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30 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
PITTSBURGH COAL RATE HEARING
SET FOR NOVEMBER 20, 1911.
Officials of the Pittsburgh Coal Co. and other
Pittsburgh district coal operators, who have joined
in the fight for lower freight rates to the lakes,
will gather in Washington for the resumed hearing
before the Interstate Commerce Commission
on November 20, instead of November 13, as has
been announced. The further adjournment of a
week is considered an advantage for the operators
as some of them, who have recently come into the
case, will be better prepared to go before the Commerce
Commission and state their reasons why
rates should be equalized.
The hearing, which is a continuation of the
hearing of a couple of months ago, is expected to
take up the remainder of the month of November,
and the Pittsburgh operators are hoping" that all
the evidence may be presented and the matter
laid before the Commission in such shape as to
permit of a decision being rendered soon. This
is the case brought before the Commission by independent
operators, the Pittsburgh Coal Co. intervening
in the petition alter the first hearing
had been held. Since then there has been a
unanimity of sentiment among the operators and
the fight is expected to be one of the hardest
fought of any dispute the Commerce Commission
has had to decide.
At the coming hearing, which is expected to be
the final one. there will be a big array of counsel.
Chief among the coal men's counsel will be Louis
D. Brandeis, the famous Boston lawyer, while
many well known attorneys will be on band to
look after the interests of the railroads.
KANAWHA OPERATORS ASK FOR
NINE-FOOT STAGE IN RIVER.
The Kanawha Coal Operators' Association met in
annual session at Charleston, W. Va.. Oct. 20, and
among other business transacted adopted this resolution:
That Whereas, the system of locks and dams
now being constructed by the United States government
in the Ohio river provide, when the dams
are up for a nine-foot stage of water through the
locks, thereby permitting tbe large size coal barges
and flat boats to pass down the river to the markets
of Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis and New
Orleans; and
Whereas, the system of locks and dams heretofore
constructed in the Great Kanawha river are
so built as to furnish only a six-foot stage of water
when the dams are raised, thereby making it impossible
for the barges and flat boats of the size
now used on the Ohio and requisite for lower river
transportation, to pass through the Kanawha locks;
and
Whereas, present and future conditions of the
river coal markets for the lower Ohio and Mississippi
cities demand for general use the larger sized
barges and flat boats for whose accommodations
the Ohio river locks are now constructed; and
Whereas, in order to secure an abundant and
steady supply of this cheap coal from the coal
mines along the Kanawha river it will be necessary
that the dams be increased in height and the locks
also raised to assure a nine-foot stage of water
similar to what is now provided in the Ohio.
Now therefore, in consideration of the premises,
be it unanimously resolved, that the senators and
congressmen of the state of West Virginia at
Washington be and are hereby urgently requested
to secure such further and adequate appropriations
from the United States Congress as will immediately
assure the work of heightening the dams and
raising the lock walls of the Great Kanawha river
improvement, to the end that, at all times, the
mines of the Kanawha valley may be kept continuously
running and the markets of the lower
Ohio and Mississippi may be continuously supplied
with an abundance of cheaply carried coal,
and the original intent and purpose of the lock
and dam system already constructed may be the
more perfectly carried out.
Among the operators present were: Hon. W. S.
Edwards, Joseph Franz, N. D. Monsarratt, T. H.
Huddy, W. F. Mandt. James Kay, L. C. Tippett,
C. M. Fenton, J. W. Dawson, E. 0. Dana. D. T.
Evans, D. C. Kennedy, J. H. Nash. Quinn Morton.
F. H. Morton, W. L. Morris, W. R. Johnson, Jr.,
Frank Harris, John L. Dickinson, Thomas Woodward,
F. E. Wright.
The officers elected were: President, Quinn
Morton; vice president, E. O. Dana; treasurer,
John L. Dickinson; secretary, D. C. Kennedy. The
new executive committee is composed of the following
members selected at the meeting: William
Seymour Edwards, Edward Schoebaum. W. S.
Wood, N. S. Monsarratt, W. R. Johnson, L. C.
Tippett and Frank Harris.
As a result of the various changes made by the
last Illinois legislature in creating two new mining
districts in the state, the coal producing counties
of Southern Illinois have been redistricted. Frank
Rosebottom, assistant superintendent of the State
Mine Rescue Station at Benton, becomes inspector
of the Eleventh district, composed of the counties
of Franklin, Saline, White and Gallatin. Oscar
C. Cartlige, formerly of Benton, is transferred to
the new district, which embraces Williamson and
Johnston counties, with headquarters at Marion.
Specifications have been issued by the Pitts
burgh Coal Co. for the construction of 1.000 to
1,200 steel underframes for coal cars.