Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-29
ATALE OF TWO INDUSTRIES.

sumption, by the Philadelphia PreSs, has
led that journal to recognize fact of the ut
most industrial Importance. Twenty years
ago the national consumption of coal was
80, ,86S, 900 tons, half produced by the anthra-
cite Mines Since then, in addition to the
growth of population, railroad building and
iron making, great share of the population
have, by the exhaustion of the forests, been
compelled to change from wood fuel to coal.
The result is last year the total consumption
of coal in the United States was four and
half times that Of 1870. or 145, ,O0O, 900 tons,
while the output of anthracite was sc, 600, 600
tons, or not quite two and half times as much
as 1870. To make the contrast clearer, the out
put of bituminous has increased nearly 600
per cent, while the output of anthracite has
increased about 140 per cent, or less than
quarter as much.
This contrast between expansion in the
two branches of the industry is so radical
thas it is we'll worth attention, especially
OF those interested in the anthracite indus
try. The Press says bituminous coal is
cheaper, more accessible and more easily
mined. But this explanation will not serve,
as the result from the same risk and labor
is greater in mining anthracite than in min
ing bituminous. The bituminous miner is
probably better paid for his work and haz-
ard, at 70 cents per ton, than the anthracite
miner at one dollar; but if the ton of btu
minous contains 500 heat units, the ton of
anthracite will yield nearly 600. making the
f,,o hxy fho 1oho
the anthracite miner about 80 per cent
cheaper in cost of mining, than the btu.
minous.
This leaves unsettled the grave question
presented by the Press in the following forcl-
BILE language:
If the output of anthracite had grown in the
last twenty years as bituminous has. the mines
in this State would be turning out 100 900
tons year. or full thrice their production for
last year, when the mines were only worked
about 20 days, or half time. Such production
would have doubled the wages of all engaged
in anthracite mining and made a season more
prosperous than any in war times. But neither
the combinations of labor nor the agreements
of capital, neither unions nor pools, can main
tain wages or protect profits during twenty
years In which the anthracite coal mines have
sunk from supplying half the coal needed in
the United States to furnishing between fifth
and fourth.
The way In which the anthracite industry
lags behind the bituminous cannot be at
tributed to an exhaustion of the anthracite
deposits. That field, like the Pittsburg BIZ
luminous district, is practically inexhausti-
BILE for generations to come. Our Philadel-
phia cotemporary comes close to the real
cause in commenting on the economic blum
der of working miners on half time; but as
as it also speaks of 'opening mines in ex-
cess of the needs of trade" it is legitimate
to conclude it does not recognize the
real cause, of which the half-time work is
only an incident The real reason of the
difference is that since 1870 combination has
had complete sway of the anthracite indus
try. 1t has prevented competition from cut
ting down the prices of coal, and the charges
for transporting and distributing it, to the
level for which general enterprise is willing
to perform such services. On the other hand,
the bituminous industry has been opened to
competition, making its prices encourage
the expansion of trade.
1t costs no more to haul and handle a ton
OF anthracite than ton of bituminous; yet
the combination policy has maintained
freight charges on anthracite double those
at which the bituminous roads do a profit
able traffic. Extend the same excess of
charges through the entire operation OF
handling and distributing anthracite coal,
and it is no longer wonder that prices have
kept its growth lar below that of bituminous.
If the same competition had prevailed in
the anthracite industry as in the bituminous,
the mines which the Press speaks of as in
excess of the needs of trade would not have
more than supplied the demand at cheap
ened prices. The economic waste of capital
and labor kept idle half the year would have
been avoided. The superior heating power
of anthracite coal would have commanded
a wide market for it The blast furnaces in
the anthracite regions would not have been
compelled to transport coke hundreds of
miles in order to produce pig iron at the
market prices. In short, the statistical con-
trast the Press has brought out is a telling
illustration of the restrictive and strangllng
effect of the combination policy, compared
with the expansion and prosperity that at
tend upon legitimate composition.