The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-09-06
THE ENGLISH COAL SCARE.
No Need OF Alarm for Twelve Hundred
Years to Come.

from the New York Journal OF Commerce.
Our latest English mail advices apprise u:
| Of o considerable decline in the prices OF coal
| and well Informed editors were no longer eX.
| hlblting any anxiety about 1t /; though The
| comic papers had begun to take up the sub
ject, and were playfnlly exaggerating the
scarcity and value OF "Wallsend." The high
est figure touched by the advance was SSs'
in London, but 1t has since fallen to 27sa2S5.
| During the furry a large quantity OF Began
coal was imported and sold at 30s. This had
| the immediate effect Of reducing the price OIL
| the English product; though we see by q late
| cable dispatch that coal has again advanced.
The present rate is not quoted. but Is
| probably less than the highest above
| article, the advance in coal was oc-
casioned solely by the strikes for higher
wages and nine hours. The learned specula-
lions which it plesses scientific people to
print, touching the limited supply OF the En-
glIsh coal measures. had nothing to do With
It. England may not have coal enough to out
last q million years, but the royal commission
ers can put their fingers on 3 supply for twelve
hundred and sevenIy-two years-a period 30
long that coal buyers of this generation need
not take alarm, ana lay In stock for q lifetime.
constant readers are emerging from their
obscuriLy and recalling for the Information OF
their faVorite Journals, the fact that coal was
higher twenty years ago than the highest
price of to-day. The cause, then, as now, was
q strike. On the occasion Of every coal-mln-
ers' strike coal has gone up, to fall back when
the interruption ceased. In every case, the
Temporary Increased demand for coal
mines. This is precisely What We see doing
now. In Yorkshire everybody Is digging for
coal and finding lie. Old pits closed tor years
have been %reopened, and thousands of tons of
spit slack" (~refuse of former times) are being
put on the market at eight shilllngs q ton. 1t
is found that thin coal seams, hitherto neglect
ed, can be worked With profit. Pontelract,
formerly known only as an agricultural dis
trIct, proves on examination to be rich In
coal. In Sut~herlandshire the people are at
lacking the old coal measures, worked from
Queen Elizabeth's time up to 1927, and then
abandoned. In Derbyshlre q number of new
collieries have been opened, and similar re-
ports come from all the coal-produclng coun-
ties of England. It appears, therefore, that
nothing but the coal-miners' strike ID contrlbuts
lag to put up coal. The miners In some OF
the districts are holding out firmly, and not
only that, but they are advancing money to
keep the limestone mel on strike also. These
two strikes, and others in the Iron manufac-
turing business, have caused the great ad-
vance along the whole line OF the English
irons: and also the ADVANCE Ia the cost OF ma-
terlals entering into q hundred trades. Thus
powerfully do strikes disturb, for the time
being, the natural order of things. But the
perturbation can only be temporary. The
strikes will fall, or be the subject of compro-
mise, and prices soon settle back at or near
the old figures. Such at least IL the opinion
of those familiar with the strike phenomena
in England.