The New York herald., 1922-09-04
RAILWAYS SPEEDING
OUTPUT OF SOFT COAL
Three Lines Load 1000 Cars
in One Day.

Special Dispatch 70 Tnr NEW YoRK HERALD.
PIrTsBuRoH. Sept 3.--The three chief
railroads entering Pittsburgh expect by
Tuesday night to have loaded 1000 cars,
or $4,000 tons Of coal representing
one days shipments out of the bitumi-
nous mining regions Of western and CEN
trail Pennsylvaria and portions of east
ern Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland.
This would be at the rate of l05 ,00O,-
100 tons a year Of 800 days. or record
breaker 1t Is with the mines them
selves, not the roads, their officials say.
that the blame viii lie If coal does not
now pour out Of these great mining re-
gions in huge stream.
Coal companies, insisting they will do
their part, are expecting coal car
shortage. which some railroad otiicials
concede is possibility.
Tuesday the big test will come. On
Thursday--the last day for which COM
plete figures are available--the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad loaded $500 cars, or
10000 tons. in the central region, CEN
trail and western Pennsylvania, Ohio
and West Virginia; the Baltimore ana
Ohio Railroad, 2,200 cars. or 10000
tons in western Pennsylvania and
Maryland, and the Pittsburgh and Lake
Erie (New York Central Lines) 5S4, or
29,200 tons, in western Pennsylvania and
Ohio.
A 1000 car day basis would account
for quarter of the nations normal
annual coal production in the union
fields, which has been 400, 100000 tons.
No one expects this pace can be main
tanned for a year 1t is the pace for the
next sixty or ninety days that all eyes
in the industrial world will be directed
upon.
The Pittsburgh Coal Company the
third largest bituminous mining plant in
the world. is at work on plans to open
up for the first time in years every one
OF it's fifty-four union mines and to turn
out coal on a 10000, 600 ton annual pro-
duction basis instead OF 12,000,000 to
1900. 900 tons, which, when reached by
this company in the past, was considered
a good years output This would be
so per cent increase production for this
company alone in this district. In nor
NAL times the annual output OF the
Pittsburgh district in the union fields
has been 50,000,000 tons for all COM
panies.
Inquiries among othr producers than
the Pittsburgh Coal Company to-day in
dicated that all are on an increased out
put basis and that q conservative figure,
embracing all. will mean SO per cent.
increased production for the district, or
on tho basis OF 100000 instead Of n
$4,000. 900 ton annual production.
A month may elapse before the peak
production is reached, however Despite
the impression that mines are kept in
good shape during a strike. they are not.
The fight was so bitter in this district
between the operators, led by the Pitts
bargh Coal Company, and the United
Mine Workers OF America that num-
Der of operators served notice on the
union early in the strike they would pro-
tect their own property. without assist
ancc from the union.
Even where the mine workers kept
men In the mines. these only manned
the pumps in most instances, preventing
the mines from flooding.
Over the 153 days the strike continued
t.mbering in many of the mines fell
away and tons of debris which now
block entries. must be renewed
The Pittsburgh Coal Company, be-
sides. has not for years operated more
than forty of its fifty-four mines. mean
ing that there will be weeks of work be-
fore at least fourteen OF the mines can
be made ready for use.
Many of the mines in the district had
been idle from a year to eighteen months
before the strike started On the aver
age, however. reports indicate the mines
were in good condition, which is further
shown by the fact that railroads handled
a total Of 6.5s4 cars, or about 329, 900
tons Of coal Thursday
The strike in the union fields over, tho
element OF doubt is in the non-unon
felds, where operators are not making
any great headway, even by posting the
Cleveland settlement wages, in induc-
ing the newly organized former nom
union men to return to work in numbers
At the mines in Fayette and westmore-
land counties. the former the seat OF
coking coal industry and the main source
OF supply Of fuel for the blast furnaces
Of the United States Steel Corporation
and other big steel Industries.