Morning journal and courier., 1881-02-08
PENNsYLVANIA.

l The Coal Famine-UnusuaIly Heavy
 Consumption-shipme delayed by 1 Severe Weather.
 PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 7.-There has not been such famine of coal in many years as
 now exists. The cold weather has pre-
 vented anything like the usual work at the
 mines, for operators cannot get the miners | to work at all in such weather as we have
 had for the past week or two. The collieries l have been in operation nominally on full time, but there has not been an average of
 two days of full work during the week. Meanwhile, the consumption of coal has been | large and constant. In the East the winter
 has been so severe that supplies have been exhausted much earlier than usual, and man. | ufacturers have found the stock at the mills going of at rapid rate. Along the line
 furnaces have. been busily employed and others have gone into blast, that the de-
 mand from that source has been greater than 1 for the winter months of any year in the last seven. In the city the winter has proved exceptionally severe, and large dealers have been put to their wits end to answer the calls upon them. The West, too has had famine which has put the price of coal higher than it has been since anthracite coal was first generally in- troduced. For this scarcity there are other reasons The movement of cars is necessa- rily very slow in the extremely cold wsathe and, with the heavy snow storms that have
 been so prevalent, the switches have been clogged and side tracks encountered so that there has been a very unusual delay in the delivery along the line, which has made cars slow of return. Motive power also is easily thrown out of gear, accidents are frequent and the cause of vexatious delays. The re- suit has been to cause very serious trouble to the trade. Too late consumers find the risks of the hand-to-mouth policy that they have pursued. Private consumers are short, and the dealers have orders for ten times as much coal as they have on hand.
 The sudden demand has brought about, al most as great panic as in the iron trade last summer, for the furnaces and the manufac- tories are all clamorous for coal, and afraid that they cannot get it. There is no longer any question of size, quality or price, only of supply. Everybody is in need, and the trans portation companies cannot send it forward fast enough, even if the miners could get it out; nor is the outlook in the bituminous market much better. It is not B ques- tion of prices, it is only a matter of possibility of shipment There are many miners in the Clearfeld region
  for lack of cars, and shippers have been un- able to meet their eastern contracts. The Pennsylvania railroad company is adding new equipment every day, but it's shops have been utterly unable to keep pace with it's constantly growing coal trade. It is quite patent that as long as full work at the mines means only about one-third of the usual con- sumption there need be little talk of any sus- pension and the number of orders on the books-now far greater than at any time in the past three months-fully warrants the l companies in keeping at work on full time | until April 1st at least, when the spring sea- son opens. There ought to be at least 100, 900 tons at each of the tidewater shipping points, and now there is very little with the present ! outlook, the West taking all the coal that can ! be shipped in that direction and at full l prices, and all the local and line yards bare. ! It is quite apparent that the companies will ! be unable to accumulate any large amount | on the wharves until navigation is fairly l open. There are at present number of | loaded schooners in the river awaiting 8 1 chance to get out in safety, and the colliers l even have to allow considerably longer time l for voyage.