Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1873-03-26
COAL STATISTICS.

rors, they will doubtless be noticed
and corrected by those Of our readers
who are Interested in this specially.
We publish the following state
ments without indorsing them in their
entirety. There Is enough that is IN
structive to atone for a few errors of
fact or judgment:
The cheapest coal is produced in
Maryland at the colliery, five and a
half cents a bushel the dearest is IN
Wyoming, sixty. five cents a bushel I;
in Ohio the cost is eight and two
thirds cents a bushel.
Were q line, however, drawn in
Ohio due east and west from Pitts
burgh to Dayton, IL would be found
that coal in Ohio south of that line Is
but five and a half cents, while north
of it the price is twelve cents always
at the colIiery; and that is the reason
why so many railroads are now being
built from Hooking Valley, Perry, and
Muskingum counties, &c, nOrthwardi
coal is worth twice as much along the
Lake Shore as it is in the Ohio Vsl-
ley.
The main cost of coal at the colliery
is labor, and we see from the above
figures that neither the labOrer or the
Capitalist hesitates q moment to push
the other to the wall. The most un-
merciful individuals on labOring men
are labOrerS. He asks eighteen cents
a bushel for the coal he digs in WyO-
ming. 1t is all folly to think that
men ask for materials or services what
they ought to get; no! they always
demand what they think they can
get.
In Pennsylvania. &c, 900 miners pro-
duee twenty-eight and q half millions
of tons in q year, or seven hundred
and ten millions of bushels, which Is
about twelve thousand bushels for
each miner per year. Assume two
hundred working days, aud each
mans product is sixty bushels day.
Miners will tell US aud swear to 1t,
that they can easily mine hundred
bushels q day aud work two hundred
days in the year; so that we see that
The actual D. oduct is but six tenths
this possible product. Part of this de-
ficiency is due To the uncertainties Oi
the coal market, but most of it to the
whims of the miners.
| In Ohio, a little over 1900 miners
N 1 ~ y
or 1877, ,OOO, 600 bushels, which is about
900 bushels for each miner, and
again counting two hundred working
days, makes ninety-four bushels day
for each miner. So that Ohio miners
seem to make much fewer idle days
than those of Pennsylvania.
In Illinois, the comparison is still
more favorable to the miners thrift
he there comes fully up to the stand
ard of one hundred bushels per day.
The cause is doubtless to be found
in the difference between the mines.
The Pennsylvania miner works most
~ in shaft or slope mines, with de-
scent of from sixty to one hundred
and fifty feet. In Ohio most OF the
mines are drift mines, with nearly
level entries.
In Pennsylvania the wages earned
are about $500 year for each miner
in Ohio and Illinois about $500
that it is plain that Pennsylvania
miners coal costs mOIe per bushel
than that of his Western colleague
And what makes the distinction still
yreater is the fact that in Pennsylva
mia there is for every sixty five miners
n machine; in Ohio one for only eve
nv one hundred miners; which means
in this case that the Ohio miner hauls
most of his own coal out of the mines,
while in Pennsylvania lI Is generaliy
done by the machine. When we seek
/ for the cause Of this difference, we nnu
it in the fact that the Pennsylvania
miner has q superior coal (antnraclteJ
to work out, and that he 1.-THE minerl
has forced the mine operator TO yield
some of his profit to the miner. II
we examine into the cause Of this dis
advantage, we will find that the rea-
SON why the Ohio capitalist ~ Is not
as much oppressed by the miner Is
due to the point that in Ohio the mime
operators can quit and begin again
with les loss than the Pennsylvania.
Indeed, many of the Ohio operators
are not capitalists at all. Their In
vestment in opening a mine Is a mere
trifie, and the coal land cost them cry
little originally. The class Of men
who operate these DRIFT mines are
much more on a par with the miners
than those in Pennsylvania. In Ohio
| il is mostly a question OF the loss OF
profits; in Pennsylvania it is, beside,
a question of a loss of interest. The
more capital there is in a mine the
easier are all struggles for the minsr
and against the capitalist -
In Pennsylvania the capital invest
ed la mines is 81, 100 per miner; IN
Northern Ohio, $500; in the DRIFT
mines, $40.
There Is in the whole Union 81 800
miners they earn forty four and
third millions in wages, which IS flve
hundred and forty-eighL dollars f0r
each miner per annum. So itappears
that the Ohio miners earn less than
the average mining wages.
In Pennsylvania every SIX miners
have boy 10 help them in Ohio there
is a boy 10 every sixteen or seventeeh
miners. Tue average for the Wnoie
| Union is boy 10 eight men. In wy
oming the miners earn Sl,oOO year,
or S.. so for each of the two hundred
working days. They produce $1,000
tons of coal and receive 81, 900 Tor IL,
equal to $3.50 per ton, or eighteen
cents per bushel.
As a general rule, the miner takes
three-fifths of the value of the coal at
the colliery. The expenses Of the op
orator take one a half fifth, and there
remains to the capitalist one hall nith-
Miners employed at Ohio drift mines
work for operators very near them IN
social position, who are as hard AZ
driving bargain as the miner him.
self.
The waste in mines is much larger
In Ohio drift mines than in Others. 1t
amounts sometimes TO OOne-fouIth, and
never less than one-twelfth- The rea-
son of this is, that Ohio drift miners
are less skillful and the operators less
dIligent in supervision.
i We can see the infancy OF the coal
trade of Ohio by the facs that one rail-
road in Pennsylvania-the Reading
carries sfteen millions Of bushels
more cuaI in q year than the whole
cOaI production in Ono. The eOai
equipment Is very detective Ia OllO ;
IL auds 20 the expense at least one hail
ID cent per busnel unnecessarily. ONO
mining needs capital 10 help II. Tnen
more waves will be paid there will be
less risks aud less waste.
| A German paper contains reply
from = Clergyman who Was travelling.
and who stopped at q hotel much IRE
lQuented by what are termed drum
mers." The host, not being used TO
have elergymen at his table, lOoked at
him with surprise; the Clerks used
all their artillery of wit upon him,