Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1901 — the Anthracite Coal Crisis. [ARTICLE]

the Anthracite Coal Crisis.

An article in the April Atlantic by Talcott Williams throws light upon the real causes of the threatened strike in the Pennsylvania coal fields. This writer shows that strikes are often the result of intense competition. Every new machine and every shifting of trade has in it the possibilities of strikes in the industries affected. Thus the invasion of England by American steel products is likely to produce labor troubles in English steel mills. It is a change of this kind that has forced the anthracite mineowners and their employes into a state constantly bordering on conflict. For the firsts time both sides are now thoroughly organized and each feels the pressure of conditions which seem to it unendurable. The real cause of the anthracite troubles is the increasing competition of bituminous coal. From 1840 to 186(5 the annual output of each of the two kinds of coal was practically the same. By 1870 the anthracite had forged snead of its rival in the proportion of 16,000,000 tons to 14,000,000 of soft coal. Anthracite had everything tn its favor and the iron of the country was made with this kind of coal. Miners got good wages and capital made large dividends. Then the capitalists did as they usually do In such cases—they watered their stock. Between 1870 and 1880 the capital engaged in anthracite increased from 150,000,000 to $154,000,000. Yet during the same period bituminous coal suddenly leaped far ahead of in 1880 the hard coal output was 23,000,000 tons, while the soft coal was nearly 42,000,000 tons. The use of coke had been discovered, and the iron industries had begun to substitute bituminous for anthracite coal. The anthracite interests thus found themselves heavily overcapitalized and face to face with strong and unexpected competition. Their decline dates from that time. In the last twenty years the anthracite output has doubled, but that of bituminous coal has o quadrupled. The Pennsylvania owners sought to save themselves by employing cheaper and less intelligent labor. They scaled down wages through the company store, a high price for powder, and various devices for mulcting the miner in weighing his output. Strikes followed inevitably. These conditions are still pressing

upon the mine-owners with increasing force, says the Chicago Tribune. In the flush days of thirty years ago the shafts were only 400 or 600 feet deep. Now they are thrice that depth, and it costs much more to bring each ton to the surface. The steel industries were formerly confined to the East, near the anthracite mines. Now the cheap Western ore and cheap bituminous coal are steadily drawing the iron industries toward the West. The overcapitalized anthracite industries have increasing difficulty in making dividends. The result is an imminent danger of serious disturbances, yet, as Mr. Williams says, the danger from a further deterioration of labor and wages would be still worse.