The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-02-25
INDUSTRIAL TOPICS.

One ray of sunlight has appeared
through the dark clouds surrounding
the anthracite trade. The New York
Commercial Advertiser has inspected
the record of the individual shipments
over each coal road for the first two
weeks in February. 1t says: "The
Erie, the Ontario and Western, the Sus-
quehanna and Western, and the Della
ware, Susquehanna and Schuylkill have
in these two weeks restricted their
shipments we'll within 80 per cent. of
the capacity, and in some cases even to
80 per cent. of the capacity. The larger
roads including Pennsylvania, are do
ing the same thing. The stocks of coal,
moreover, have been appreciably di-
minished since the cold weather began,
and all the roads have found that the
demand is larger than the supply now
being mined. Prices, however, at in
terror points are not merely maintained,
but are even slightly higher than last
month. 1t does not seem for the min
ute as If the cutting is anything more
than sporadic. There is much more cry
than wool in the talk of decentralization
in the coal trade. 1t seems really, that,
thanks to a very severe winter and an
awakened conscience on the part of the
Lackawanna and Pennsylvania due to
the stress of necessity, the coal trade
is steadily working out of it's trouble"
Philadelphia StockhOlder: Notwith-
standing the cold weather of the past
few weeks the feeling in anthracite
coal trade circles is unsettled, extreme
nervousness prevailing, ascribed to the
fact that belief exists that the trade
is on the verge of a general collapse.
| Certain interests are said to be prepar-
| ing for IT, The basis for the feeling Is
| the continued weakening of prices, de-
| spite the cool weather, which has large
| ly depleted dealers stocks and brought
| them into the market. The one re-
| deeming feature is that the trade is in
| position to be patched up over night
This is the single hope which every
interest il clinging to- its realization
will depend entirely upon the percent
age committee Some of the best in
formed interests feel that general col
lapse in the trade will hasten the rem
edy, but if this should result, there is
no doubt whatever that "a good many
| of the smaller concerns would go to
the wall. An official of the Lehgh Val
committee has now complete figures
| for the year 1893, but so far it has been
| impossible to obtain them for 1894. He
| believed that temporary re-adjust-
ment Of percentages would be made on
a basis Of the figures for 1893, and that
a permanent arrangement may be eff
| fected after last years figures shall
| have been received. The figures of the
| bureau of anthracite coal statistics
| show that so far this month the out
put has been about as agreed upon at
| the meeting of sales agents in January.
| The daily average has been about SO,lS
| tons, which, If continued, would mean
months production of 2,245,264 tons.
For the week ended Feb 8 shipments
| aggregated 524, ,905 tons, a decrease com
| pared with the same week last year of
| q 1927 tons. The Lehigh and Schuylkill
regions both show decreases in ship
ments. but the Wyoming regions in
| creased by 13,S43 tons. For the year to
that date shipments aggregated $751;
| 800 tons, against 3,435, 937 tons last year,
an increase of 295, ,2S5 tons.
! Philadelphia Inquirer: The Lehigh
| Navigation annual report presents two
| features of the utmost importance.
| First, the profit on mining coal i'm 1894
was very small, the Lehigh Navigation,
| whose product has the highest reputa-
| ton in the market, making a profit of
only 10 cents ton, against "a cents n
ton in 1898. However that Is better
than the Lehigh Valley, which made
| l71h cents, and much better than the
| Reading, which made less than cents.
| But this small profit in mining Is but
| temporary and will be recovered from
as soon as business improves. The sec
ond feature, and by far the most import
| ant, is the decrease in the receipts from
| transporting coal. The average reve-
| nue. per ton on the Lehigh and Susque-
| hanna railroads coal traffic last year
! was 5675 cents. In 1893 the average
was 6377 cents. There has been re-
duction therefore of about III per cent.
This loss, unlike the decrease i'm the
profits on mining, Is almost entirely n
permanent loss. The price of coal at
the mines often changes, but there is no
case in the history of the trade when
the transportation rates were perman-
emily advanced. The whole tendency of
transportation cost Is downward and
once reduction Is made 1t Is pract-
cally impossible to return to the old
rates This Is really the most serious
problem i'm the anthracite situation
The tonnage question, perplexing as II
is, can be adjusted. If not before a fight
then after one, but this matter of
freight rates is ten times as difficult to
deal with. When the Lehigh Valley