Waterbury Democrat., 1902-12-05
lsHoRT ToNa -zooo- L,a5l.

facture was relafiYely cheap, and
 trans portation of the charcoal wa $ i less difficult than that of coal. The | introduction of anthracite and bitu- 1 minous coal in the manufacture of 1 pig iron created a revolution in the
 whole iron industry of the country. l Facilities for the manufac cture of
 iron were increased; districts which 1 had been virtually closed to the man ] ufacture because of a, local scarcity of charcoal were now opened to it; 1 production increased on large
 scale, causing cheapening of prices l and growii consumption:
 l Of the tA Q forms of mineral fuel, 1 anthracite was the first to be large | ly used in the iron industry, and it
 was only at a comparatively recent 1 period that the rela tive popularity of l the two kinds of fuel for bfast-fur-
 mace use has now just been re- | versed. -.* <.:. | One great factor which caused the
 remarkable growth of the bituminous I coal industry was the rapid growth of 1 the railway system in this country,
 
 l building of railways, interrupted by | the civil war, proce eded, as is well | known, q most rapid rate during 1 the last ITS of the sixties and the | decade beg inning with the year 1871. | From a little over 35,000 miles in 1865 1 the number of miles of railroad con- 1 structeG and operated rose to over
 1O3, ,o00 miles in 1881, and over 197,0o0 l in 1901; i. e., had almost trebled with | in the 16 years, and grown almost l sevenfold by 1901. The effect of this l development on the eas n and cen | tral coal producing sta (Pennsyl- vania, Ohio, Indiana ant .iinois) was twofold. First, by incre, sing the, de- l mand for iron as material for the cons ] struction of the railways. thus adding to the existing demand 1T coal, and, 1 second, by opening opp1 unities and 1 outlets to the shipment of coal vest ward, both for the use of the railways 1 themselves and the various industries that spring up with the advent of the
 railways. Coal constituting the largest item of expenditure in railway trans portation, especially in this country, | where distances are greater than any where else in the world, the railways became naturally interested from the 1 very beginning in obtaining their fuel at the cheapest possible price. This
 explains the close connection of the l growth of our railway system with that of the coal industry during the ! past three decades.
 Since the beginning Pennsylvania has been the Keystone state for the production of coal, and the mining of this valuable material has centered in 1 this region. Both in the production of anthracite and bitumin ous coal Penn sylvania has always been in the lead,- and this precedence has been main I tained to the present time. The Penn sylvania mines are part of the great chain which follows the Appalachian Mountain system, but in no part of the country, or in fact of the world, are 1 the mines so famous or so rich as in this state. In the following pages the. I distribution of the coal-mining indus l try among the various states will be l followed for the last 20 years only. 1 During this period there has been an immense elop1nent of the mining l industry, tie total output of anthra- ! cite increasing from 2s,621 GOO tons in
 1880 to 50, ,3O2,0o0 gross tons in 1901, while the output of bituminous in-
 creased during the same period from | fl, ,857, ,ooo to POI ,571 ,ooo gross tons:
 The production of anthracite may
 be said to have taken place entirely i'll the state of Pennsylvania. While there
 has been from time to time production | IL. s4~x Island, Virginia, Colorado and New
 Mexico, the production in those states has never amounted to more than 1 about one-fifth of one per cent. of the l total, and in 1901 it amounted to only
 59,7oO tons, or less than one per cent.
 of the total anthracite output. An 1 thracite coal may therefore be consid- cred entirely as a Pennsylvania prod
 uct, since 9o.9 per cent. of the total is I produced there.
 The central point of bituminous
 production is also in the state of Penn l rylvania Of the total of 201,571 ,0oo long tons. 3,487,o ,ooo. or over 36 per cent, were produced in Pennsylvania. l The production of this state has very rapidly increased, amounting to only ~ 1S,1O0,o00 tons in 1880 and increasing
 over 300 per cent. in 20 years. The
 total production of Pennsylvania, of
 anthracite and bituminous, ton for
 ton, is 133, 730 ,O0O tons, or 51 per cent.
 of the total production of the country.
 In 1880 the production was 46,7oo,0oo
 tons, which, though less, absolutely,
 formed a larger per cent. of the total production of those days, two-thirds
 of the total coal production being
 credited to Pennsylvania at that time.
 The average percentage for the period
 of the last 22 years from 1880 to 1901, inclusive, was 54.
 The second state in the order of pro- duction of coal is Illinois, and this pc. sition has been maintained since 1S80. 4 At present Illinois produces 24, 403 ,0o6