Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-08-18

drawing power OF the average loco
motive was nearly doubled in those
years.
The Interstate Commerce Com
mission has compiled figures show
ing the number of pounds of fuel
consumed per one thousand gross
miles. These include weight of
freight car and weight of freight
in freight car but do not in
clude weight of locomotive and ten
der. In 1919 this figure was 1S6
pounds and in 1923 it was 1872
pounds. ~
~ !. The Coal Industry.
The coal industry is divided into
two branches, producing bituminous
and anthracite, the former being
very much the more important in
number of workers employed and
value of product. The bituminous
industry was both stimulated and
dsmoralized by the fluctuations of
the war period and years following,
and the strikes arising over wage
disputes. .-.t p,
The bituminous wage scale in the
unionized district is based on the
Hooking Valley field of Ohio. Con-
sidering the 1913 scale in that field
as 100, the present wage scale is
217, an increase, therefore, of III
per cent. Considering the average
price of bituminous coal in the same
field for 1913 and 1914 as 100, the
spot market price on July IA, 1924,
was 1862, an increase of 81 per cent.
The bituminous industry is over
manned probably one-third, and the
wage-scale is based upon the expec-
tation of a corresponding amount
of idle time, a situation that is unde-
sirable from every standpoint, but
which is due to various restraints
upon free competition besides agree
ments among operators. The condi-
tions concerning machine-mining,
the equalization of wages and prices
between different mining fields, and
arising out Of official regulation of
the car-supply, are too complicated
to be described here. The bitumin-
GUS industry is in a very depressed
condition at the present time, with
the fiercest kind of competition be-
tween the various fields.
In the anthracite industry, accord
ing to the Labor Review, October
1923, the scale of wages for contract
miners in April, 1919, was .425 per
hour for a 9-hour day. In 1916 this
had been Increased to .458 for an g.
hour day; in 1919 the wages were
.s42 for an 8-hour day, and under
the commission award Of April, 1920,
the rate was 1892 per hour for an g.
hour day. The per cent of increase
in hourly rates of earnings in 1920
over 1912 was 1894. In 1923 wages
were increased further 10 per cent.
In 1918, the spot market price of
the compared sizes of anthracite was
about $3.75. On July IA, 1924, the
price was about 1925. Expressed in
index numbers, if 1913 was 100, then
1924 is 220, or an increase of 120 per
cent. Local taxation has been heav-
lily increased in the meantime, by a
re-appraisal Of mineral values.
$sawe The Oil Industry.
The oil industry twenty-four years
ago might almost be said to have
been in it's infancy, compared with
its career since. The internal COM
bustion engine was in it's infancy.
The production of crude oil in the
United States in 1900 was 1882, 704
barrels, and in 1928, 725,702, 900 bar
rels. The production of gasoline at
that time probably did not exceed
100000 barrels; in 1928 it was
about 1S0,000,000 barrels. In the
same time the research methods of
the industry have raised the average
production of gasoline from about 4
gallons to barrel of crude oil to IS
gallons, thus conserving the supply
and cheapening the products The re-
search departments also have devel-
oped the use of petroleum and it's
products in several hundred articles
of merchandise. The operators have
built $4,000 miles Of trunk pipe
lines, besides thousands Of branch
lines serving oil districts, all cheap
ening the ultimate cost to republic.
The Bureau Of Labor tables show
that in no year since 1913 has the
index number for prices of gasoline
been as high in the index number for
ell commodities and in but two years
sa low as the index number for farm
products. The figures are as follows,
prices Of 1918 representing 100, and
the figures for other years being
percentages Of 1918 figures.