Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1898-05-28

Pllt ttoCc 40 lhC NOShtL
system"
There are other similar expressions,
but the one named suffces for present
treatment.
In giving it special attention let US
indulge first little history.
Years ago when Georges Creek was
practically the only region that shipped
coal to New England the slate com
plant was rarely. if ever heard of.
Why?
Because there tcaS no c0mpetHjon
When, however, Clearfield, New
River, Pocahontas and Beech Creek
came, one by one, into market--any-
one of them with a productive ca
pacity equal to or greater than ours. it
became a question of ''the survival of
the fittest.'
And now the shipper who sends
slaty coal to market from any Of HoSe
regions simply cann0t sell it, SO true is
this that some coal corporations en-
plOy coal inspectors at tidewater ship
ping points to find and carefully elm
mate whatever the slate-pickers at the
mines have missed.
These remarks are preliminary to
the consumers side of the case, for he
is "the monarch of all he surveys
when he comes to buying coal. He
no more wants slaty coal than the
miner wants dirty store goods. He
may be fastldious and "fnicky' about
the matter, but the fact that he chooses
to be so is "a condition and not a
theory"-a condition that has to be
reckoned with.
In very many, if not most manufac-
turing concerns wherein coal is largely
used, the work is very heavy. taxing
engines to their utmost tension-en-
gines run by engineers and tiremen
constantly on the lookout for excuses
for inadequate speed or power. A
fireman finds in the coal piece of
slate weighing a pound or more. Re-
ports to engineer. Latter reports to
buyer. Slate is expressed to the seller
accompanied by letter reading about
as follows:
Last coal received from you not up to the
standard; very slaty; could not keep up
steam. We accordingly expect you to make
reduction on the price of the last ca,yo.
There is not a shipper of coal on the
Atlantic seaboard who cannot produce
letters in substance as given.
The shipper replies in effect that it
is impossible that the coal could have
contained any large amount of slate,
and that he will send someone to in
vestigate.
Someone" is sent-at a cost of H25
or more. The customer produces his
engineer and fireman, who stick to it
that the coal was saty and did not
produce results.
The evidence, all on the cust0mer's side,
goes against the seller. and if the Gus
TONER'S trade be valuable, an allow
ance of five or ten cents per ton is
conceded to him.
An average cargo is about twelve
hundred tons hence, a complaint of
slate costs the shipper anywhere from
$25 to $l45 or more, and, in addition,
he mcurs the risk Of tossing his customers
trGde altogether!
Consequently, no amount OF ''dock-
lng' can repay an operator for slate
In coal. With the miner on one side
recklessly accusing him of an SIN
famous practice and the consumer
on the other holding him to rigid ac-
count because he does not make the
''practice' more infamous" he oc-
cupies a very wobbly and slippery
foothold "between the devil and the
deep sea-
This is a true story, and the lesson
of it is that "docking" is necessary
evll-one of those which force upon
the miner a choice between loss of par
tial pay on account of oversight, or
carelessness, or both, and loss of par
tial or all employment.
All remonstrance against it, there
fore, falls helplessly at last at the feet
OF the consumer, who, as before
stated, is the final dictator in the
premises.
1t is more than probable, therefore,
incredible as it may seem to some, that
1.-THE infamous docking SYSTEM" in
stead of really robbing miners, is keep
ing hundlvds 0fthem in qr0yk