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January, 1905 COAL AND TIMBER 13
"Coal and Timber" wishes everybody a
happy and prosperous new year.
Coal anb afonbfr
PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY
Coal and Timber Publishing
Company
802 ARROT BUILDING, PITTSBURG, PA.
C. W. SMITH, MANAGER GEO. A. WILLIAMS, EDITOR
S. R. IRELAND, ADVERTISING MANAGER
Communications relative to news of coal and timber lands, mines, shipments
equipment, etc, as well as items of interest concerning owners, operators, shippers
and officials, are invited and should be addressed to the Editor Coal and Timber.
Checks, drafts and remittances and all matters pertaining to the business
department should be addressed to COAL AND TIMBER PUBLISHING COMPANY
Telephones—Bell, Court 2388; P. & A, Main 1790.
SUBSCRIPTION S1 00 PER YEAR
SINGLE COPY 10 CENTS
ADVERTISING RATES ON APPLICATION
PITTSBURG, JANUARY, 1905
"COAL AND TIMBER" makes its initial bow and steps
into the fieldof trade-journalism with confidence inspired
by a realization of the usefulness and value which such a
publication will be to the Pittsburg field. A review of coal
and timber operations, mine news, shipments, markets and
land transactions, with general, local and personal matters,
is of particular concern to all parties interested directly or
indirectly in the progress and development of these very
important industries.
Pittsburg is a centre for coal operators, shippers,
engineers, mine supply and equipment companies, and enterprising
capitalists seeking profitable investments, andit
deserves to be represented by a journal that properly reports
and exploits these various interests and covers the field
thoroughly.
New coal fieldsare so generally surfaced with valuable
timber that the two products are naturally allied, and both
are commonly included in the purchase of one tract of land.
The established coal and timber interests of the Pittsburg
field, which covers Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and
reaches Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky, especially the
recent remarkable discoveries and developments in West
Virginia, entitle this district to special attention.
The aim of "COAL AND TIMBER" is to do this very
important work and to so improve with each issue as to
make itself more and more valuable to its subscribers and
advertisers. To this end it most respectfully invites the
co-operation of all interested parties, promising on its part
to exert itself to the utmost to promote and conserve the
interests of all.
THINK IT OVER
Who can compute the cost? W r e refer to the price
this country has paid the past year as a penalty for the
ruthless and wanton destruction of timber, and for the
indifference and negligence which has allowed a bounteous
sufficiency of water to run away from commercial, industrial
and domestic utility.
Count the cost of the drought. First: stagnation of
river transportation; boats out of commission; crews idle;
capital idle; property deteriorating; "nothing doing" in
supplies; shortage of coal at all points from Cincinnati to
New Orleans and throughout all the dependent territory—
the consumers paying advanced prices. Second: mines and
coke works cease operations; labor idle; capital idle; property
deteriorating. Consumers paying higher prices for
coal and coke, and paying higher prices for every article
in the manufacture of which these two commodities are
important factors, while every store which caters to the
patronage of these wage earners, suffers, and the influence
of "slack water" is felt in large retail stores and the great
wholesale houses. Third: manufacturing plants are compelled
to shut down, either for lack of water or because
the water is so bad that it ruins their boilers, and manufacturer,
laborer, merchant and banker all suffer financialloss.
These three are merely first instances. Follow them
through all their commercial, industrial, financial, social
and political consequences, and count the cost.
The remedy? It is at hand. It is comparatively easy
of accomplishment, and, compared with the immense profits
which the investment will pay, we as a nation must be blind
to our own interests and criminally negligent in our duty to
posterity,if we fail to act; act promptly and liberally.
A Divine Providence, Nature's God, has ordained laws
which we but imperfectly understand; butif we would only
do our part to retain and properly utilize the abundant
supply of water with which this valley is blessed in the
course of a year, we should have a boating stage from headwaters
to the gulf every day of the year, except for ice.
Dams, locks and channels will do this. A judicious
"Forestry Movement" backed by proper legislation will
do the rest.
"Count the cost", and then decide whether we are to
profit by the lesson of seven months drought, or are we to
endure even greater commercial and physical suffering
each succeeding year. Continued neglect and indifference
means stagnation, even death, to many industries, at a
cost of millions of dollars. Prompt, well-advised action,
means commercial and industrial life and prosperity.
Shall we head the lesson?
Compute the cost of neglect, estimate the profit,—the
necessity,—of action.
Congress ought to hear from YOU.