Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-23
MINES STILL ANNOYED
BY COAL CAR PROBLEM
Railroad Fuel Assignments
Are in Force Despite
Recent Adjustments

Though the railroad fuel situation is
supposed to have betn settled i'm Wash
ington and the practice of assigning cars
TO the mines ended, official orders are
still lacking at the points Of production
and the mines in, the central Pennsyl-
vania district yesterday reported get
ting. az usual, cars assigned for rail-
road fuel and for coal consigned to the
New England fuel administrator. 1t had
been expected by many operators that
beginning yesterday morning they
would be able to do better by commercial
consumers, but that expectation has not
been realized.
Car supply in central Pennsylvania is
far from up to the mark, at least in the
western end Of the district, one typical
mine yesterday reported that, counting
all cars, assigned or otherwise, 1t had
received only a trife over ffty-hve per
ber placed assigned cars for railroad
fuel and for New England amounted TO
trife over twenty-four per cent Box
cars amounted to little more than ten
per cent leaving approximately sixty
six per cent of the actual number sup
piled, but only about twenty-one per
cent Of nominal rating, for ordinary
commercial business.
Complaint About Box Cars
There is a great deal of dissatisfac-
ton over the placing of box cars at
,rI hn
hand. The added labor cost per ton is
extremely heavy and the fuel admins
tration has declined point blank to make
any allowance for the extra expense OF
/ loading. Besides, in the central Penn
/ sylvania district these box cars, when
| loaded, can be shipped only In a
westerly direction and cannot go beyond
/ the limits of the zone. In other words
/ that coal must be sold in a field, like
| Pittsburgh and eastern Ohio, where
/ there is plenty of native coal.
Like Banquo's ghost, the issue of car
| surS.,y will not be effaced. on Satur-
/ day. April 20, the reports from the Fair
mont district we're that out OF l49 mines
reporting thirteen had no cars. There
were 2l43 men idle as result and the
/ tonnage lost was 20,5S0.
In the case Of the central Pennsyl-
vania mine noted above, last weeks
commercial cars and those consigned 10
New England. the supply for the weel;
was but a trife over 20 per cent. This
does not include coal shipped on rail-
road fuel orders.
Prices Modified
There have been some recent modihca,
tions in the standard price for coal al
the mines. Some decreases have beer
ordered In West Virginia and Kentucky
and some increases have been granted
In the New River field an increase
OF twenty cents ton has been approved
/ making the prices T. o. b. mine So foi
run of mine. S3,25 for prepared and
S2.75 for slack. In the Fairmont dis
trict an increase Of fifteen cents has
been granted, making the prices on Fair
mont gas coal per net ton at the mime
S275 for run of mine, SO for prepared
and S25O for slack.
These changes put the mine prices o.
Fairmont gas coal considerably aboV'
those OF standard Pennsylvania gal
coal and Il is considered possible tina
some move toward a readjustment o
Pennsylvania gas coal prices may b.
scheduled for the near future The new
prices on Fairmont and New River Goa
went into effect Saturday
Better Production Reported
According 10 the report of the Unitsi
States Geological Survey for the weel
ended April i3. production was l0,947,
GOO tons, or $4,000 tons a day, agains
a total OF 9.317,O00 tons for the weel
ended April 6. Beehive coke production
was 672, 900 tons. against 62l.oOO ton
for the. week ended April 8. By-prod
uci coke output for the week eade
April IS Was feg,set tons out of pos
/ aIbIa - ~ gains