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16 COAL AND TIMBER May, 1905
PUBLISHED MONTHLY Br
COAL AND TIMBER PUBLISHING CO.
ARROTT BUILDING, PITTSBURG, PA.
RUSH T. JONES. Editor.
B. E. SCHNA1TERBECK, M. G. LE1BIN,
Advertising Manager.
Cashier
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PITTSBURG, MAY, 1905
"COAL
CHILLS."
The winter's past;
And now, at last,
The coal man's bill will ease up.
Ice-men will call
Until next Fall
When their finejobs will freeze up.
His coal in heaps,
The miner sleeps,
Nor fears a railroad tie-up.
He only prays,
Thro' summer days
The river will not up
\ /
dry
—McRome Howell.
THE COAL LAND
SITUATION.
As forecasted in these columns a few weeks
ago, a great activity has shown itself in the
purchase of coal tracts as soon as the snow
left the ground and inspection became practicable
All during the winter there were
indications that many large interests would
be in the market this spring, buying for investment
and for immediate extension of
their active operations. Mine superintendents,
engineers and experts, representing a
number of large companies, were known to
be cruising through West Virginia, and developments
of the last few weeks have
shown that they have made selections of
tracts which are now being rapidly acquired
and closed up.
The Berwind-White Co. have made several
large acquisitions of New River and
Pocahontas coals, and several very large
tracts have been purchased by parties stated
to be acting for the U. S. steel corporation.
We have information also that a number of
very large purchases of coal rights in some
of the back counties, off the coal railroads,
which were quietly taken up by agents
through the current month, are the properties
of a new syndicate organized in New
York City in March, with a capital of
$20,000,000, for investment in West Virginia
coal acreage, which, by reason of their location,
are cheaper in price and will be
held for the more or less distant future.
As suggested in a former article in Coal
and Timber, on the coal land situation,
prices of acreage, both for fee and rights,
are already hardening, and the prophecy
that 1905 would be the last year for cheap
coal in this field, is assuming more certainty
every day. The entire West Virginia
district—and this includes the bordering districts
to adjoining states—is alive to the
fact that investors are looking over their
territory and while there is not yet an
abnormal advance in prices, we can notice
every day a stiffening in price terms and
conditions everywhere. Our opinion is that
this year, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky
and Tennessee coal lands will rapidly reach
the present Pennsylvania standards of value
and it is advisable for those anticipating the
purchase of coal bodies for investment or
operation, that they should look well to the
present opportunity.
The Big Sandy extension in Eastern
Kentucky is attracting more and more attention
especially since the Pocohontas veins
have been pretty well taken on the West
Virginia side. The coal lands on the C. &
O. extension and the river lying also close
to the N. & W., across the stream are actually
held at $200 and upwards per acre and
sales are registered around these prices
every month. This is a very-much-Pennsylvania
color and a few years ago would have
been considered supremely ridiculous in that
section. Practical use is demonstrating the
superior quality of Pittsburg coal in West
Virginia, especially in that small geographical
oasis or pool of these veins which lies
in and around Putnam county, W. Va., the
coal there being a beautiful, glossy splint
and magnificent for domestic purposes.
Real estate being the basis of all values,
it is not at all improbable that a great deal
of eastern capital, especially the unearned
increment from industrial stocks and bonds,
is looking to coal fields. The public is certainly
not in the stock market to any extent,
and there is not so much capital finding
its way to far West and Mexico, as
formerly, while on the other hand, the
Eastern War, the working out of the English
and Welsh coal districts and the progress
of the Panama Canal, have all given occasion
to newspaper comment on the values
of our coal deposits and attracted attention
to the solid asset that lies in a bed of "black
diamonds." In our estimations there is no
investment so wise as one in a good coal
tract, regardless of its location, to be held
for the future, with the assurance that if
the coal is there, the railroad to handle it
will be forthcoming, and in the meantime,
fixed charges to carry the investment will
be small.
The same situation as regards investment
in coal lands is showing increased activity
in timber tract purchases. Large co-operaage
concerns in the Northwest and East
have within the last few weeks taken over
some fine and extensive oak bodies in West
Virginia and some adjoining districts, and
in the quiet and substantial manner in which
these investments have been made, resemble
very much the movement in the coal department.
West Virginia is teeming with
railroad projects for branch extensions, narrow
gauge coal roads and tram ways, which
can, with a few miles construction, open up
and put upon the market a large number of
separate tracts. It will not be many years
before all the coal and timber in this mountainous
secton will be marketable, as to shipping
facilities. There only remains to make
the situation perfect from an investment
standpoint, the liberal and prompt aid of
the government in improving the small
water ways and Ohio river, to show an industrial
condition never before approached
in the United States.
Pittsburg must feel the results of this
great movement as much or more than any
other trans-montane city, both in her mercantile
and financial lines.
A glance at the map will show the unique
and marvelous geographical location of
West Virginia, a statement of which may
prove interesting. There is only one state
between West Virginia and the Alantic
ocean; one state between it and the Great
Lakes; one state between it and the Mississippi
river; one state and narrow corner
between it and the Gulf of Mexico; and two
states between it and Texas. Here we have
a Commonwealth teeming with minerals,
clothed with timber, scarcely discovered,
much less depleted, ready to be pioneered,
and affording development for hundreds of
years which is not in the Rocky mountains
nor Canada, nor Mexico, but lying within a
few hours ride of our greatest financial and
commercial centers.
IDLE TALK
CHECKED.
Many rumors were afloat last month
during the time when many hard drives
were made at Pittsburg Coal Co. stock.
The declaring of the usual dividend on the
preferred stock of the corporation put an
effectual quietus to all talk.
COAL TAX BILL BURIED.
The Pennsylvania coal and oil tax bill
was given an anesthetic by the state legislature
before its adjournment at Harrisburg
hist month. It is almost certain that the
dose administered was so generous in quantity
that the unjust and oppressive measure
will never be resurrected, and it is
right that it should be so.