Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1900 — COAL FROM AMERICA. [ARTICLE]

COAL FROM AMERICA.

EUROPE COMES TO THIS COUNTRY FOR FUEL. • ■ The Inadequate Supply Abroad Promotes Our Foreign Trade —Best Coal for Fighting Ships Now Comes from the United States. Mine operators from the United States and their agents are all over the European continent in the interest -of American coal and almost every day vessels loaded with the product of American mines are clearing for European ports, where they are to lay down bituminous coal at English prices. Great Britain, with an estimated coal supply for only 200 years, has been exporting 55,000,000 tons annually. The, British public has been looking upon' this with disfavor. An export tax upon the product is anticipated, and in the •vent of it the Mediterranean ports must draw upon the United States for their fuel. Already the United States has been supplying the best coal for use in naval vessels. In Europe coal deposits cover 27,000 square miles in Russia, 9,000 in Great Britain, 3,600 in Germany, 1,800 in France, and in all the rest of Europe are only 1,400 square miles. In Great Britain, France, and glermany especially these fields have been drawn upon for hundrds of years. Every square mile of resource has been sounded. Some of the English veins are worked to a depth of 3,887 feet,

with 4,000 the estimated maximum possible. Russia, of all these countries, may develop unexpected deposits. British India shows only 35,000 square miles of coal beds, and the total of all these is only 77,800 for Europe and India. As against this are the United States deposits of 194,000 square miles, with thousands of possible miles unexplored and undeveloped. To this Alaska Is promising inexhaustible deposits of anthracite, which at least must replace the English coil that Is now supplying the Pacific slope of the United States. Aside from the United States in this coming world supply of fuel, only China and Japan can be looked to. These countries have deposits about as large as those of the United States, but are lacking In means of development. Their positions upon the map. too, are not fa vorable to the European trade. World’s Yield of Coal. As to. how the mines of the world have been drawn upon, the figures for 1898 are accurate enough for comparison. They show In long tons of 2,240 pounds: Tons. Great. 8ritain.202,042,000 UniteO 5tate5196.282,000 Germany 91,055,000 France 80.337,000 Belgium 21.720,000 Russia 9,220,000 Japan 5,080,000 India 4,060,000 New South Wales 3.750,000 Canada• 3,880.000 Spain 1,850,000 It will be seen from this that Great Britain, with only 9,000 square miles of coal beds, already lean from long mining, is drawing more heavily on her resources than is the United States, with more than twenty times the deposits, and they scarcely sounded in comparison. The exports of coal from the United States within the seven months ending July 31, aggregated 992,481 tons of anthracite and 3,009,274 tons of bituminous coal. The total exports showed an Increase of ,1,595,603 tons over the corresponding period of 1890. This increase was largely In shipments of bituminous coal. Export shipments of American coke during the seven months ending July 31, amounted to 240,253 tons, an Increase of about 90,000 tons over the same period In 1899. No Demand for Anthracite. The United States coal which Is to replace the product of England and Wales in 'the markets of the world is the soft coal of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Alabama. Anthracite coal has practically no opportunity for foreign exploitation at the present time or In the near future. It Is a fuel so much different from the coal that foreign consumers have been accustomed

to using that they are not at all Inclined to take it up, necessitating, as it does, the use of new grates or new stoves and entirely different methods of firing. Only the several varieties of soft coal now finding a market abroad need be considered. ■ — — In Pennsylvania there is produced for the seaboard trade what is know® as Clearfield coal, originating mostly on the line of the Pennsylvania railroad, but also reaching market over the Philadelphia and Reading railway. This general name Includes the coal from several minor regions and is a comprehensive trade term. Further to the westward is the Pittsburg district, closely centering about the metropolis of the western portion of the State. Some coal from the eastern portion of this district reaches tidewater by rail over the Pennsylvania, but the hopes of those who expect an export business in Pittsburg coal are based upon the fact that during certain portions of the year cheap transportation to the port of New Orleans may be by way of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. In Maryland the famous Cumberland coal Is produced, but this is decidedly soft, breaking into small pieces rather than crumbling, yet not in favor with foreign consumers notwithstanding. Its richness in fuel properties. foreign trade demands a lumpy coal, and for that reason the Cumberland can be left out of calculations concerning export trade. In West Virginia three Important railroad lines handle the products of the Elk Garden and Fairmont regions—in which Senators Davis and Elkins are

widely Interested—the New River and Kanawha districts, and the Pocahontas regions. Of these sections the New River, the Fairmont, and the Elk Garden mines promise to contribute the greater share of the State’s coal for export. The Pocahontas coal, howeveY, will be In limited but strong demand for naval steaming. In Alabama the coal fields lie in the northern part of the State, near Birmingham, and the way of outlet will be through Mobile or Pensacola. With these coals from these States, and paying even $5 a ton for ocean freights, the American shipper may have a margin of $1.56 profit at Gibraltar, $2.20 at Marseilles, and $2.68 at Naples, in addition to the profit in the home nrlce of $2.50 a ton. Yet this freight charge Is vastly greater than would hold if colliers, especially constructed, were to do the carrying. All of the possibilities leading to this new exploiting of American coal have found source in the high rates of freight in Great Britain, the cost of mining, and In the unmistakable limitation of the coal supply. The foreign production of coal Is not decreasing, of course; it is increasing steadily. Freight Chief Factor. W’ith freight rates from the United States at $5 a ton, some one has figured the comparatlvqtshowing that the United States product can make with that of Great Britain in continental ports.

Bituminous coal, with the mines* profits already added, is worth $2.50 a ton. The freight to the Mediterranean is $5 a ton, making the cost, with only local profit to the mine, $7.50 a ton at the several ports on that sea. Welsh coal is worth $7 a ton at Cardiff. and the freight to Gibraltar is $2.16, making it $9.16 a ton. These freights vary until this Welsh coal brings $9.70 a ton at Marseilles and $9.58 at Naples. Over this coal the American product has a margin of $1.56 a ton at Gibraltar, $2.20 at Marseilles, and $2.68 at Naples, even after the mine profit has been received on the American side. These figures are reached, too, with the Inadequate present means of transporting coal across the Atlantic. Most of the vessels now canning coal were designed for package freight and are about as well adapted for the coal business as is a box car compared with one of the modern 100,000 pound steel coal cars. Colliers especially made for the coal trade will be Indispensable to trans-atlantlc business. It has been calculated that the cost of operating a 7,000-ton steamer to such an accessible port as Gibraltar, making the length of the voyage and time of unloading fifteen days, will be as follows: Insurance, $875; interest on cost, $750; depreciation, $625; crew, $580; provisions, $168; pofTcharges, $184; pilotage, $330; fuel, $2,025, allowing full selling price for company’s coal used for steam. This, with SIOO for Incidentals, gives a total of $5,637, making 80.4 cents a ton the actual transportation cost on the coal. Vessel owners like to secure and count upon a return cargo,

and coal men owning such a vessel would get more or less freight destined for the United States. But suppose that practically nothing- could be secured and that the freight charge would be $1.50, It will be seen that American coal can be laid down in Cardiff, in the seat and center of the greatest coal industry in the world, at $4 a ton, $3 below the selling price of the Welsh coal.