The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1931-10-29
New Market for Maryland Coal

land mines viewpoint, was the 1relgnL
schedule which aims to equalize the
opportunity of the various mining
areas. 1t costs 1924 a ton to ship
coal from Allegany county to Balti-
more; it costs no more to ship it from
the Clearfield coal basin of Western
Pennsylvania, despite the greater dis
lance, or from the Fairmont basin
of West Virginia, which is very much
farther. By the same token Cumber-
land basin coal gets to New York as
cheaply as does Western Pennsylvania
coal.
This would seem to be stand-off,
but the Cumberland miner does not
see it that way, for the reason that
he does not see much chance to break
into New York anyway; what he
wants is little better chance in Bal
timore and Washington, for if he can
get the edge there he can operate at
a profit. Right now he would be
charmed by the assurance of even a
very small profit. He has not seen
one for years.
Why, then, are there 5000 men at
work in the mines just west of Cum
berland? This to be sure is a re-
duction from the 5000 who work
there in the. boom times, and the pres
ent army is working not over four
days week and usually less. But
why work at all if there is no profit?
The answer is that the mines can
not be shut down. 1t is better to lose
little in operations than to lose a
vast amount through idleness. A
mine is not like piano, which can be
opened for use and promptly (and
sometimes mercifully) closed when
not in use. If the mine is closed down
water accumulates, ventilation ends,
the timbering weakens, the moisture
and gas soaking into it until it gives
way and allows the slate roof or the
"rashen" to tumble into the carefully
cleared headings.
Reopening a mine is usually far
more expensive than opening an en-
tirely new mine, and at all cost the
operator must keep the picks moving.
This is true even of small one-man
mines, which abound in all mining
communities. One poor fellow who
had left his little heading idle during
the bad market, went in to look at it
last month; while he was there the
deteriorated timbering gave way and
he became one of the few mining cas-
ualties of dull year.
49,
Different as Maryland coal is from
the softer Goals to north and south, it
is all part of the great Appalachian
deposit, stretching some 300 miles
from Pennsylvania to Alabama.
There are many veins, the best of
them the "Big Vein" or pittsburgh
Vein" as it is called locally; this is re-
markedly pure, with less than one per
cent sulphur, and in it's triple forma-
ton of top coal, bottom coal and the
thick middle "breast COAL" has total
depth of some fourteen feet. There
are many Others, ranging down to
eighteen inches, which is narrow as
most operators find it profitable to
mine, and manyrvery shallow veins
which no, one bothers about. The
whole deposit underlies territory of
about 500 square miles of Garrett
county and the extreme west edge of
Allegany, compared with Pennsylva-
MAS $4,000 square-mile area, West
Virginia's 1900 and Virginia's 1900.
Quantity is small relatively, but cox
ink quality is very high.
When mining began in America is
uncertain, as are many other specific
dates of Colonial history. The first
authentic date which the late William
Bullock Clark could establish in what
is now the United States was 1859,
when smith is known to have used
coal in his forge at Wilkes-Barre.
Not until 1907 did anthracite begin
moving down the Susquehanna to
market, and so incredulous were the
prospective customers that the pio-
neer coal dealers carried portable
CRATES into the cities with them, set
them up in the tavern fireplaces and
by this means convinced even the sus-
picious city folk that the "black
stone" would actually burn.
Maryland's coal discoveries did not
lag behind the others. Just when the
first wondering miner tested his dis
covery over an open fire in the noun
tain country can not be determined,
but certainly it was in advance of
1882, for in that year was printed
French map, to show Paris just what
were the "Treize Etats Unis ct indie
pendants" which French arms had
1ate1v helned To create In the delin-