Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1899 — PRODUCTION OF COAL [ARTICLE]

PRODUCTION OF COAL

IT KEEPS PACE WITH INDUS* TRIAL. DEVELOPMENT. Fuel Output r& the United States Has Increased Until It Now Amounts to Twenty-five Per Cent, of the " orld’s Total Production. The announcement that the rapid increase in exportation of coal from the United States is causing uneasiness among British coal producers and exporters lends interest to some figures on the coal production of the world and especially of the United States, just issued by the Treasury Bureau of Statistics. From these it appears that the coal production of the United States is now nearly five times as much as in 1870, that the exportation has in that time increased from a quarter of a million tons to over four million tons, and that the United States, which in 1870 supplied but 17 per cent, of the world’s output, now furnishes about 25 per cent. The part played by coal in industrial productiveness explains the phenomenal Increase of fuel output noted In these statistics. Just as no other country can match the Industrial growth of the United States under the policy of protection, so no other country shows such a rapid increase in coal production as does the United States. Great Britain’s average annual coal product, as shown by a recent and widely quoted statistical publication of the Swedish government, in the five-year period, 1871-5, amounted to 127,000,000 tons, and in 1891-5 amounted to 185,000,000 tons, an increase of 45 per cent in the Average annual output. Germany’s average annual coal product in the period 1871-5 was 45,000,000 tons, and In the five-year period 1891-5 was 97,000,000 tons, an increase of 115 per cent The average annual coal production of France in the period 1871-5 was 16,000,000 tons, and in the term 1891-5, 27,000,000 tons, an increase of 70 per cent The average annual coal production of the United States in the period 1871-5 was 45,000,000 tons, and in the period 1891-5, according to our own figures, was 182,000,000 tons, an increase of 193 per cent The average annual output of “other countries” hot individually specified was in 1871-5, 34,000,000 tons, and in 1891-5, 79,000,000 tons, an increase of 132 per cent The total average annual output of the world in 18715 was in round numbers 266,000,000 tons, and in 1891-5 520,000,000 tons, an ancrease of 95 per cent Omitting the United States, the annual output in 1871-5 averaged 221,000,000 tons, and the average in 1891-5 was 388,000,000 tons, an increase of 75 per cent. Comparing the growth of coal production of the United States .with other parts of the world in the periods named, the record stands as follows: Growth of Coal Production of Leading Countries, Comparing Average Annual Output in the Period 1871-5 with that of Period 1891-5: Increase, 1871-5 to 1891-5. Per cent. Great Britain 45 France 70 Germany ~...115 Other countries (omitting U. 8) .132 World (omitting United States...., 75 World (including United States 95 United States ; 193 Both the area of coal production and quantity produced have Increased greatly in the United States. In 1870 the number of States in which coal was produced was but 20, while in 1897 the number was 32. In 1870 the production of anthracite coal was reported only from Pennsylvania, while the census of 1880 reports production in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia, and more recent reports show a-pro-duction of anthracite coal in Colorado and New Mexico. In the South the increase has been especially rapid. Alabama tn 1870 mined but 11,000 tons of coal, and in 1897, 5,262,000 tons. Kentucky, which in 1870 mined but 150,000 tons of coal, produced In 1897, 3,216,000 tons. Tennessee increased her output from 133,000 tons in 1870 to 2,500,000 tons in 1897, and Virginia, which produced but 62,000 tons in 1870, produced 1,364,000 tons In 1897. The following tables show the coal production of the United States and prices in the Philadelphia and Baltimore markets at five-year periods from 1870 to 1898; also the exportation of coal from the United States during the same period: Quantity of Coal Produced In the United States, 1870 to 1897. Anthracite, Bituminous, Total tons. tons. tons. 1870 15,604,275 17,199,415 32,803,690 1880.. .. .28,621.371 41.860,055 70,481,426 1885 81,623,529 70,501,024 102,124,553 1890 36,617,042 78,011,224 114,628,266 1895 46,511,477 94,899,496 141,410,973 1897 41,637,864 106,222,516 147,860,880 Average Annual Price Per Ton of Anthracite (at Philadelphia) and of Bituminous (at Baltimore) Coal, 1870 to 1898. Anthracite, Bituminous, dollars. dollars. 1870 4.39 4.72 1880 .....? 4.53 8.75 1885 4.10 . 2.25 1890. . 3.93 2.60 1885 3.50 2.00 1898 3.50 L6O Exportation of Coal from the United States, 1870 to 1897. Anthracite, Bituminous, Total tons. tons. tons. 1870 121,098 106,820 227,918 1880 392,626 222,634 615,260 1885 588,461 683.481 1,271,942 1890 795,753 1,136.068 1,931,821 1895 1,397,204 2,374,988 8,772,192 1898.. 1,326,582 2,682,414 4,008,996 Panics and Panics. Trade reports from all over the country continue to tell of remarkable business activity, with prices strong and steady, collections good and an increasing demand in all lines of trade. One correspondent to a trade paper sized up the situation as a “buyers’ panic.” That Is the kind of a “panic” that f a protective tariff always brings about In 1883, under the free trade administration of Mr. Cleveland, with its tariff reform Wilson-Gorman law we had another kind of a panic, the kind that has always followed upon every experiment ■

Ito It.by this country; a psfilc when l banks failed, factories closed, business men went to the wall and idle workmen walked the streets. It is safe to say that the people of the country prefer the “buyers’ panic” of 1899 under protection to the sort of panic we had in 1893 under partial free trade. Interdependent Prosperity. The railroad news of 1888 and 1880 under the Dingley law offers a striking contrast to the sort of railroad news which was all too common in the years of tariff reform and the Wilson-Gorman law. Then the regulation'railroad news was the going of one road after another into the hands of a receiver. Now nearly every week brings the report of the incorporation of one or more new railroad companies. The published reports of the roads already in existence show increased earnings and a growing volume of business. The general prosperity of the railroads goes to make a part of the mass of evidence, easily obtainable, which proves that the prosperity which results from a protective tariff is by no means limited to those persons who are engaged in industries, the products of which are subject to tariff duties. Protection means prosperity for the whole country. The industrial system is one of Interdependence and the prosperity of one branch of industry means the prosperity of many others. Fewer Failures. One of the commercial agencies gives the amount of the failures for the first three months of this year, as compared with the figures for the same period in the three preceding years. The figures are as follows: 1899 $26,680,00011897 $48,008,000 1898 31,710,000| 1896 57,252,000 These are statistics which the “calamity howlers” do not quote and do not refer to, for such statistics record plainly and pleasantly the existing prosperity of the country. The difference between the early months of 1896, when the Democratic party was preparing to formulate its demand for a debased currency, when money tfas scarce and dear, because public confidence in the soundness of the currency was shaken, and the opening months of 1899, when money is abundant and cheap and business men are filled with confidence, is like the difference between night and day. No Further Meddling Wanted. Nothing is more certain than that the people have had enough of Democratic tariff reform to last them for more than a generation. While the remembrance of the panic years from 1893 to 1897 lasts none but theorists and others who have nothing to lose will consent to further meddling with the protective tariff policy. Few others will care for more experiments with silver. Good gold money has become plenty enough since its standard was estab-. fished, and it is rapidly becoming plenties The gold mines of the world are now turning out more value each year than mines of both gold and silver produced together seven years ago. Their output Is increasing. Even the advocates of flat money can now get as much gold as they will work for.—Tacoma Ledger. Prejudice Against Subsidies. The system of discriminating duties was on trial for a good many years, and it is notable that in those years there was an encouraging increase in the number of American vessels carrying the American flag. When the provision for discriminating duties was repealed we began to lose our hold on ocean traffic, which went into the hands of Great Britain, a country which for two hundred years had encouraged by subsidy.and bounty the upbuilding of the greatest merchant marine in the world. In this country prejudice was excited against the subsidy system because in two or three cases there were evasions of contract, and in other cases it was charged that undue lobby influence had been exerted.—Exchange. It Is a Healthy Advance. Beside the present wage increases in mills, mines, iron and steel works, the cheap skyrocketing antics of Wall street operators are insignificant, since they create no values save purely fictional ones. Wages are the bottom gauge to wealth and prosperity.—Boston Globe. Noticeably Silent. The wages of employes in the various tin-plate factories of the country have been raised recently, and since then free-trade papers have been noticeably silent about the “ridiculous idea of making tin plate in this country.”—New York Press. Highly Reprehensible. The robber tariff is still bowling along, Increasing wages of workingmen and committing other highly reprehensible acts against the peace and dignity of the Democratic party.—Kansas City Journal. An Interesting Bank Note. One of the most interesting news tn possession of the Bank of Eng And is one for £I,OOO, which was given by Alexander Cochrane, afterward Lord Dundonald, in payment of a fine inflicted upon him some time before the battle of Waterloo. Cochrane, after destroying the French fleet in the Aix roads, was accused and convicted of a stock-jobbing fraud, and part of his sentence was the payment of a fine of £I,OOO. Cochrane, whose sentence wks years afterward annulled, bitterly resented his punishment, and when, in July, 1815, he tendered the note In payment of the fine he made the following pathetic indorsement upon it: "My health having suffered from long and close confinement, and my oppressors having resolved to deprive me of my property or life, I submit to robbery to protect myself from murder, tn the hope that I shall live to bring the delta* quests to justice.”