The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-17

normal activities the Government has
declined to Interfere in the export move
ment of coal. The countries Of Northern
Europe. where the coal shortage is most
severe. are taking larger tonnage of
coal from the United States than ever
before
Tells of Need Mt Home.
In discussing the coal situation in the
United States. Mr.. Smith pointed to
some OF the pertinent factors that are
at work affecting the requirements for
this year These things he said, indi-
cate that the requirements are very
large
1.-THE volume Of business is large" he
said "In spite of warnings of an i'm
pending financial reaction and in spite
of congestion on the railroads the de-
mand for coal for current consumption
has been large. The production of steel
during the first eight months was at the
annual rate of 100000 tons. and If
it had not been for the shortages OF fuel
and OF open top cars the production
would have been larger.
This rate of steel production is but
little under the war years of 1916, 1917
and 1918, and it exceeds by far the out
put of any earlier year. Nor Is the de-
| mand for iron and steel over. Unified
orders for steel. according to recent an
nouncements have been larger this sum-
mer than at any time since August
1917.
Another sign as to the tone of In
dustry is found in the statistics Of power
production The output of the central
| power plants in the first six months Of
! this year exceeded by 1856 per cent.
| that of the same period In 1919. not
witnstanding the fact that 1919 showed
an increase in power production over
| the war years
Part of this increase. no doubt. was
due to the gradual assumption by CEN
trail power stations OF portion of the
| load formerly carried by individual in
dustrlal stations. but there is reason to
I believe that the consumption of all
power IL not much less than during the
war period.
zone of the most important items in
| the requirements of this year Is the ne
cessity for rebuilding the reserve stocks
| of coal that were depleted in the strike
of last winter. A recent study of this
matter has shown that to bring these
| stocks on October / 10 the standard OF
1916 or 1917 would have required put
ting into storage between June l and
October / from seven to eight million
tons of coal. In neither of the years
1916 or 1917 were the stocks adequate,
and budget for this year which seeks
| to build UP reserves to point that Will
tranquillize the market should provide
for putting into storage 100000 tons
or more before the end OF the year.
Great Export Demand.
1.-THE storage item. of course, is In
addition to meeting the current require
ments of day to day consumption.
"Of all the items in the budget the
one that has shown the greatest Increase
Is the demand for export coal. AS
against 5000 900 tons that were ex-
ported overseas in 1919 we have been
supplying export coal recently at a rate
of over 100000 tons year After
providing for the requirements OF New
England and taking care of the neces-
sary domestic business at tidewater we
may expect to have a surplus for export
of about 20.0O0.000 tons. This means a
decrease I'm the rate of exports after this
time.
THE material factor is this situation,
however Is that there Is an effective
demand OF from 100000 to 10000
tons required to be laid down at the
north Atlantic ports. Quite apart from
the question of limiting exports, IL IL
clear that these 100000 or 10000. 00C
tons must be reckoned with In framing
a budget OF coal requirements.
1.-THE 1920 requirements, therefore, In
clude not only the coal needed for cur.
rent consumption. with business on -he
whole active. but also an item OF per-
haps 10000 900 tons for building W re-
serve stocks and of 100000 tons fol-
, Increased exports overseas.
Under these circumstances II Is not
surprising that n production OF bitumi.
, nous coal Of 100000. 900 tons from Jan
! uary 20 October 2. even though more
! than 100000 tons ahead OF the pro
duction OF 1919. has not been sufficient
to meet the demand"
In connection with the fact that there
, were no substantial stocks OF coal ir
store with the beginning of 1920 and
, that the demand for coal has been me-
only MS Il was produced from the mines
the output has been retarded by strike,
, during the summer OF the miners. Tar.
ticularly In Illinois and Indiana ir
southern West Virginia and in the Ala.
I bama fields. The swltchmen's s.rik,
in April had the result Of reducing III,
output OF coal about 100000 tons q
month for almost three months