New-York tribune., 1902-05-24
MANY Use SOFT COAL.
DEMAND CAUSES SCARCITY IN
BITUMINOCS SUPPLY.
SLIGHT ADVANCE IN PRICE-BCRNED
PRINCIPALLY IN HIGH BUILDINGS
OPERATORS DECLARE THEIR
STAND UNALTERABLE

Neither the order OF Mitchell to the pump
men and engineers TO quit work on June at
the anthracite mines unless they receive the
eight hour working dav nor the efforts of the
civic Federation 10 bring about peace will alter
the stand taken by the coal operators. accord
ing to representatives of the coal carrying roads
who were seen yesterday They said that no
conferences over the situation would be held
during the day and that so far as the opera
tors were concerned. no conferences were needed.
Soft coal was used very largely in this city
yesterday on account OF the scarcity of anthra-
cite. The Sound steamers began TO burn II gen.
orally the colley" as the SCOT deposit is called.
falling however on the river instead of being
blown into the city Soft coal mixed with
anthracite was burned In the furnaces of the
North American Trust Building. Nos. 135 and
l37 Broadway. The smoke was very palpabie,
but, as the building is very tall one ii was
dissipated I'm the upper air. Superintendent
Traver of the building said that the smaller
sizes of anthracite burned better when mixed
with soft coal. He believes that nuisance
could be avoided II soft coal stocked prop
erly
In The. engine room of the Broad Exchange
Building appliances have been put in to con-
sumo the smoke ca used by soft coal. and soft
coal is now being consumed there without Great
ing smoke. At Lords Court Building which ad-
Joins it, "A representative of the house man
agement said that soft coal had been ordered
and would be burned when the present supply
of hard coal which would last only short
time, exhausted
In other tall downtown buildings soft coal was
freely consumed, especially in the Wall Street
district. The stand is taken by their superin-
tendents that their use of it is not, far,
nuisance. as in tall buildings, when only one
or tNDo hp
the street, and the city ordinance aims. not at
the burning of soft coal. but at the nuisance
from its consumption.
The demand for soft coal caused a scarcity
of that article in the afternoon. only the
cheaper grades were in the market. The whole
sale price quoted was So 30 a ton. the schedule
price being 81 %. and no retail price has been
arranged.
In the morning a number OF small dealers
along the New-Jersey coast of the Hudson and
in Staten Island. who had been holding stocks
of anthracite, put 1t on the market at whatever
price it would bring. The quantity set free
too small however. to affect the general supply.
The retail dealers generally stood by their
promises not raise the retail price higher than
ST 81 ton until some new concerted action is
taken by the dealers. One or two Manhattan
firms broke away from the agreement and sold
a few tons at SIS and So 80 but this was an ex-
ception. One of the best known dealers said:
No good can be done by raising the price of
anthracite any higher. We don't want TO sell
it, and there is practically none for sale,
and there is no in starting a panic when
II can be avoided. At this time of the year the
present scarcity of anthracite is a serious
problem"
Various unveriied reports yesterday
evening about alleged attempts of outsiders to
bring about more conferences between the
miners and the operators. William Moore of
Manning, Maxwell Moore, was asked If a re-
port that he had been asked to bring about such
a conference was true but declined TO say any
thing the subject-or confirm or deny the re-
port
There a slight advance yesterday in the
price of bituminous coal by the cargo That
product, the wholesalers say is becoming scarcer
every day and unless a larger supply is received
here in few days the price is expected to take
another and much larger jump