Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-17
COAL AGAIN TO BE KING.
The BituminOus Product May Soon
Be Used for Speculation.
A NEW SERIES OF SNAKE STORIES,
Attention Of the Assessors Called to River
Front Lands.
AN EXPERIENCE on A WESTERN FARM


Whitney & Stephenson the other day mads
interesting food for thought The different
footholds for speculation outside of railways
and other corporate stocks have hitherto
been cotton, grain of various kinds, petro-
leum, sugar, coffee, anthracite coal and
lately cottonseed oil, but from the tenor Of
conversation at the meeting referred to there
will be an enlargement Bituminous coal
was the subject under consideration and il
was stated by one who spoke, no. as the
scribes, but as one having authority in the
speculative field. that the next speculative
commodity would be bituminous coal, and,
SAID he, Andy Carnegie has finger in
Frick's pie; he's behind Friek's schemes,
The subject was started by a remark that
some combination bad lately secured several
thousand acres of coal up the Monongahela.
Said the speaker: ''This thing has been
going on on the quiet Tor a long time and
when natural gas gives out coal will be
king"
The discussion lasted for some time. DUR
ing which listener picked up the follow
ing points: Fifteen years ago General D.
d. Hastings was employed at a modest sal
ary, merely made a living. Five years ago
ne was still poor man, that IS, in the mod
ein dCceptdLIOn OF Lne term.
Hastings Good Fortune in Coal
To-day be is worth million and half
OF dollars, and is at the head of the second
largest coal company in the State. at least
In the semi-bituminous district And Gen.
eral Hastings is but one of hundreds who
nave been quietly securing blocks of coal
In Western Pennsylvania Heretofore an
thracite coal stocks were the only ones that
have cut an especial figure in the stock mar
kets, but within few years the bituminous
fields will be objects of equal if not greater
interest. and then the people will wake to
hnd that they are in strong hands and under
the control of comparatively few people as
In the anthracite region, where six men are
said to fix price. To-day coal land is worth
In this section fully 30 per cent more than
1t was year ago, an evidence that the few
remaining land owners have caught onto
the movement and propose to share the profit
with the coming kings.
An examination of the files of THE Dis
PATCH for the past 80 days will show that
the people discussing the matter in the
office named are right as to the enormous
absorption, scarcely day On which there
was not noted either the final purchase of a
Dlock or the securing OF an option thereon.
When natural gas first came into general
use IN and about this city coal in the yicin-
ity Of Bridgeville couli scarce be given
away. but within a year past it has been ab-
sorbed In large and small patches wherever
readily accessible at constantly advancing
prices. Mr.. John D. Scully, of the Dia-
mond National Bank, has collared an i'm
mense amount He has some 5000 acres in
the meek" between Whitehall and Nc
Keesport which he estimates is worth $500
more per acre than coal that must be hauled
80 miles to the point of consumption. the
mileage cost of hauling being mills, org
cents per ton in a 30-mile haul. This block
is right at the doors of the largest manu-
featuring interests in the United States.
Location of the Purchases.
Whitney & Stephenson's coal land pu,-
chases are also adjacent to points of large
and they have an immense
acreage secured and evidently feel that they
can bide their time, the time when it will
be in demand to supply energy to an indus
trial movement greater than anY hitherto
recorded in history, ancient or modern.
sacred or profane. Scientists say that solar
energy will some day do our manufactur-
ing, cook our food and do all and more
.han coal and natural gas are now doing,
but their predictions do not as yet affect
,osl stocks and are not expected to do 80 for
'ome generations to come, and before that
lime all the coal in Pennsylvania that can
be reached without shafting will be ex-
laustsd.
Reader, have you ever considered how
much coal furnished by this neighborhood
will be necessary to answer the demand
when natural gas becomes a luxury? Il
will, only present consumption considered.
ust require ten acres per day to supply the
oittsburg mills and the Northwest. and if
efficient enterprise is developed to dig that
anal from the mouth of the Beaver to Laks
erie the latter consumption will be enor-
nously increased. This, remember, 10 in
ddltion to the enormous amount shipped
y river. Human imagination is scarcely
efficiently expansive to compass it.
The Facilities Not Sufficient
Mr.. Stephenson suggests possible situa-
on not pleasant to contemplate. 1t is that
hould the natural gas supply fall off until
would be necessary to go back to coal in
lis city, rolling mills and blast furnaces
'ould be compelled to shut down for time.
; present facilities for handling coal here
ould be insufficient TO more than supply
omestic consumption.
1t is q condition and not theory. Dur
lg the past five years coalyards have been
oandoned and converted to other uses, un-
| there is now comparatively little coal
orage room. OF course, it will be secured
necessary, but ad interim there will be
me tall bustlIng necessary. Miles upon
lies, during these five years, of the dinky
al cars once used in the trade have been
Irned, merely to get the iron In them, and
I'd now coal-car capacity is 30 tons.