Emil Lederer: Discussion contribution on coal mining (1920)

This recorded commission speaking turn addresses the proposed powers of the Reich Coal Council. Responding directly to Dr. Rathenau, Lederer treats earlier speakers as having largely answered Rathenau’s position, then adds a focused argument about how the draft must be read. The council’s authority cannot be understood from its explicit competence clause alone; its role in proposing coal prices must also be considered.

Wenn wir den Entwurf als einheitlich auffassen, so ist für die Kompetenz des Reichskohlenrats nicht nur der Paragraph maßgebend, der seine Kompetenz ausdrücklich beschreibt, sondern auch § 5, wonach die Festsetzung der Kohlenpreise der Genehmigung der Reichsregierung unterliegt, so daß es selbstverständlich von wesentlicher Bedeutung sein wird, wie die Vorschläge für diesen Preis aussehen, wenn das Gremium, das die Vorschläge erstattet, wie aus den Darlegungen von Dr. Rathenau hervorgeht, schließlich zu 2/3 aus Produzenten besteht.

English translation: If we regard the draft as a unified whole, then the competence of the Reich Coal Council is determined not only by the paragraph that expressly describes its competence, but also by § 5, under which the setting of coal prices is subject to the approval of the Reich government, so that it will naturally be of essential importance what the proposals for this price look like if the body submitting the proposals, as emerges from Dr. Rathenau’s remarks, ultimately consists two-thirds of producers.

Lederer distinguishes governmental approval from influence over the proposals submitted for approval. Producer predominance remains consequential even where the government retains formal control. His conceptual move joins a whole-draft reading to scrutiny of institutional composition: who formulates prices matters alongside who authorizes them. The intervention raises this issue without presenting a broader programme for coal policy.