Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1894-03-03
SEMI-LOCAL NEWS.
Here and There.

Is
in price so heavily in recent years the coal
companies and the coal dealers are exacting
such unreasonable and lndetensible figures
for coal?
Ii the Tribune is talking about semi
bitumlnouS coal, its allusion to the
coal companies is certainly unjust.
Our coal and railroad corporations
here are no more responsible for the
retail price of $3.50, for instance, in
Baltimore than the Tribune is for what
Saward calls 1000 pounds Of good
coal for So %" in New York The
'coal dealers must be the only men
the Iribnne wants to see.
The JOURNAL has held that this
region, Elk Garden and Pocahohtas
are the principal, perhaps only suffer
ers, proposed under free coal, or even
80 cent coal. The New York Times, a
very able paper, seems to hold the
same view. In an article showing that
the South and West would not be
affected, it says:
There is a nest of mining and railroad in
terests in Maryland, West Virginia and
Virginia which would be affected to some ex-
tent by the removal of this duty, for the I'M
portation Of coal from Nova Scotia into New
England would displace a certain quantity of
coal now shipped to New England from these
States.
This matter is mentioned to show
our miners that it is impolitlc to indulge
in rabid political talk of what they will
do and wont do. We are 'too little,
and too few in hill.'
The JOURNAL has also held that the
idea of increasing expectations to
recoup the loss of the New England
market is fallacious: that we are most
probably now selling all the coal
foreign consumers can take. In the
case of Canada this view seems to be
shared by Messrs. Cashier Il Curran,
agents for the Pocahontas coal COM
pany, to the Engineering and Mining
Joulnal. These gentlemen say:
The amount of bitumnous coal shipped by
the United States into Canada, while quite
large from the statistics you quote, enters Ella
Suspension Bridge and from shipping ports
adjacent and is delivered to part of Canada
which could not be reached by the product
of the Dominion coal company's mines.
Not being accessible to their own
mines, is it not more than probable
that Ontario already takes from us all
the coal wanted there
The 50 cents per ton allowed Dy the
democratic caucus of the Senate is
about equivalent to the l65 per cent. I'D
ralorem first propo ed by the JOURNAL
as involving all the concession We
could make. 1t will afford Nova
Scotia some advantage in market in
the matter of price, but the JOURNAL
believes that it will be found in the end
that, all things considered, Georges
Greek coal is cheaper. Meanwhile,
howe YER, some interruption of the
volume of shipments seems inevitable
The Coal Trade.
Shipments of coal from the mines of
the Georges Creek coal region were
in long tons
For week ending Feb. 81 1891. ........ 579SS
g year to same date. ............I2 2, 256
Decrease compared with last year...... Sc, 1872
The latest news from the markets is
CLEANED as follows:
There is a slight change for the better IN
the bltuminous coal trade, but it is yerv
slight indeed. There are few more transient
orders coming into the hands of shippers that
enable the mines to run regularly to a small
extent The trade, however, is in a miserable
condition; it looks like a case of ''dog eat
dog''-with the cost of production high from
the small shipments, and all producers cut
ting badly into their limited profits.
There is large number of cars along the
lines of the main line roads, but they are
handled so as not to create any blockade, and
the transportation to and from mines is fair,
although not as good as in the summer time.
The trade is slightly improved east of Cape
Cod, though the bulk of the business is still
done this side of the Cape"
There is no contracting as yet. The feeling
is that the present year will be a backward
one in this respect 1t is rumored that two
or three of the favored shippers from the
main line roads have bee told of coming
reduction in the seaboard rail rate, but this
lacks confirmation.
Usually at about this time of the year there
is some talk of revival of the Seaboard
Steam Coal Association, for the purpose Of
giving Stamina to the trade but this year
there has been none. The coal men APP
parently have put all there efforts into the
American Coal Trade League for the pur-
pose of meeting the proposed tariff reduction
Later, this league may be used to give back
bone to the trade, but it does not look like 1t,
irrespective of the fact that it is probably too
late now, the contract season being near by.
No part of the country, except it be the
Pacific coast, is more interested in the out
come of the tariff on soft coal than New
England 1t is too early as yet, however, to
predict results. As for the existing market,
there is very little doing. Prices are lower in
consequence of a decline in freight rates.
Cumberland ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS $50
New River and Pocahontas. 49,. 340MS3.5O
Cleartield. Observation-Disclosures. 5000 $50
Engineering and Mining Jo"r"al.
At Boston it is stated that the bitumnous
market is in a very unsettled condition there
is a small business doing in the way OF new
orders, but it is not at all satisfactory, and
tLiS rpnnrt il hnrna ont NV al from