 1923

The cost of coal has become unbearably high. It places a great burden on our industrial and domestic life. The public welfare requires a reduction in the price of fuel. With the enormous deposits in existence, failure of supply ought not to be tolerated. Those responsible for the conditions in this industry should undertake its reform and free it from any charge of profiteering.

The report of the Coal Commission will be before the Congress. It comprises all the facts. It represents the mature deliberations and conclusions of the best talent and experience that ever made a national survey of the production and distribution of fuel. I do not favor Government ownership or operation of coal mines. The need is for action under private ownersh p that will secure greater continuity of production and greater public protection. The Federal Government probably has no peace-time authority to regulate wages, prices, or profits in coal at the mines or among dealers, but by ascertaining and publish ng facts it can exercise great influence.

The source of the difficulty in the bituminous coal fields is the intermittence of operat on which causes great waste of both capital and labor. That part of the report dealing with this problem has much significance and is suggestive of necessary remedies. By amend ng the car rules, by encouraging greater unity of ownership, and possibly by permitt ng common selling agents for limited distr cts on condition that they accept adequate regulations and guarantee that competition between districts be unlim.ted, distribution, storage, and continuity ought to be improved.

The supply of coal must be constant. In case of its prospective interruption the Pres dent should have authority to appoint a commission empowered to deal with whatever emergency situat on might arise, to aid conciliation and voluntary arbitrat on, to adjust any existing or threatened controversy between the employer and the employee when collective bargaining fails, and by controlling distr bution to prevent profiteering in this vital necessity. This legislation is exceedingly urgent and essential to the exercise of national authority for the protection of the people. Those who undertake the responsibility of management or employment in this industry do so with the full knowledge that the public interest is paramount, and that to fail through any motive of selfishness in its service is such a betrayal of duty as warrants uncompromising action by the Government.

Mr. FISH. That was two and a half years ago, when coal legislation was urgent for the protection of the people, according to President Coolidge.

We are now drawing to the close of this session of Congress without action. I have come here primarily to make one demand of your committee, and that is to urge immediate, constructive legislation by this committee-not only to report it, but to pass it in this Congress. Mr. GARBER. Will you pardon an interruption?

Mr. FISH. I certainly will.

Mr. GARBER. I think the need of remedial legislation is recognized by every member of this committee.

Mr. FISH. I hope so, and I believe it is.

Mr. GARBER. But the problem of this committee is to put it in proper form.

Mr. FISH. I am going to lay down before you to-day, if I have the opportunity

Mr. GARBER (interposing). We should like to have you give us some defignite, concrete legal proposition for relief.

Mr. FISH. I will present to you what I believe can be done by your committee in a constructive way at this session of Congress.

For that reason I will have to divide my suggestions, when I get to that issue, into three different phases, because from my experience in Congress I do not believe that it is possible to write a thorough, final coal bill, including all the phases of the question, at this session. But I believe you can pass a bill that will be the foundation for other coal legislation to follow and that you can establish this foundation at this session of Congress.

Mr. COOPER. I should like to ask you a question. You read a sentence from the President's message. What did he recommend? Mr. FISH. I will come to that. I will take that up in due course. Mr. HUDDLESTON. May I suggest to Mr. Fish that when Presidents really want legislation, it is not usual that they content themselves merely by a mention of the matter in the form of a message to Congress. Congress assumes that when nothing more than that is done, that the desire for the legislation is very slight, and that some other object is being aimed at by the message than the passing of legislation.

We all know that it is the custom for a President to consult with his advisors, including Members of Congress, leaders of his party, and, in private, to bring their attention to certain needs, and if need be, present to them certain concrete measures that he wants adopted.

May I say to the gentleman that I have never seen a time during my 12 years' membership in Congress when a President did not get what he really wanted in the way of legislation provided his party was in power. He is sometimes unable to stop the passage of laws that the people are demanding as, for instance, soldiers' bonus legislation and measures like that, that Congressmen are impelled to support for reasons that appeal to them. But I have never known of a President really wanting a measure passed without getting it passed. Mr. FISH. I know that the gentleman from Alabama is familiar with the workings of what is known as the "invisible government." I know that the gentleman from Alabama, because of his record in Congress, knows that there is a large, professional lobby working day and night to prevent this legislation and has been working for years past to prevent even a hearing on this legislation.

This hearing is the first step that has ever been taken to consider coal legislation.

The record of the President speaks for itself. We, as Members of Congress, can not shirk our responsibility by trying to pass the buck to the President.

We can not go behind the record. You may question the sincerity of the President, but in my opinion, what has been blocking coal legislation for a number of years is the professional lobby that works night and day to prevent even a hearing. This is the first step, and we ought to be thankful for it.

The CHAIRMAN. I want to correct one statement that the gentleman has made. There has never been any pressure put on me not to have any hearings.

Mr. FISH. I know very well that nobody would attempt to put any pressure on you, Mr. Chairman. I am not speaking personally,

but the gentleman has been in Congress long enough to know that individual members of Congress are not the ones that can prevent legislation from being considered or reported out or passed. They have got other duties to perform.

Mr. NELSON. Now that we are at it, let us go.

The CHAIRMAN. I think we will make better progress if we allow Mr. Fish to proceed without interruption.

Mr. FISH. I have the greatest confidence in your committee individually. Your committee has been busy all during this session and has passed constructive legislation and has been a credit to Con

gress.

But I do not retract a single word, Mr. Chairman, about what is stopping this legislation. I think plain speaking ought to be indulged in here. I think the public I think the public are entitled to know what has caused this delay for the last four or five years.

I have no sympathy or patience with any attempt to pass the responsibility to anyone else. It rests on Congress to pass coal legislation. The President has asked for it and why should we go behind the record.

Anyone has the right to question the sincerity of the President, if he wants to, but his record stands four square on this subject.

Mr. MERRITT. I want to say that I do not at all agree with the gentleman about the facts.

Mr. FISH. About the invisible government?

Mr. MERRITT. Yes.

Mr. NELSON. I have been here four years and no one has ever approached me.

Mr. FISH. I think this is an important part of the situation and I will try to make myself clear. It took 20 years for Congress, working against the railroad lobby, to obtain regulation over the railroads. It took another 20 years, working against the lobbyand when I use the word "lobby," I do not use it in any contemptible sense. They are high-class citizens, highly paid lawyers, the best lawyers in America, representing big interests-and it took 20 years, fighting against the brains of these men outside of Congress, to pass legislation providing for parcel post, against the lobby of the express companies.

Now, it has taken a good many years to get any legislation on coal or even a hearing.

Mr. NELSON. Let us pass to the coal situation.

Mr. FISH. I am talking entirely on the coal situation, and on facts that the public is entitled to know. You know it and everybody else knows it. That has been the difficulty in securing legislation.

Mr. MERRITT. I do not know it.

Mr. NELSON. I do not know it, and I resent that statement.

Mr. FISH. I will read you a number of letters before I am through.

Mr. GARBER. Let me ask, Mr. Fish, if it is not generally recognized that this problem is one of the most intricate to treat from a legislative standpoint that this Government has had to do with in its history, because it involves compulsory arbitration on the one hand, and a control of private property on the other, to an extent to which

the Government has never as yet gone. Isn't that partly the cause of the delay!

Mr. FISH. Mr. Garber, you undoubtedly have read the report of the United States Coal Commission submitted in 1923 upon which the taxpayers spent something like $600,000.

That commission was composed of eminent men. John Hays Hammond, one of the best known mining engineers in this country, was the president of it. A former Vice President, Thomas Marshall, a great Jeffersonian, who did not believe in interference by the Government in private business, was a member of that commission.

I believe from information I have that he wrote most of these recommendations that have to do with what Congress and the Government can do in the way of regulation of the coal industry.

I submit at least that the evidence of these men who have given a long time to the study of this proposition as to what can be done by Congress should carry weight. I am not basing it on my own opinion and my own meager study of the question, but I could read to you a number of recommendations, covering the exact point you have raised, from this commission's report.

Mr. GARBER. I want to say on behalf of this committee, that nearly every day of this session has been taken up in hearings, and the chairman has been pushing the business of this committee to the extent almost of the members of the committee being unable to comply with his requests.

Mr. FISH. It is not necessary for me, because your record speaks for you, to commend your committee. I do commend your committee, because you are the first committee in the five years that I have been in Congress that has even consented to hold a coal hearing, and I want to congratulate you on it.

Let us proceed. Please do not put me in the position of condemning your committee. I am not doing that. I am not condemning any member of the committee.

Mr. COOPER. I believe that Mr. Fish has something to offer us.
Mr. FISH. I certainly have.

Mr. COOPER. Which he thinks is constructive. Are we going to allow him to continue and offer his suggestions, or are we going to keep up this cross-questioning?

The CHAIRMAN. The Chair will rule that Mr. Fish may proceed without interruption, if he has some suggestions to offer, without going into the past.

Mr. FISH. Mr. Chairman, a short time ago I offered a resolution asking for information from the Secretary of Commerce, to ascertain certain facts which I believe the public are entitled to and which I believe your committee must have if you are to write constructive legislation.

I will read you the questions asked in this resolution and while I am reading it I wish that you would ask yourselves whether you have had any testimony before this committee that would answer these questions or whether you yourselves know the answers, and whether you do not think that you are entitled and that the public is entitled to know the answers to all these questions and have them before you attempt to write constructive legislation.