The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-02-04
COAL IN EUROPE AND AMERICA.
The American Miner Has No Equal for
Production.

! The American Miner Has No Equal for
Production.
| There are statistics to show that the
] American miner can produce nearly
! twice as much coal as he German or
/ English miner. His daily product is
/ about three times as much as that of q
Belgian miner. By the improvement
| of machinery the cost of producing a
! ton of coal at the mouth of the pit in
the United States in the ten years be-
| tween 1853 and 1893 was reduced from
| S1.57 to S1.29. II a recent report made
by United States Consul William T.
Grinnell. of Manchester, Eng, some in
teresting comparisons are made in the
cost of production and quantity of coal
In the United States, Great Britain,
Belgium, Austria, France and Germany
In the decade named a moment ago.
Mr.. GrinneIl shows that while in 1888
the coal output in Great Britain was
1913, 100000 tons, ten years later 1t was
but 164 800, 900 tons. He also shows
that the value of 4 ton at the mouth OF
the pit in 1886 was but S1.17, and that
seven years later it had grown to S1.65.
TO produce this quantity of coal in 1898
in Great Britain required the services
of $4,000 persons. To produce the
quantity named for 1888 required the
services of but 471,OO0 persons. TO
account for this increased cost and
increased numbers the consul suggests
the constant tendency to reduce the
hours of labor of those employed in
raining, the greater depth at which
the coal is mined, requiring additional
machinery in hosting it to the sur
face, and the necessity imposed upon
the miners of working under less ia
vorable conditions by reason of the
great depths. The consul shows that
IN 1888 the annual average production
of each mine was BAT tons. Ten years
later it was but 256 tons.
In Germany the entire annual prod
uct in ten years between 1883 and 1893
only grew about 100000 tons, max
ing an aggregate in 1893 of 100000
tons. The cost in this time of ton of
coal at the mouth of the pit grew from
S1.27 to S1.64. The conditions in Eng
land and Germany appear TO have been
the same. The figures are not given
for 1893 in France, but for 1892 the
coal product was but G5,000,0o0 tons,
the value of each Of which at the mouth
OF the pit being S242. There were
10000 F'renchmen engaged in mining
coal, and their average product for
the year was but 1877 tons. In Belgium
the annual product was 100000 tons,
and the cost at the mouth of the pit
S1.s1 ton; the average annual output
of each miner was 166 tons. In Aus
tria the annual product is 100000
tons, and the cost S1.25 a ton, the ca
pacity of each miner 200 tons per an
1tum. The quantity of coal produced in
the United States grew between 1888
and 1893 from 103, 100000 tons to 1884,
600, 900, the product of 1893 being very
nearly that of the product of the
United Kingdom, to produce which re-
quired but 363, 900 miners, as compared
with the United Kingdoms $4,000.
The American miner produced on an
average 44S tons per annum. The Amer
lean miner has the advantage of i'm
proved machinery and a disposition
not only to get to work early in the
morning, but to work harder than do
miners on the other side of the At
Times-Star.