The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-08-17

If work resumes according to the agreement. as 1t is expected to do, presumption Is that the demand
 for Alabama coal on the part of west
 ern railroads will at once ease off
 and production will not make further
 increases. The last reported weeks
 production. the week of August 5,
 was 100000 tons. compared with seo.
 900 tons prior to the rail strike and
 5000 tons following the rail strike.
 However. 1t Is expected that it will
 require some time before the western
 stress is entirely relieved. hence a
 good deal of business is expected for
 some time to come even though the
 western mines resume in full.
 As to Prices
 The vast bulk of coal moving from
 Alabama mines has been contracted for at prices under the prevailing | prices and far under the highest
 spot prices. Prior to the pinch $ in coal following the gradual exhaustion ] of stocks piled up in anticipation of the strike, Alabama coal was con tracted for at from $1.8o to $2.25. The bulk of the railroad contracts
 were made on this base.
 Following the recent heavy demand from the west, prices for spot coal for the western roads rose to $2.50 and then as high as s3.50. The lat ter seems to have been the high fig ure for prices charged the western roads by the large operators. In the
 last few days still higher prices have | neen heard of in some quarters -h getting back into business fol- lowing the extraordinary demand md fright of local and nearby consumers have been running from "A at the beginning to as high as 95, and, sn some in- stances, S6 and 97 has been paid for prompt shipment of car loads. very small percentage of the coal production is going at these Fancy figures, but they are af- fectinS the home consumer, | Small consumers have beea in the market not knowing where l to apply and have gone to wagon mines and others nnd paid what | has been asked.
 | Men well posted on the coal trade declare that 90 per cent of the nro- duction Is going under contracts hut admit that some fair weather mines
 are charging the newcomer from s4
 and 70 to as high as s7. They are
 making hay while the sun shines. | when informed last night that Governor Kilby was understood to he 1 meditating strenuous measures to correct the advancing tide of snr prices operators of large mines .a,d
 they had not been informed regard : ing the governors plans and no o.- ficial notice of his contemplated ac- ! tion had been received. The ons-.
 ators of the large mines did not denv l that very high spot prices were be ing charged by fair weather oper ators.
 As far as retail coal ia con.
 cerned, the majority of that waa contracted for by retail yards in the spring. One standard grade
 of doinestsc coal. for which the f. Q. D. mine price last year was | @4.42, h coming to the retail dealer this year at 93.45. The l freight rate fs 10 cents less also this year. hence the retailer payx @1 less to get. this high grade coal into his yard. this year at this time than he didra year ago. The price of retail coal this fan seems to be protected.
 Demoralixing Tactics The large operators are as much against the high spot prices being charged by the fair weather opera : tors as any one else. they say, be : cause they feel that they must stand the onus of these prices while their
 coal is going at from $1.so to a maximum of $3.50 and an average all
 around not lover the Hoover sea, e
 In addition, some of the fair weather
 mines. enabled to do so by the fancy prices which they have gotten for spot coal, have also been able to ,f- fer higher wages for the time be- I irg and have thus. to an extent demoralized the wage situation.
 Operators yesterday were inclined
 to look for a lower spot scale in the 1 immediate future with the prospec- | tive withdrawal of the extra business ! from the western roads and other | western consumers. They seem rather | pleased than not that extreme con- l ditions seemed about to pass away. 1 leaving the coal field in a normal l condition for conservative and steady operations during the remainder of the year
 wILBURN CONVICTED | n -~ -l.-x- D~~