Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1917-05-11
HIGH COAL LAID To
LOWER OUTPUT
Scranton Engineer Also BIames
Greater Demand.
FACE A FEDERAL PROBE
Declares Anthracite Production Has
Passed Its Maximum and Prices
Henceforth Will be Higher

Increasing demand for anthracite
and declining production are respon-
sible for the growing price of coal, &C
cording to the reasoning OF William
Griffith, a mining engineer of Scran-
ton.
In a statement he said that because
of these facts the price of coal will
continue to advance continuously.
An investigation of the federal trade
commission resulted in preliminary
report Saturday showing the amount
of coal to be ample, and that present
prices are not justified because OF the
immense stocks of coal at the mines.
An advance of forty cents a ton by
a large producing concern is looked
upon IS having brought the anthracite
operators face to face with an inVest!-
cation by a federal commission, in
view of the announcement by the trade
board that prices for the last SIX
months were unwarranted.
Mr.. Griffith's statement on the an
thracite situation follows:
"There has recently been much dis
cussion and Investigation as to the
high price of anthracite coal, and all
sorts of reasons have been mentioned
as to the cause.
"While it has been suggested the
price OF coal might be more or less
affected temporarily by transportation
and labor conditions, or concerted ac-
ton among producers, sales agents or
others interested in the trade, it seems
to us that the above reasons are IN
no manner fundamental but that the
basic cause for higher prices is the
present great difference between the
gradually diminishing supply and the
RAPIDLY increasing demand. The fact
is that in this respect the anthracite
coal trade is now facing new situ-
alton such as has never been known
in the trade before.
"It will be noted that during the
twenty years prior to 1910 the demand
and consequent production of coal has
been increasing at rate of nearly
two and half million tons per year,
and at no time in the past, except the
last FIVE years, has the production va
ried from the demand more than four
CT five million tons, except in those
years during which the trade has been
disturbed by unfavorable labor condi-
tons, strikes, suspensions, etc.
"It will be noted that the market
requirements as indicated by the de-
mand curve in the diagram has now
reached about nirety-three million
tons per year, whereas the production
was maximum in 1910 at eighty-two
million tons and declining since that
date at the rate of a half million tons
uer year to about seventy-nine million
tons in 1916 thus we see that at the
end of the past year the normal mar
ket demand for anthracite coal was
fourteen million tons in excess of the
supply, or, in other words, there is
now a shortage of supply equal to
about three or four times the deticl-
cncy that has existed in any one nor
NAL year during the history of the
coal trade 1t would be interesting to
consider the probability of continu
ance of this condition Of affairs, or is
it only temporary?
1--WE, therefore, find the anthracite
trade at the present moment, face to
face with new conditions, very
striking change from what has exist
cd during the whole life of the trade
up to about five or six years ago.
GAS to how high prices will naturally
be maintained will depend upon and
be regulated by the production and
prices of the chief competitors of an
thracite, viz, bituminous coal and its
products"