New-York tribune., 1902-05-18
A COAL FAMINE AT HAND
DEALERS SAY SUPPLY is NOT
10000 TONS.
THEY ARE WARNING THEIR CUSTOMERS
THAT THEY NAY HAVE TO Do
WITHOUT ANTHRACITE.

An anthracite coal famine is actually at hand
the coal dealers now say, and in a short time
those VINO have not a supply of anthracite coal
will have to burn bituminous coal or do without
This was the authoritative statement expressed
by the representatives of several we'll known
firms yesterday. who preparing for what is
believed to be the inevitable and have warned
their customers.
William Half. a nliddIeman at No l Broad
way. said that people who wanted anthracite
ten days hence may have to pay so a ton for IT,
Judging from the present outlook. Others said
that by tnat time there might be anthracite
on the market at all.
one or two meetings of small retail coal deal
Prs were held on the East and West Sides yes
terday. but they informal, and action
taken. The members of the Retail Coal
Dealers Exchange will meet on Wednesday. at
FIfty-eighth-st. and Lexington-ave.. and vote
on making an additional advance the price
Of coal 10 consumers.
Henry s Fleming, secretary of the Anthracite
Coal Opera tors Association, which is composed
Of independent operators. said that there
little or no anthracite in stock in any of the
storage plants. which ordinarily filed to
90 per cent Of their capacity at this time of The
year. The scarcity was principally owing To the
business boom. which he'd continued during the
last two years. and especially the last ten
months There were new factories and steam
plants Of all kinds starting up in these good
times. and the supply of anthracite little more
than equalled the demand. During the strike
agitation Of the last month. the miners were not
working hard. he said. Mr.. Fleming then made
the following startling statement:
Some one has estimated the supply of coal
Dn the market for the greater New-York at
three hundred thousand tons Divide that by
+E,a RI 7
ton if there thirty thousand tons OF an
thracite available. It is the same everywhere.
In the coal storage plants at South Amboy at
Mshanoy City, at Pottsville, Penn. and several
other places where there formerly a large
supply there was less than fifty thousand tons
On hand These depots have a storage capacity
Of millions Of tons. and are usually 80 per cent
full this time"
Superintendent Abel. of Blaisden & Curtis
wholesale and retail coal dealers. at No. 100
Liberty-st.. said that the firm had informed it's
customers to he ready to soft coal at any
time other firms. he said. were following the
same course. Mr. Abel had sent two
men out to collect statistics of the coal on the
market in the city, and they had visited every
depot. Based these figures, he estimated
that there was lot anything like thirty thousand
tons Of anthracite on the market.
There are the figures" he continued. There
are 30 tons of pea coal 1,040 tons Of buck
wheat, 1000 tons Of egg. stove and chestnut:
2J0 tons of mixed. and 300 tons of culm coal"
Mr.. Abell said that to this might he added
several thousand tons held in reserve by small
retailers, say, 1900 tons, which the anthracite
companies could release. and several thousand
tons which might have been overlooked In all
not much over twenty-five thousand tons was
in sight.
The coal carrying companies he continued
have placed an embargo on all the anthracite
they control not 10 put up the price but because
1hev want il to run their trains They will be
willing to release il at the old rates If they
can. There is ordinance in this city against
using soft coal but If anthracite cannot be had
the law must become a dead letter, or business
would go to the bad This strike is going to be
contested the last ditch. Defeat to the Strik
ers would now mean the breaking up Of their
union. OF course they would begin over again,
but in the mean time factions would start up
and the leaders would find themselves in bad
shape"
One Of the best known wholesale coal dealers
said he was ordering coal a ton at a time,
the customers wanted II. They had simply TO
pay what was asked. Those who had not laid
IN their winter supplies last month had to take
their chances.
Anthracite was offered by wholesale yesterday
afternoon at S6 a. A ton. This 81 - ton
j is said that few of the propretors of steam
plants have a fortnights supply Of anthracite,
and most of them have much less.