San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-08-22
Advances in Anthracite
Prices Will Fall Hea-
FL. West on Them.
BOOSTS ARE POSITIVE
Cotton Crop Progress Be-
gins to Worry Textile
Manufacturers.
BY j. c, ROXLE.

COPYRIGHT. by the San Antonio Light.
New York. Aug. 22.-Any advance
in the prices OF anthracite which may
result from stoppage of work in
the mines or from a settlement of the
present controversy between the min
ers and operators will fall heaviest
upon householders who use domestic
sizes of coal.
There is every possibility today that
there will be an advance.
This is borne out by the formal
statement OF the operators that Ito
grant a wage increase would mean an
increase in the price of coal to the
public
At the same time the operators in
proposing that the differences between
employers and miners be submitted TO
arbitration agreed to guarantee that
there would be no reduction in wages
as a result of such arbitration.
Each side admits that the adjust
ment by arbitration in 1920 which
gave an increase of II per cent in
wages to the men was followed by a
rise in prices although they disagree
as to the amount of the increase.
invasion MOI edreu.
The possible increase, according to
men thoroughly familiar with the in
tricacies of mining and marketing an
thracite, will be most marked on the
SPECIALIZED domestic sizes because COM
potion in that field is least severe. 81
Invasion of the householder's trade
by oil or bituminous producers is not
particularly feared by anthracite men.
In anthracite territory furnaces and
CRATES are adapted 10 anthracite and
the cost of changing. together with
the advantages of hard coal, make the
domestic consumers loath to employ
substitutes even when hard coal prices
are high.
It is in the so-called steam sizes
that competition and invasion of the
market is feared.
This small sized coal is produced as
result of the processes which pre-
parc nut and lump sizes for the house
holder,
The buckwheat, rice and other ex-
tremely small sizes. are not adapted
10 domestic use and must be sold TO
industrial. rtilroad and steamship
,.sempanies. -.
YIN that field they come into direct
competition with the bituminons prod
net and must be sold at somewhere
TIE same prices.
Heretofore. industrial consumers
have preferred this anthracite steam
size product TO the btuminous in most
instances. where the difference in cost
was not too great and it is this trade
which the bituminous producers have
been anxious to. capture.
The marketing of these small sizes
is relied on by the anthracite pro-
ducers to take care of overhead. leav-
ing the margin on domestic sizes on
thep rofit side of the ledger.
Coal men, therefore, believe that
any increase in cost of production
which may be passed on to the public
will come heaviest on the larger sizes.
Cotton Consumers Anxious.
The progress of the cotton crop. now
in its most critical stage. is causing
decided anxiety in textile manufactur-
ing circles.
Reports from private sources re-
sarded as accurate. have not gone far
toward allaying that apprehension.
Reports of correspondents of Fen
nef II De1lle. one Ol tut ldTStsl tobloh
houses of New York and the South,
received today. indicate the outlook for
the 1923 crop has shrunk over 100000
bales since the government issued its
estimate as of July %.
These reports place condition at IS
per. cent OF normal, drop from 61.2
per cent. and indicate a shrinkage in
yield from 11.J16,000 bales. as pre-
dicted by the Department of Agricul-
ture three weeks ago, to 100000
bales.
This estimate is based on acreage
figures complied by. the correspondents
which are considerably less than those
reported by the government.
Cotton cloth manufacturers feel
reeSe plarked increase in the prices
Tor manufactured goods might entail
serious lessening Of demand and that
they must base their production sched-
ules on price for the raw staple
which can only be determined by final
and accurate indications of the years
crop yield.
In the meantime they are proceed
ing with the utmost caution, especially
in New England.