The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-07-18
OIL ALARMS COAL MEN
And Operators Seek Tariff Against
Mexican Product.

New York Tribune.)
Coal men throughout the United
States fear the effects upon the steam
coal industry of the substitution on a
rapidly increasing scale of oil for fuel.
The industry, including representa-
tiyes of the men in the United Mine
Workers, is beginning to devise pro-
gram for combating the aggression OF
oil, which has been tremendously
heightened by the recent booms In
Mexico and Texas.
-Four barrels of oil yield the same
amount of energy as ton Of. bitumi-
nous COAL and it is understood that
Mexican fuel oil may be put aboard
tank steamers at about 10 cents bar
rel and sold at go to 20 cents a bar
rel. That would be equivalent to about
$3.50 a ton of coal Bituminous coal
sells at an average of $2.75 ton at
the mine and transportation to the sea-
ports constitutes a large additional
cost.
Various units of the coal industry
are getting into communication with
one another, with view to planning a
nationwide publicity campaign in be-
half of coal, and the suggestion has
been made that tariff wall be erect
ed against the inflow of Mexican oil.
Mexican Fields Speed Up.
G. e. Backus, president OF the
York, has drawn up a report on the
situation as chairman of the fuel oil
committee of the National Coal asso-
citation.
He attributes the menaced position of
the steam coal industry to the follow
ing factors:
Increased cost of coal production,
due principally to the advance in Ia
Dor, but also to price of mining equip
ment
Increased railroad freight from
mines to consumers.
Increased output from Mexican oil
fields producing heavy oils which can
be sold for steam purposes at low
prices.
Increased number OF tank steamers
being built, and those now built being
released from war service, permitting
the movement of a greater volume of
oil from Mexican fields to the United
States.
Increase OF production In Russian,
Rumanian and other fields that may
displace Mexican to some extent in Eu-
rope and force that much more Mexi
can oil to seek a market in the United
States.
Your committee regards the unre-
stricted untaxed import of fuel oil
from the Mexican fields, therefore. as
a very serious and immediate menace
to bituminous coal and to the steam
sizes of anthracite.
With the existing rates OF pay. for
coal mining, with existing prices for
supplies and with existing charges for
rail transportation, all factors practi-
cally beyond the control of the coal
operators, the seller of Mexican fuel
oil, dependent for it's cost practically
on the single factor or water trans
portation. is working at an advantage
that he has never enjoyed before. He
is invading fuel markets In which he
could not have obtained a footing on
prewar costs of coal production and
production
OIL More Convenient.
I'm addition to lower cost, fuel oil
appeals to many because its use in
engines requires less elaborate ma
chinery than coal. Oil is displacing
coal most rapidly, it is said, and in the
seaport towns. particularly along the
Atlantic coast
Mr. Backus discussed the COMPETE
ton between coal and oil in respect to
prices as follows:
"Oil on contract has been offered
along the Atlantic and gulf coasts at
various prices, which have been set in
all probability as much on the basis of
what is necessary to undersell coal as
on any differentiat dependent on the
length of the voyage from loading
ports. Fuel oil has been offered in
New Orleans at around IS cents bar
rel, delivered f. o. b. cars, and at 81 Isl
a barrel delivered in tanks at individ-
ual consuming plants. At southern
ports oil recently sold on contract at
little under 90 cents. A statement has
been made that on a large contract
with steady movement Mexican Oil
would be delivered at Marcus Hook,
rel. this price based. of course. on full
steamer cargoes and enough business
to keep a ship running.
The United States shipping board
has been buying oil, 1t is reported. de-
ivered in the tanks of the shipping
board in New York >harbor, for 95
cents a barrel. Even more striking is
the statement that a railroad which
reaches tidewater in the southwest
item years. for fuel oil delivered at
heir joint terminal for 81 cents a bar
rel.
"On the rough ratio for four barrels
IF oil equaling a gross ton of the best
steam coal present quotations on
rude oil at Atlantic and gulf ports
ire not much more than the freight on
,oal to these points.
YOUR committee feels that II the
broad policy of giving protection to
american labor is to be continued |
here should be duty imposed upon |
imports of Mexican fuel oil into the
United States sufficient to give ample
to labor in the American |
oal fields"
In 1918 the bituminous coal output |
4 the United States was 5,SS3, 900 |
ons. The capital invested In the in
lustry exceeds ! IL billion dollars |
md the YtInahpF nf 20