The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-05-11

COAL OBEhAIOltS ASSOClAllON
FINDS THAT THE MARKET FOR
THE LARGER SIZES OF STEAM
COAL HAS DECLINED STEADILY
BECAUSE OF THE HIGH PRICE
CIIARGED-CoMMITT BELIEVES
IN MARKETING SMALL SIZES.
THAT anthracite is constantly losing
TO bituminous is a discoui ag ng TACT
TO which reference has frequently been
made in these columns says the Phil
adelphia stakeholder. 1t is in steam
making fuel that soft coal is scoring
tremendous gains over anthracite. This
presents one Of the most complex and
difficult problems confronting anthra-
cite interests at the present time. or
comparatively little advantage is it
to regulate production and to maintain
stable and uniform price levels, when
the very efforts made in that direction
tend to favor displacement of anthra-
cite by it's rival.
THE maintenance of steady sup
ply and market for buckwheat and in
ferior sizes of anthracite coal has
taxed the powers of the Anthracite
Coal Operators association for several
years past. A committee appointed in
January to deal with this matter re-
| Gently made a report embracing con-
clusions and recommendations virtual
| ly in line with those which have been
| advanced from time to time by The
! Stockholder.
| THE committee finds that the mar
| ket for the larger sizes of steam coal,
| that is to say steamer and broken, has
| declined steadily because of the rela-
| lively higher price of coal as COM
pared with other steam producing fuel,
| and where hard coal is adhered to,
| buckwheat and smaller sizes have re-
| placed the larger.
| THERE WAS A DECREASE.
| From 1890 to 1895 the large steam
sizes sent to market decreased from
| S,965, ,13O to 6,S66,120 while buckvheat
| and rice increased from 3,755,S4l in 1890
| to 1880, ,256 in 1896. In other terms, the
| small sizes which in 1890 amounted to
| 1918 per cent. of the total shipments,
are now upward of 10 per cent, an in
crease of so per cent. in six years. OF
the increased quantity 714,994 tons
came from the washeries, leaving an
actual increase of 2,559,421 tons at the
| breakers.
while the demand for these small
steam sizes is comparatively steady
throughout the year. their output each
month varies with the demand for and
production of egg, stove and chestnut.
During the first half Of the year. when
the collieries work only two or three
days a week, production of the small
sizes is cut down, while the demand
is practically undimnished. Moreover
as the supply Of cars is limited, opera
tors find it more profitable to stock the
small sizes and use the cars only for
the more desirable domestic sizes.
I'm the last half of the year, when
general consumption is more active and
the supply of cars greater, the market
is flooded with small sizes stored in the
first half of the year. This variation
in the demand and supply is at the
root of the difficulty. Manufacturers
being unable to depend upon a supply
Of anthracite in the small sizes are
forced to turn to bituminous coal, which
can be secured in ample quantities, a
a more or less constant price, and a
all times.
"Once having gone to the necessary
expense of changing his CRATES for thi'
latter fuel, the consumer can never b,
prevailed upon to return to hard coal
the uncertainty of supply and pric'
overbalancing the advantages inheren
in the fuel itself.
MORE REGULAR SUPPLY.
"In order to maintain a permanen
2 market for anthracite steam coal, Their
must be a more regular monthly sup
; ply, and prices must be brought to
| point more nearly equal to that a
which, bituminOus coal is sold. So lonj
0 as every car allotted to a collery /
t charged against it's monthly appor
tionment of tonnage, coal operator
will not willingly ship sizes which ne
I, from Is to 60 cents where it is possibl
to store this small coal and use tn
cars for sizes which bring over 81.
"If, however, the car supply be pro
: portioned upon the output of domesti
and larger sizes, with no limit upon tn
, shipment of buckwheat and smalle
= = sizes, operators will have every incen
= tive to ship all these latter sizes pro
durable, since such shipment will b
practically all clear gain. During per
. iods of restriction when the breaker
: worl; Oply part of each week, it vii
) pick up and re-work the old culr
e banks; doubtless under such condition
# there would be a great increase in tn
e number of washeries.
e The reclamation of the enormou
quantities of available steam coal no,
above ground and lying in these dir
heaps has been advocated by tn
StocRhOlder as the most promisin
= method that can he employed for re
> sisting further encrOachment by bitr
:, minous in the markets now held by an
2, thracite.
. "The washing out of these valuabl
deposits would be highly profitable
the operators; it would guarantee tn
consumer adequate supplies all tn
year around; it would give work to en-
s. plOyes in the spring months finall!
II and not least important, it would civ
g the anthracite railroads largely il
- creased tonnage to carry, much
which would be a clear gain, and muC
of this additional tonnage would |
o. given to the roads during the early pa
IL of the year when the traffic from co;
is ordinarily small
: COMMITTEES FINDINGS.
a "rhe committees recommendation
Y cover the requirements of the situate
Y admirably. They include the elimini
= tion of cars used for buckwheat an
Q smaller sizes from the regular alo
0 ment to breakers; the establishmei
O of storage yards at central points; II
X making of lower freight rates on II