Evening star., 1925-08-30
SOFT COAL MINES
GLORY IN STRIKE
Anthracite WaIkout Brings
New Life to Dying Btu
minous Shafts.
BY HARDEN COLFAX.

Through the anthracite hills It
sounds like a call to a strike, but
over the bituminous fields the music
is that of a golden-throaed horn. 1t is
resurrection morning at the soft-coal
mines. And in. its grave clothes the
industry is climbing up to jazz dance
into a day Of prosperity.
The United Mine Workers of Amer
lea in effect have just handed the soft
coal operators an order for 100000
tons of coal a week from now on.
That is the way the smiling opera
tors of the soft-coal diggings look at
John l.. Lewis call to lay down the
pick in the Pennsylvania hills. They
are jubilant, those bituminous coal
barons who but yesterday stood hat
in hand before the bar in bankruptcy.
Hot dog! Full-time work at last!
That's the cry of gladness that
echoes today through the cobwebs Of
soft-coal mines long boarded up.
ing down. Those rusty rails will
shine tomorrow with the friction Of
a new activity. And into the holes
in the hills will pour an eager army
of men, long idle, on their way to a
new days work.
Anthracite Stock Large.
For soft coal must take the place
of hard. There is above ground to-
day a stock of anthracite no man has
measured, but it is dwindling stock,
and not robust to the point of carry
ing the Nation far into the months
of cold.
Bituminous operators and miners
don't care If the hard-coal strike
never ends. Bituminous miners for
many weary months have frightened
the belt and grown gaunt with denial
of work. Bituminous operators have
formed in line at the courts of bank
ruptcy. The industry has been stag
nant, lifeless, the cast-off of Ameri-
can enterprise in a day of plenty. At
a time when almost every other in
dustry has been rolling up handsome
profits, bituminous coal has been writ
ing mostly with red ink.
The call to strike in the anthracite
field has changed the outlook as If in
a twinkling. Already, with the peak
of normal demand coming along, BIZ
luminous coal feels the thrill of a new
and unexpected urge. The logical re-
suit has been slight stiffening In
prices. AS yet the upward price trend
in the soft-coal fields has been almost
imperceptible. But 1t is undeniably
on the way, and many operators al
IdfC lCll Ato III oS OIL AAtoo.
Union Mines Again to Work.
More than 100000 tons of bitum-
inous were mined last week, almost
wholly to meet the ordinary seasonal
demand. Because of the dominance
of non union coal in the bituminous
markets, this great tonnage delivered
from the earth has resulted in but
little profit to the union mines. But
the non-union fields already are
working almost to capacity and the
new demand, created by the hard-coal
strike, cannot be taken care of by
non union soft-coal operators.
The overflow orders will go to the
union mines. Dispatches from the
field to Washington tell of great
hopes and expectations everywhere
in the belt where anthracite and
bituminous compete for the house
holders favor. The railroads have
sensed the coming of the strike and
have prepared for the turn in the
tide of traffic by massing their open
car equipment at points near the
union fields.
While anthracite miners are lay
ing down their tools in Pennsylvania,
bituminous miners in Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and West Vir-
ginia are picking up theirs. The lay
off in anthracite is putting on addi-
tional train crews in the Middle West.
Even as far South as Alabama, the
effect of the anthracite strike will
be as a tonic on the bituminous
workings, reports indicate. and clear
across the country to the mines of
Utah and Washington the Stimulant