The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-10-29
THE COLLIER SEES A
CHANCE
By MARK S. WATSON
In the Baltimore Sun, October IS.


In the Baltimore Sun, October IS.
The SHOEMAKER is not the only in
dustrialist in the land who, in Andy
Carnegie's phrasing, is "either prince
or pauper." Much the same thing
could be said now of the coal miner,
and is being said by him today, but
with the explanation that lately he
has been more often pauper than
prince. This is particularly the case
with the miner of Western Maryland,
who has had the troubles of industry
in general and few of his own in
particular, developing long before the
1929 unpleasantness.
From these troubles the collier of
that magnificent mountain country of
Allegany and Garrett counties is now
working valiantly to escape and quite
candidly telling his acknowledgement
ers that he expects them to help him
out. This was the purpose of the re-
cent inquiry of both State and City
purchasing departments as to why
they felt constrained to buy outside
coal for the use of State and City in
situations when they could get coal
from Maryland miners eager to sup
ply it. The result of the inquiry was
the assurance that hereafter both
agencies would do their buying within
the State.
The coal operators figure that the
purchase of 700 tons of coal will
keep one miner working for 200 days
a year, and that each miner is the sup
port of a family of five. So that even
the smallest amount of coal which
State and City institutions burn, plus
that which the county institutions
burn (and the coal operators are go
ing after the county purchasers, too)
would take care of the maintenance
of a moderate-sized little mining COM
munity. But this is, of course, only the
spectacle phase of the operators main
program. They are after the private
user rather than the public institu-
ton alone; they want to convince the
factories, the heating plants, the do
mestic furnace stokers, that they can
do better with Maryland coal than
with any other.
Does even this seem small pickings
for a great industry? Hardly, for
Maryland uses about 100000 tone of
coal a year. If even half of it came
from Maryland mines that would
mean 100000 tons, and that would
come pretty near making the Mary
land coal pauper back into a prince
once more. For the mines think they
are pretty smart if they can get rid
of 100000 tons a year these days;
the biggest year in history was 1907,
when $4,000 tons were mined.
Now there is a great deal of pres
emit consumption that the Maryland
mines make no effort to supply, and
will not. This is the gas-coal consump-
ton. Maryland coal is not high
volatile coal at all, but low-volatile
coking coal. The two are quite differ
ent in structure and in utility, and
each excels in it's own field. Mary
land coal, in fact, is so different from
most soft Goals that it is referred to
as "semi- bituminous," classifying
midway between the hard coal of the
Pennsylvania anthracite country and
the soft coal of West Virginia. This
endows it with certain obvious virtues
and-so far as the gas-coal user is
concerned-certain defects, for Meth
er of which is the present generation
exactly responsible. The variation oc-
Cured in the Carboniferous Era, sew
eral hundred thousand years ago. The
Maryland coal operators claim for
his -bituminous is that it pro-
duces more heat and less smoke than
SO1IeI COdlo.
There is special pertinence in this
claim, too, for cities are beginning to
realize that excessive smoke is bad
thing for the community. Even Bal
timore is stirring family. The. hint
that an anti-smoke ordinance may be
really enforced has stirred Allegany
county to demonstrations that Mary
land coal, properly stocked, will meet
the demands of a Baltimore smoke in
spector better than will soft Goals. 1t
was largely through the operators
tests, professedly showing maximum
of heat units produced per dollars
worth of coal, that the city and State
purchasing departments were lately
converted into promises to use Mary
land coal. The job now is to convince
the private user.
There was a time when the mines
of Allegany and Garrett were working
fl1riouSlv hut that was before the ar