The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-08
Secret Machines Make Tremendous Cuts In
 Mining Costs
By WHITING WILLIAMS

uance, TOT The ARe-HeTald.D
 Wanted, 1000 coal miners Five foot vein. Open lights. No gas. New camp. Good chuck Ship tomorrow, Apply inside
 That kind of~sign got met. into my first coal mine. after the steel plant had laid me and other common laborers off. Today. such -a<Zsign is very scarce. I whole great districts in the country g soft coal fields the bitter pinch of jobles- ness is being felt as it has not been felt l in years. 'A- r. What's worse, coal men and engi- neers everywhere say that this. pinch is only the beginning of huge and in evitable pressure which will grow more overwhelming almost month by month. The reason? Merely that the industry which is most basic to American in dustry and life, has suddenly started to rid itself of saancient and honorable but over-used incumbrance-the hand shovel.
 As never before, new methods and new machines of undreamed of strength and skill are being perfected and put to work in our soft coal mines for giving to the public what is demands-a regu- lar and reliable supply of fuel at a stabilized, minimu most.
 How does it~happen that this huge game of "Stage-coach Upset With its tragic and it's constructive possibili- ties in our mine towns and elsewhere gets under way just now?
 -...- Over Expansion ss.>.,5
 Well, first. of the causes is the tremendous over-expansion of our lsoft) coal mines following the abnormal de- mands of the Graat War-ap over-ex- pansion' of fuliy-four thousand of the little mines and of, easily, 100000 out of our S00.000 miners. s.
 After that comes the public's ex- asperation at the stoppages and bit terness of the warfare between coal producer and coal miner during the l last few years-warfare which culmi- mated in the Herrin disaster. Warfare, also. which further expanded the indus try by providing frequent and extensive periods-five months in 22-when the 1 "snow-birds" or z. .middle-winter,' high I cost mines could operate at a profit. Still, further, there has. lately come : what some on both sides are calling an economic blunder"- the signing of an agreement by the ex-fighters in the union mines which establishes for three years the peak, wartime scale of miners wages. E-
 Today, as the result of all these, you can walk into mines where, say, 50 men, around-.a big machine. are getting we'll oyer 1000 tons in days work where, formerly they would have hoped to get around 200 And if you will swear secrecy, a good friend may show you such machine as have seen by which, men are multiplying their former ontpHt by 7nearly ten! -
 Cost Will Be Halved
 The halying of the cost of mining within five years appears definitely and conservatively in prospect.
 "WhE only three ton o'coal today, Joe?" onF of my budtties called to a husky Polish miner as we huddled low in a mine car ahd yelled or banged our dinner pails for more speed out of our galloping mule.
 ''If take alf damfool coal out to- day" Joe answered with a jolly gleam of white teeth in-the darkness, %no can find job tomorrpwl' .ss ,...- .. .s :. Today the ehances are that Joe is up in the nearby city scanning the blackboards outside-the labor agencies for one of those; old miners wanted signsLin vain. The fear of smother strike last April made many buyers stock up" and so kept him and his chums. fairly busy last winter. That stock-pile means of itself dull market today. Worse than that, there are those new machines-iron men that don t know enough to save work for tomor- row!
 Some of these are merely troughs ! steel troughs which move the coal away from the face" of the seam out into the daylight. The shovel lift into it is shorter than into the old car and { so the cost is leSs-as also the need of Joe and his shoulders. Other ma chine are small steam or electric shovels which fill the car in a twink ling after the coal has been brought i down in the usual way by drill and powder. Then there are others which pick uP the black diamonds from the floor with sinuous and unceasing arms of steel. Still others mine the coal as well as load it.
 All of these mean less sweat and less cost-and more Joej who no can find job tomorrow.
 'In Between" Periods
 Undoubtedly the economists are right who say that cheaper fuel will so in crease the jobs in our factories that Joe will find job in one of them Oddly enough, it will take Joe a long time to consider this new job as good as his old one--and for more reasons than are in the pay envelope.
 Cop outside, one-a day sweat. one-a day freeze. No like-em," a foreign miner explained to me one day Here no hot, no cold. Ala time goo-o-od "
 "Like-em" or mo like-em, Joe's family is pretty sure tob be happier out, side the average mine town. In any event. they are sure to bring to the factory town or city regular brood of amazing changes in the work ant life of the rest of us-along with thC cutting of industry's fuel costs in two
 Thus, for instance the moment coa is mined at half it's present figure. tht transportation of it may easily be more expensive than it's mining. That demands the shipping of coal by wire after turning it into power at the mines mouth, That spells history perhaps tragedy-for our railroads; for today one-third of their traffic is coal
 New Deal" All Around
 With soft coal costing only a dollar at the mine, so an engineer mentioned another of that brood of changes, the white coal of water power becomes much less. profitable than now--and Muscles Shoals nay become nothing worth quarreling over ~ "- +
 Altogether such a cut in industrial