New-York tribune., 1922-09-13
Hard Coal Price
Up ST a Tor, as
First Arrives
Increase Expected TO Put
Retail Charge to $l4.5O.
as Against $3.50 When
Mines Closed Last May
I,ehigh Valley Wins Race
,ost of Repair WogN ON the
Shafts Due TO Strike Is
Cited to Justify the Rise


ysw York yesterday received its first
.s;nmens Of anthracite coal since the
s.x;Lo--ahout 1850 tons--and with it
he announcement of an increase of
I, ton in the price at the mine. No
se.an price for the newly mined coal
g. hsen announced as yet, but the
sr.raased mine price is thought to in
AGATE retail price here OF about
ssa5o ton instead Of s1s.lo. which
wss the prevailing price when the
ss;ners cult work on April |.
The Yehigh Valley Railroad won the
..es among the hard-coal carriers to
Ssesr the iirst tsainload of anthracite
t;sswater, In less than twelve
ssy,r after the coal had come to the
.antb Of The pits it had been loaded
sr,o thirty cars and transported over
ne mountains from beyond Shamokin,
Do to the railroad coal terminal at
Perth Amboy. Preparations for this
syert have been going on quietly
among the railroads for several days.
RE enbargoes declared by four of the
sosds yesterday, among them the
fehieh Valley. cleared the way for the
,ash eoal shipment.
Dealers to Buy at $3.50
Twenty-six of the thirty cars came
rom the collieries of Weston Dodson
Co. Inc, independent operators, and
hnsigned to their New York sales Office.
Ii the conpany's Office in the Wool
serth Building yesterday W. K. Coyie,
. s;re.uresident in charge Of sales, said
~ shipment would be sold to dealers
s the city at $3.50 ton, plus freight
ind lighterage charges, which amount
i about S270 ton. The mine price
fron, independent producers when work
leased on April l was $3.50.
with the announced increase of 81
ton by independent operators the
.bances of coal remaining at the old
etail price of $3.50 during the COM
sv winter are thought to be slim, al
hough such hope was still being
NEED bv operators and dealers yester-
III. There seems little likelihood of
he Company mines" increasing their
,rices. but since New York must look
/ the independents for 40 per cent of
d supply the local retail price will
hpend in large measure on the cost at
lis source.
Even at the increased price, Mr..
tcyle said, the independent producers
sniy hope for profit lies in the con-
inued high price of bituminous coal
nth which the steam sizes of snthra-
lite come into competition for use in
arpe industrial plants. High prices
for soft coal will enable the anthra-
,ite operators to get higher price for
he steam sizes, which are ordinarily
Landed at loss. An estimated price
Of Sd o ton was fixed for the steam
lies, which are commonly known as
Tea, buckwheat and rice.
Pumping Mines Called Big Expense
As was forecast by coal operators
lsme days ago, most of the increase is
lsIbatable to pumping the mines clear
Il gster, replacing timbering and do
ilg osher necessary maintenance work
iuriag the FIVE months that coal pro-
taction was at a standstill. Mr.. Coyle
nplained that the Independent opera
prs, as a whole, were faced with a
remendous outlay during the period
II Inactivity.
In the case of his own company, MIR.
Coyle said, 80 cents of the dollar in
srease is accounted for in this way.
At one Of the collieries operated by
Weston, Dodson & Co., which normal
y produces some 10000 tons month,
he maintenance cost for the five
months shutdown was $4,000. At
ather collieries it was not quite so
nigh, but Mr.. Coyle said that his COM
pany's statisticians had arrived at the
% cents ton figure by spreading the
total maintenance cost over the antlcl-
pated aggregate production during the
heyt six months.
The remaining 20 cents of the in
crease is more than accounted for by
state tax and by the cost of installing
additional safety regulations recently
imposed by the State of Pennsylvania,
Ar Coyle said. Last January tax OF
u per cent on coal sales was held
constitutional, and about is cents
ion is now being collected from the op-
GATORS. An effort was made to include
Che cost Of the tax in the price of coal
before the strike, but, according to Mr..
Coyle, competition at that time was so
intense that the operators were unable
TO get,it. Now the state has promul-
gated new safety regulations fer the
mines which, the Dodson company's ex-
perts say, add another 10 cents ton
20 the cost of production.
The loss to the producers which these
ngures would indicate, Mr.. Coyle said.
uey hope to recoup by getting better
price for the steam sizes.