Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-28
NEED A NEW MARKET.
MonongaheIa Operators Cut Out of
Trade by Kanawha Coal.
1T is NOT so GOOD, BUT CHEAPER.
Relief Afforded by the Ohio River and
Lake Erie Canal.
1T WOULD OPEN UP THE NORTHWEST

Captain John Mcintyre is one who is
able to read "Ichabod" on the Pittsburg
river coal trade, and his observations on
the river trade are strong argument in
favor OF the immediate building of the Ohio
river and Lake Erie deep-water canal.
Captain Mcintyre says the last strike of
the coal miners has finally given the Pitts
burg coal trade in Cincinnati and Louis
vile to the Kanawha operators-heavy
Eastern capitalists, who are able to hold
what they get, so long as they have sup
ply of coal, and it is practically ine1hausti-
BILE in West Virginia for the next ten de-
caies. Up to within the year Pittsburg
operators controlled the bulk OF the Cincin-
natl and Louisville trade. but Captain Nc
1ntyre says that he doesn't see how they can
regain what they have lost by the last
strike, as Pittsburg coal, though none of
consequence has lately been shipped, is
still selling in those cities at a narrow mar
gin of profit.
Agitation Profitable to Some People.
There are people uncharitable enough to
intimate belief that Kanawha operators
may have distributed thousands of dollars
among agitators, as inducement to get them
to incite strikes among the Pennsylvania
miners.
Though Pennsylvania coal is worth more
than that of West Virginia for making
steam, and is generally better for ali pur-
poses, West Virginia coal is very good for
ordinary heating and cooking purposes, and
these cover the bulk of the uses of coal in
oil nd m fba
Mississippi. Then the West Virginia
seams average % per cent more in thickness
than those of Western Pennsylvania, and
the coal can be mined more cheaDly than
can that in the Pittsburg district.
Another advantage possessed bv the
Kanawna operators, says Captain Mcintyre,
is that their diggers are natives and are not
organized, nor do they show any disposition
to want organization. They and their en-
ployers get along peaceably, and at the
prices paid the men can make two to three
times as much money as they were ac-
customed to earn before the mines were
opened, at lower rates for mining than paid
here, and they are content.
Nature Helps the Kanawha Operators.
Further, there is less trouble on account
of ice on the Kanawha than on the Monon-
gahela; and finally, but not "leastly,"
Kanawha operators have three months of
shipping water more than those on the
Monongahela. and have only half the dis
tance to ship.
1t would seem strange. then, that Penn
sylvania operators, as well as iron manu-
facturers, do not tumble" to it, that all
that is left for them is to put their shekels
into the Ohio River and Lake Erie Canal
project, and open up market in the
Northwest, and secure it before the
Kanawha operators get move on and run
up the Muskingum. and by a short canal
get to Lake Erie. Even if the State Govern
ment, TO say nothing of the national, is a
large body an moves slowly, then why not
build the canal at once and then poster those
institutions to foot the bill subsequently, for