The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1892-04-01

fg5HTyHE ~ y lAl anu NdNlRbllOu
W. =--'-.- Company, which have
attracted considerable attention since their
publication few days since
In tbs pat the general prospect of min
ing has been to leave so much coal stand
ing as pillars between the chambers out of
which the coal is being taken as to keep the
rock roof from falling, the amount required
for this purpose varying from one-quarter
to one-half of the whole content OF the
bed. The waste from this source will be
greatly reduced in the future by some OF
the various methods practiced in European
countries, such as blasting down the over
laying rock and building of this material
walls to serve as pillars, so that the coal
pillars may be taken out.
After the coal has been hoisted from the
mines large percentage is destroyed for
practical purposes in the process of break
ing and screening it into sizes suitable for
marketing, which two operations are tech.
nically te' med preparing" the coal
These operations result in reducing large
portion of the coal to sizes too fine for the
market, the percentage of waste from this
source varying greatly, being comparative
ly small where the coal is tough and the
best appliances for breaking are used and
| large where the coal is friable and the
breaking machinery is unsuitable On the
whole, the average waste in preparation"
in the past has not fallen much short of
twenty per cent. of the coal hoisted from
the colieries. This has been much dimin-
ished of late years chiefly by the utiliza.
tion of the smaller sizes of coal. This
economy has progressed so far that where
as not more than ten years ago most of the
coal was thrown away that was of sizes
smaller than pea coal, which corresponds
in size to an ordinary chestnut, there is
now general marketing Of all sizes of coal
d, wn to mo buckwheat," which is
about the size of grains of Indian corn
This is an enormous saying, for these
sizes, which were wasted ten years ago,
amount at some collieries to more than
twenty per cent of the whole production
The time that will elapse before the total
exhaustion of the anthracite supply de-
pends. of course, on the rate at which it is
used. We have, as before stated, reached
An annual consumption of 10000, 600 tons,
and this consumption has been for years
increasing at the rate of four per cent. per
Annum. But it is not likely that this rate
of increase will long continue. The whole
coal field is SO we'll supplied with collieries,
that some parts of it are now so near their
probable maximum rate of yield, that it
may be assumed that the annual output
will never be increased more than fifty per
cent. above the present amount. If the
limit of annual product is placed at co.
600, 0OO tons, we should have coal at this
average rate for about 100 years, though
this period may be so newhst prolonged by
the diminution of the output as parts of the
field cease altogether to produce.
The recent consolidation of the interests
of several of the largest trsnsporters o
anthracite, which together carry to msrke
about ffty-seven per cent of the tota
product, has caused much comment anC
provoked some criticism. The protector
of this movement expect to benefit them
selves without injury to the consumer b.
mining more cheaoly, which they can d,
through the cessation of work at the ex
pensiVe collieries, thus permitting the NOR
constant operation of the profitable ones
by transporting more eheaply, because tn,
business will be better systematized, and
moving more regularly, will not require 81
large transportation equipments and By
marketing more cheaply, as each interes
need no longer employ agents to undersel
the others. A firm maintenance of th,
published prices may prevent the larges
purchasers from obtaining such advantages
over the smaller consumers as they have
been able to get in the past; but the price Of
coal need not be advanced to the ordinary
buyer, and very considerable gain to the
producer and transporter can be made out
of the conservation of the energy which
has been hitherto wasted in the friction OF
the parts.
This movement is one of many attempts
which are now being made to get away from
the false idea that competition is the sole
law which should regulate trade, and to
base industrial operations on the truer
thought that business should rest on organi-
cation, cooperation and reasonable con-
sideration for the prosperity of others, In