Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-07-07

returns from the actual sale OF
the fuel itself.
Back in the EOS. the railroads
were cut off-rlominally- from
their coal holdings under anti
trust proceedings. Nevertheless,
such carriers as the Reading,
Pennsylvania. LackaWanna. Cen
trail Of New Jersey, and Delaware
and Hudson have had a big
finger in the industry. Freight
rates, rather than coal sales
have dominated the anthracite
business almost through its life
time. according to such old
timers as the United Mine
Workers Vice President Tom
Kennedy. who was in the pits as
a boy.
When Competition Came.
Until competition caught ur
with them. the coal operators
didn't have to worry much about
the economics of digging anc
selling coal. so long as the haul
ing was profitable. And wher
competition did catch up with
them. it was very late-perhaps
too late-to change.
A lot of the high cost Of pro-
ducing anthracite, however. Is
a built-in problem-the result
of conditions inherent In the
hard coal operation. Compare
lively speaking, that is, hard
coal inevitably is expensive to
produce. AS an illustration, the
price of bituminous at the pit is
only around 81 a ton, while
anthracite runs to $13.
One reason for this is that the
process of digging anthracite is
itself a tremendously costly
business. Bituminous beds are
fiat. They are easily accessible
to the cutting and moving ma
chinery which has been used
successfully in soft coal mining
for years.
Anthracite veins, on the other
hand. lie in slopes. often at q
pitch of 80 degrees. And the
hard coal men complain, you
can't run a machine up the HILL
/ Some progress is being made
in mechanization, which means
cheaper production, but it, Il
hard going. Optimists are hope
full that by trial and error, the
coal-cutting machinery can be
made more efficient.
But when hard coal is mined,
the trouble has just begun
Processing injects another big
element Of cost.
Because of it's varying uses
calling for different sizes, an
thracite must be run through the
machinery Of a plant called a
breaker. Here it Is washed ane
then rolled across CRATES through
which the different sizes drop
These machines also remove
waste material from the coal
replacing the slate pickers whit
once went into the mines a,
small boys to get their start il
the industry.
Seepage Fight Costly.
Perhaps the most dramati,
item affecting the price of an,
thracite is the cost Of keeping
water out of the mines. To keel
the deep shafts free of the in.
evitable seepage, electric pump
work constantly, discharging tn
waters into nearby streams.
| The problem is made mort
acute because no way has eve
been found to seal off active
mines from abandoned workings
which are constantly flooded
The statistics are startling. Fol
every ton of coal removed from
a shaft, 48 tons Of water mus
also be removed.
Ambitious drainage plans havt
been proposed for the entire re,
gion. But what they will come
| to is another question.
For reasons like these, In re-
cent years, the industry has
been turning more and more tc
a process known as strip" min
ling-which simply means taking
the coal off the surface rather
than going after 1t underground
The coal is not as good as that
which comes from deep in The
earth. But 1t can be produced
a lot cheaper, with less men. A
great many small companies, anc
some of the big ones. are doing it
Still, strip mining is no an.
swer to the problems Of the an
| thracite area. BY way of illus
| tration, consider the situation
In the town of Nanticoke. just
south of wilkes Barre in Lu.
zerne County.
| The Glen Alden Co. still ha.
a couple Of shaft mines in thu
Nanticoke neighborhood but foul
other big operations have thrown
In the sponge, leaving the field
to the shippers who lease theil
lands.
i The latest company to pull
out, q few months ago, was Sus-
quehanna, q unit of the famed
/ Hanna industrial empire, with
| which Treasury Secretary George
NJ. Humphrey formerly was as
ISOLATED. A rickety and aban-
doned breaker. from which thu
machinery has been removed ant
sold for junk. is the Nanticoke
monument To SuSquehanna.
i In the refuse banks alongside
| the breaker. where coal once was
processed for the market. jobIess
miners and ragged children
dodge around the ridges Of new