The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-18
Told Arbitration Commission All About TeRnesse Company OPERATORS CASE CLOSED Miners Had Witness Giving Rebuttal Testimony-Attendan on Pro-
 ceedings of Commission
 Larger Yesterday.

Notwithstanding the fact that the ele-
 vator in the city hall which broke down | on Saturday, was still out of use the attendance at the Arbitration commits sion hearing yesterday was even larger | than on any previous day. It will be several days before it is repaired. l The members of the commission look | ed refreshed by their Sunday rest and | large field was covered by the testi- mony of the day.
 | Don II. Bacon, president of the Ten | nessee Coal Iron and Railroad company, was on the stand most of the day. | He testified in substance as follows: I am president of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company and chair | man of the board of directors. I spend about half of my time in New York and the other half here. I have been chair
 man of the board of directors since Jan
 uary, 190f and president since May, 1902 | was with the Minnesota Iron company | before coming to Alabama. It was for many years an independent cmpany, but | in 1898 it merged with the Illinois Steel | company into the Federal Steel company and then became a part of the United | States Steel company. Witness here puts | in a statement taken from the books of
 the Tennessee company showing the pro- duction of the company from 1895 to 1902. Output Figures.
 l In 1895 the production of the company
 was as follows: Coal, S,7l1,O60 tons coke | e19,214 tons, and pig iron 699 tons. In | 1902 the output was: Coal, 3,754,0H tons; | coke, 1,199005 tons; pig iron, ,694 tons
 and steel, 145,729 tons.
 l Witness offers list of iron production from the official report of the produc- | tion of the Lake Superior iron mines | from 1894 to 1902. This report shows that the tonnage in 1894 was 7.74S,312 tons and | In 1902 it was 7,51,12l tons.
 Witness offers statement of land office showing acreage of Tennessee Coal. Iron and Railroad company, showing total acre. | age of company to be Al, 900 acres divided as follows: 260,000 acres coal lands in Ala
 bama and 5000 acres in Tennessee. 5000
 acres of ore lands in Alabama. 800 acres
 in Tennessee and 1500 acres not classified. Equipment Run Down. When I entered the service of the Ten
 nessee company in 1901 continued the wit
 ness, the equipment of ore mines was
 the worst ever saw excepting at an aban l doned mine. Some of it had been put in | sixteen years before. It might have been | fairly efficient when the mines were shall low. There were something over fifty boil l CTS, many of which have been condemned.
 and many now in use should go into the
 scrap pile.
 We need new boilers, hosting machines and new compressors. We have had to
 build many new houses and other build ngs. The work will not be completed
 until well along in 1904 The necessary expenditures and estimates aggregate from $SO0,O0O to s9O0,000 These were neo- essary to put the ore mines on parity
 with other well equipped competitors. We
 will have to spend still more on them.
 The hard ore body of the Tennessee com pany shows an average of about 10 feet. The United States Steel company has
 veins from 20 to 100 feet in width with an
 angle of 50 to 70 feet. Those are the old mines on the Menominee Marquette and vermiion ranges, the new mines are on
 the Mesaba range and the ore varies
 from 50 to 300 feet.
 The dirst above is six inches to one hundred feet thick. Steam shovels re- move the dirt and then steam ehovels remove the ore. In the Mesaba range the ore can be put on the cars, counting all cost of mining and hauling, for 12 cents a ton The vein runs 50 to 65 per cent in metallic iron.
 The soft red ore here carries more metallic iron and Is easier mined than
 the red ore lower down, but 1t is nearly gone.
 The hard red ore is the chief source
 of supply. This carries from 37 to S71s
 per cent of metallic iron, and costs to
 produce. including a royalty of cents
 ton and a replacement charge of
 cents a ton, s5 cents ton from the
 mine into the car.
 u. s. Steel.
 The United States Steel company owns two ore railroads in Minnesota that car
 ries all it's ore to the lake shipping point It also owns a railroad from Conneaut to Pittsburg. It owns roads from South Chi cago and Waukegan to Joliet and from South Chicago to Hammond, over which it carries coke and ore. The cost of dock age and loading are less than cents per