Emil Lederer: Discussion Contribution on Coal Mining (1920)

This brief official commission speaking turn, published in volume I, pp. 334–335, records Lederer’s intervention in a discussion of coal-market regulation. Its central concern is the evidential basis of competing forecasts: whether normal market conditions might return relatively soon or whether the current situation would persist for a very long time. Lederer makes no independent prediction. Instead, he asks what the disagreement implies for the regulatory arrangement under discussion.

Vogelstein has reported that conversations with members of the Reich Coal Council led him to anticipate a relatively early normalization. Lederer sets this expectation against Rathenau’s contrasting assessment:

Ich möchte, nur um diese Bemerkung nicht untergehen zu lassen, darauf hinweisen, daß das in einem gewissen Widerspruch zu der Auffassung des Herrn Dr. Rathenau steht, der meint, daß wir auf sehr lange Zeit hinaus mit der heutigen Situation rechnen müssen.

English translation: I would like, simply so that this remark is not overlooked, to point out that this stands in a certain contradiction to the view of Dr. Rathenau, who believes that we must reckon with the present situation continuing for a very long time.

The intervention moves from a discrepancy between forecasts to its possible institutional consequence. Lederer suggests that Vogelstein’s account could furnish an argument against the entire form of regulation being considered. This remains a conditional objection, not a demonstrated case for abandoning regulation: he immediately asks whether the reported statements warrant reliance.

Ich möchte nur Herrn Dr. Vogelstein bitten, festzustellen, ob diese Äußerungen tatsächlich so gut fundiert waren, daß man darauf fußen kann.

English translation: I would simply like to ask Dr. Vogelstein to establish whether these statements were in fact sufficiently well founded to be relied upon.

Vogelstein’s closing interjection says that the matter must be discussed with Stinnes; the excerpt supplies no resolution. The contribution’s significance lies in connecting expectations about the duration of abnormal coal-market conditions with the justification of regulatory policy, while insisting that those expectations first be substantiated.