Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-04-03

the Burlington, the Wabash, the Mis-
souri, Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas &
Texas and the Sante Fe.
The Goals of the western interior
field are exclusively bituminous and
essentially steam Goals. Owing to the
irregular distribution of the coal it is
impossible to give any trustworthy es-
Inmates of the probable total yield of
the field. For the same reason coal
mining machines cannot be used as
much here as elsewhere. Mule haul,
age is most common; there is very lit
tie electric haulage in this field. The
mines are not deep. and the room and
pillar is the usual method of mining.
An unusually large percentage of
the mine laborers are English speak.
ing, either Americans or English, Welsh
or Irish. In certain camps negro labor
has been introduced as result OF
strikes OF recent years Slavs and
Italians have been coming into the re-
gion. Ten years ago the miners in
this coal field were practically unor-
ganized. From time to time they have
become better organized, until now in
Iowa the unions are in control of the
situation. This close union of the men
has, in some particulars, placed the
Iowa operators at disadvantage, but
It has undoubtedly been good for the
men themselves in many particulars,
and good for the trade as a whole in
others. One advantage has been in
steadying the trade and in decreasing
unfair competition between district
and district. A second advantage has
been in bringing the operators closer
together, with the result of putting CO.
operation in certain ways in the place
of competition With the thorough
organization of both men and operat-
ors it seems probable that miners
strikes may disappear and disagree
ments be more quickly adjusted. In
Kansas and Missouri things are not so
well adjusted. Some of the most pow.
erful companies, after long fight, de-
feated the union, and made themselves
independent as regards time and
methods of working. They find their
reward for money spent in this fact of
independence. Mr.. Balm thinks that
in the two states, as whole, however
the conditions are bad in that they are
quite unequal from point to point, and
that it is doubtful whether the results
have been altogether beneficial to the
general public.
There is no apparent reason for an
ticipating any marked change in the
steady development going on in this
field. In 1900 564 commercial mines
in sixty-one counties in Iowa, Missouri
and Kansas produced little over 49,.
100000 short tons, valued at the mines
at little less than $169O0,000 of
which 33 per cent was used as rail,
road fuel, 25 per cent for manufactur.
ing fuel and AZ per cent as domestic
fuel. The estimated capacity of the
mines in 1900 was over 1S,6O0000 short
tons. The production of this field in
1880 was about 100000 short tons;
in 1890 it was about 100000 tons; in
1900 it was a little over 13,200,000
The coal of this field is chiefly con
sumed locally, and where it is market.
ed outside the limits of the field itself
it passes north and west. To the
south and southwest it cannot compete
with the better Goals of the eastern
and interior and Appalachian fields,
which are hauled at greatly lower
rates per ton mile than are charged by
the same railways for hauling coal
shipped in Iowa, Missouri or Kansas
No single road or group of roads, how
ever, controls either traffic of produc
ton, and the problems of the independ
ent producer versus the company mine
have not as yet come to complicate the
situation.