The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1914-09-23
Coal Breaks All
Records
More than $40 Million Tons
Mined in 1918; Value of
Output was 700 Mil
lion Dollars.

United states has again broken
all prev ious records, the output
for e9l3 being $40, OiS,l2 short
tons, which is considerably
more than double the production
of 1900 and more than eight
times the production of 1880,
according to a statement lust
issued by the United States
Geological Survey, from figures
compiled by Edward w. Par
ker. coal statistician. The
value of the coal mined in 1913
liz given as 500, ass, 7S5.
Compared with the previous
year the output for 1918 shows
AN increase of 35 ISL ,545 tons.
OF nearly I per cent. The in
creased activity indicated by
these figures was we'll distribut
ed throughout the % coal. pro
ducing States, % of which
showed increases and only Is de.
creased production, the decrease
In one of these-Colorudo be
my due solely 10 labor trouble.
OF those showing increase, IL
made record yields, aud Penn
sylvania, the leading coal State,
broke records in both bitum-
lnous ana anthracite prOduc-
tlon. Tine States which broke
all former records in coal pro
| duction were Alabama, Illinois,
Kentucky, Montana, New Mex
leo, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsyl-
vania, Texas, Utah, Virginia
and West Virginia. The larg.
est increase in the production
of bltuminous coal was in Penn
| sylvania. where IL ,9l5,72 tons
was added To the output OF
| 1912 West Virginia showed
the second largest gain, ,522.
/ 295 tons, aud Kentucky The
third largest gain, 3,l26,070
tons, which was also the largest
percentage of increase, amount.
ing to 10 per cent, of all the
portant coal producing
States. Indiana was fourth
Illinois fifth, Ohio sixth, and
Alabama seventh. While the
total Increase was very large as
figured in tons, the percentage
is what may be considered nor
= NAL and Indicative of healthy
industrial activity throughout
the country.
Coal mining, like all other in
dustries in the Ohio Valley
States, was seriously interfered
with by the great floods during
the spring of 1913, and Mr.. Par
ker estimates that from . To lC
million tons of coal would have
been added to the years output
but for this disaster. With no
violent fluctuations in the de-
mand by the blast furnaces
steel works and other manu-
. featuring Industries, the de
mand for coal for those pur.
poses shows only IA normal in.
crease. The continued decrease
in the use of fuel oil in the Mid
Continent oil field and the strike
in the Colorado coal mines re
: suited in an increased output OF
coal in the Central and South
, western States With few
: exceptions, notably in Illinois
Indiana, and Oklahoma, value.
t ranged higher than in former
/ normal years, so that from th,
producers standpoint the con
diLlons in 1918 were fairly salts
! factory.
The development of our coal.
mining industry with reference
to population presents some in
/ teresting comparisons. In 1886
the coal output was 7,0lS,lS
, tons, or 0.5 ton for each of the
, 23, l0l ,S76 inhabitants; in 1885,
the population had Increased 10
| about 100000 and the produc
: ton of coal to about ii 900, 00C
tons; an average of l42 tons
, per capita. At the close of the
nineteenth century the popula
ton was &c 1903, 1897, an increase
, of Il little over 80 per cent as
compared with 1880, while the
! production of coal had increas
ed nearly 800 per cent in the
same period and averaged SO;
) tons for each person. In 1919