The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-06-24
COAL MENARE STILL HAVING HARD TIMES ConvilIe Discusses Some of the Adverse Factors Af-
 fecting Trade

| The interviews appearing in The l lAge-Herald during the last few days by several parties interested in the coal industry of the district, have been high ly interesting, and in many respects Illuminating" said Knox A. Conville traffic manager of the Pratt Consoli. dated Coal company.
 i "The opinion of many people that the commercial coal business of the dis trict is in 1ourishing condition, is Tar from the fact. There are many con dlt1ons that contribute to the poor mar ket that the coal business of Alabama Is subjected to. The territory that the mines in this district supply coal to has been greatly lessened in the last few years. This unfortunate condition has been caused very largely by rapid and extensive development of coal proper ties in southern Illinois, western Ken lucky, eastern Kentucky and Tennes- see and Virginia. Mines located in the several states mentioned can produce coal at lower cost than mines located in the Birmingham district
 They have many natural advantages
 
 tions are more favorable, and on ac- count of the isolated location from oth- CT industries, the labor situation is far better than here, in that radical changes in the labor market do not exist there as they do in this district; hence the ability of the operators to make a greater spread in the distribution of the product of their mines than we can For the reason of their favorable min ing conditions and ability to produce coal at much lower prices than we can great portion of our natural terri tory obtains its coal requirements from other coal mining sections.
 Since the European war has been in progress continued MT. Conville has enjoyed at the gulf ports has been greatly decreased, perhaps as much as 50 to 60 per cent.
 Another drawback that the conner cial miners in this district have to con- tend with is the continual statement made in a local paper that the coal business is highly fiourishing This creates many wrong impressions, and actually causes embarrassment. The evident good intention is appreciated, but erroneous statements certainly do the coal market no good.
 The iron and steel companies of the district have been favored with req sonable advances in the selling price of their product, which makes 1t possible to stand the higher producing cost of coal. In normal times, when the iron and steel industry of the Birmingham district was in a prosperous condition it always followed that the commer- cial operators enjoyed like advance in the selling price of their product At this time, however, no such condi- tion exists, for the reason that general conditions over the territory we serve aside from the iron and steel industry, are not good, and consequently re- quirements of coal are below normal. A great many iron and steel producing companies in the district go into the commercial market to sell their coal when iron and steel are not in demand and about the only increase that is felt in the commercial market today is that amount of commercial coal that these companies were selling to the commer- cial trade that was dropped when their business increased to such an extent that they required their entire output of coal for their own use.
 Until there is a revival of business in all lines, I do not see how we can expect the commercial coal operators in this district to operate their mines profitably, not to anything like their normal capacity"