The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-11-17
AMERICAN COAL
SITUATION RECORDED
The Demands Incident to the War
Called for Investigation, Which, in
Turn, Revealed Important
Facts.

The inventory of the nations re-
sources that the war made necessary
brought to light many new facts about
coal mining which win be of lasting
value to The industry and to the pub
lie. As long as the war lasted these
Incidental lessons were lost sight OF
under the pressure of meeting the
emergency created by the shortage Of
fuels, but with the return Of peace the
experience gained during the war is
being gathered together in series of
reports on the industry, the first of
which, Coal in 1917" by G. Il. Lesher,
has just been published by the United
States geological survey, department
of the interior.
The period from 1914 through 1917
and 1918 and into 1910 may be re-
garded as a distinct epoch in the coal
industry, of which the year 1917 rep
resented only one section, but a section
which, if not the most remarkable for
its achievements, was at once the most
chaotic and the most momentous in
the history of the industry
1t is not difficult to marshal the
events and factors that mark 1917 as
unusual; An extraordinary demand, in
creasing after April, when this country
entered the war, and unsatisfed
throughout the year; high prices and
! speculation in free" coal; the first
effort at regulation of prices through
the committee on coal production; the
Pomerene amendment to the Lever act
and the fixing Of prices and appoint
ment Of the fuel administrator BY the
president; labor troubles; priority or
ders; car shortage and other difficulties
in transportation; severe storms in
December that blocked the railroads
the withdrawal Of ships from the
coastwise trade to New England; un.
equal distribution of coal and constant
fear of fuel famine in many sections
reluctance Of many producers and dis
! tributors of coal to accept governments
al regulations in general and the pro.
gram of the fuel administration as il
was developed in particular.
In response to the unprecedented de.
mand the bituminous mines produced
| 55l ,790,563 net tons, or nearly 10 per
cent more than the output of the year
before. The anthracite output was
90,6ll,Sll net tons, an increase over
1916 of 1877 per cent The total out
put of both hard and soft coal was
| thus over 650,000000 tons.
This record output was accomplished
| by a labor force of COB, l43 men in the
bitumnous and l54.l74 in the anthra
cite mines In spite of the draft the
number Of workers in the bituminous
industry was greater in 1917 than il
1916.
Material progress was made during
the year in the introduction of the
| aight-hour day. Whereas, in 1916 about
Al per cent Of the bituminous workers
were employed in mines where the
standard working day was longer thar
eight hours, in 1917 the number il
such mines had fallen to 2l per cent
The change was largely the result d
reduction in working hours in Ken
lucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania (bitu
minous), Tennessee, Virginia and West
Virginia, particularly in the larger non
union fields.
In response to numerous inquiries
statistics were collected regarding tht
thickness of vein which it is proftabl,
to mine. Many people viii be surprised
to learn that in 1917 more than 10000,
600 tons of soft coal was mined from
beds less than three feet thick. Tn,
percentages drawn from each thickness,
Of seam are shown in the followin,
table:
Percentage of total output Of bitumi
nous coal and Ignite produced from
beds Of different thickness in 1917.