Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1894-01-30
Our Coal interest.
MteNfgeaay Discussed by Ea.-Ge0.
wilson.


We regret that want of space pre-
vents our publishing in full an inter-
view with Ex-Governor E Willis
Wilson. which was published in the
Wheeling Register. as To tile effect. in
his judgment. of the passage by
Congress of the Wilson hill upon
the coal industry of West Virginia.
The Governor, with his accustomed
honesty of purpose and vigor of ex-
preston, goes to the pith of the
thing and shows by reason and by
facts that West Virginia has nothing
to fear from coal on the free list
He says, among other things:
Speaking of Nova Scotia coal, it
should be remembered that we have
no competition for coal used for do
nestle or home purposes anywhere
along the Atlantic coast. The peO-
pie use anthracite coal, which they
burn in furnaces and heaters. The
open CRATE in the Eastern States is a
novelty rather than a service. The
great body of West Virginia coal
shipped to the seaboard is used on
steamers engaged in coast and for
eign trade. The whole of the out
put from the Flat-top coal fields goes
East for that purpose, and so does
nearly all of the output from the New
River mines. The balance is used
on locomotive engines and for steam
ing purposes. There is no such
thing in question as Nova Scotia coal
competition. The analysis of the best
Nova Scotia ccaI exhibited at the
Columbian Exposition shows SO per
cent. of carbon, 80 per cent. of Vola-
tile matter, 4 per cent. of ash and
1 per cent. of sulphur.
at is hardly necessary to say that
that amount of sulphur in this coal
renders it an undesirable article and
the paucity of carbon puts it out of
the contest with the New River and
Flat-Top coal, which averages up to
about 80 per cent. of carbon, with
but the slightest trace of sulphur in
it. Steamers-especially passenger
steamers cannot afford to use the Nova
Scotia coal for two very substantial
reasons: First, the steamship that
expects trade must make time. and
must have the best coal with which
10 do it. Loss of time means a loss
of trade. West Virginia took the
first award on cooking coal against
the world at the Columbian Exposi-
ton. Second, loss in one days
time in crossing the Atlantic means
a loss of at least 81 900 in the cost
of coal alone. This may be readily
understood from the fact that any
first-class ocean steamer will con-
sumo at least IL tons of coal per
hour, or nearly 800 tons per day. the
average price being SIS per ton. If
Atlantic steamers desired to use No
va Scotia coal instead of ours why
do they not stop at Halifax, which is
right on the track of the Gulf stream.
and take coal, instead of coming to
New York to get their fuel? And il
the minc-owners of Nova Scotia are
going to successfully compete with
our coal why don't they do it now ?
If Nova Scotia coal were in fact n
competitive coal with ours its compe-
tition could possibly be no where
else except in seaport towns and
| cities, for it could not be unloaded
from the ocean vessels, placed on
cars and carried to inland towns and
cities for competitive purposes.
81 have made no calculation of the
population, but think that from
Portland, Maine, to the Gulf of
Mexico the population of the sea-
port towns and cities will not exceed
eight million, 80 that this whole bug
aboo, from any view you may take
of it, amounts to nothing more than
the question whether we are to have
competition in the coal trade with
eight million people while the re-
mainder of the seventy millions of
the population of the country are
consumers of the products of the
coal mines"