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10 COAL AND TIMBER February, 1905
PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY
Coal and Timber Publishing Co.
ARROTT BUILDING, PITTSBURG, PA
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PITTSBURG, FEBRUARY, 1905.
PENNSYLVANIA MINING LAWS.
One of the most efficient and conscientious
public officials of this Commonwealth
is James E. Roderick, Chief of the Department
of Mines, and he is anxious that the
present session of the Legislature shall appoint
a commission to revise the mining
laws of the state. He suggests that the
commission be comprised ofeleven persons;
two miners, one operator and one engineer
from the anthracite, and the same number,
representing the same interests, from the
bituminous coal fields. These ten men will
be presided over by a gentleman, appointed
by the Governor, who will represent the
Commonwealth. In addition to these, the
members of the commission are to employ
a competent lawyer to pass upon the constitutionality
of the laws proposed by them.
When the gentlemen so appointed have
completed their task, the amended laws, accoiding
to the recommendation of the chief,
should be pascd without amendment by the
Legislature, lor the reason, that not ten per
cent, of the men sent to Harrisburg to
enact laws know anything whatever of
mines and mining, and so are wholly incompetent
to pass upon the question as to
what are the requirements of the indusrty
in the matter of legal enactments for the
safety of life, limb and vested interests.
The suggestions of the chief certainly
deserve prompt and careful consideration.
In his last annual report he expresses regret
that the amendment to the present
law, which was introduced by Hon. D. J.
Thomas, Senator from Schuylkill County,
and formerly a practical miner, foreman
and superintendent, did not become a law.
Mr. Roderick says: "1 am of the opinion
that if this amendment hail become a law
and been properly lived up to, at least < nilhalf
of the accidents from 'falls' would have
been avoided.
I hope that Senator Thomas
or some other equally expert miner, will
take this matter up again and that the
passage of this law will not be opposed."
Mr. Roderick is in earnest and he is
probably the best informed and most competent
men in the state to judge of the
changes in the laws, which are required to
promote the safety of life and the protection
of property. The lives of the hundreds
of thousands of mine employes and
the millions of dollars invested in mine
property and equipment, are entitled to
such legislation as will afford them the
greatest possible protection.
COAL TAXATION.
Governor Pennypacker, of Pennsylvania,
and Governor White, of West Virginia,
have both recommended to their respective
Legislatures a special tax on coal.
Pennsylvania produces three times as
much coal as any other state in the Union
and West Virginia ranks third in point of
production.
General Pennypacker advocates a tax on
fach and every ton of coal mined in Pennsylvania,
while Governor White wants a
special tax of $100 or $150 from every mine
in West Virginia.
Fuel is an industrial and domestic necessity
and a tax on coal directly affects every
man, woman and child in the country.
Owners of coal lands, coal operators,
shippers and all the great army of men,
who aie engaged in the industry, are taxed
as other men are, and it is difficult for
them to understand why they should be
compe'led to contribute an extra fee to the
state for bringing a ton of coal to the surface.
Would it not be as reasonable and just
to place a special tax—"so small in amount
that it would not prove burdensome to the
consumers, or interfere with trade"—on
every bushel of grain, vegetables and fruit
produced in the state?
The proposed tax in Pennsylvania would
amount to consideraby more than a million
dollars a year and coal men arc very
naturally making a vigorous protest against
such a handicap being placed on the industrv
RTVER
APPROPRIATIONS
PROVIDED.
At last the congressional committee
on
rivers and harbors begin to manifest a degree
of appreciation of the immense importance
of creating and maintaining a
nine-foot boating stage on the Monongahela
and Ohio Rivers. In the bill, which
has just been reported, a start is made on
the nine foot stage by the following appropriations
for local river improvements.
An allowance of $520,000 cash and contracts
amounting to $1,281,376 is made fur
the completion of the locks and dams between
Pittsburg and Beaver. Of this sum
$340,000 is to be used for increasing the
depth of the gates and wickets so as to
impound the water to a depth of nine feet.
Pennsylvania fares well, receiving $942,850
in cash and authority to contract for works
costing $1,320,425 more. The items are:
Erie, $125,000; Pittsburg harbor, $10,000,
usual amount; Monongahela river maintenance,
$7,850, usual amount; locks and dams,
Herrs Island and Springdale, $100,000 in
cash and authority to contract for $181,226
more; and lock No. 3 on the Monongahela,
$200,000 in cash and $389,196 in contracts,
which complete the reconstruction of that
woik.
The Ohio river gets $960,000 in cash, and
contracts amounting to $1,441,316. The cash
appropriation for general improvement in
the (list draft of the bill was $400,000, but
one-fourth of that was sliced off. The details
arc:
General improvement, $300,000; locks
and dMims between Pittsburg and Beaver,
$500,000 in cash and contracts for $1,281,-
376. and locks and dams Nos. 8 and 11.
$160,000 in cash 'and an equal amount in contracts.
This allowance was cut, but it is
large enough to permit substantial progress.
It is probable that the bill will pass the
lower house of Congress in this shape, but
its fate will depend on the action of the
Senate, where it may be so padded with
amendments as to result in the defeat of the
bill in a conference of the two branch.es.
It is impossible to overestimate the
necessity and value of these improvements
and every influence should be brought to
bear to hasten the accomplishment ot this
enterprise.
THE FORESTRY CONGRESS.
Such an assemblage as that which convened
at Washington the first week in
January when the Forestry Congress held
its first meeting is indicative ot an epoch
in the industrial history of our nation.
The delegates were mostly professional
and business men, and the problems of preventing
the ruthless and wanton destruction
of timber and re-timbering devastated sections
of country, received scientific and
business-like consideration.
Re-forestatiou is no longer a matter of
sentiment and "Woodman, spare that tree,"
was not quoted by a single speaker. The
imperative necessity of forests for commercial
and industrial profit and as an essentia!
to the protection and perpetuation of the
water supply of the country demanded serious
consideration, and all the discussions
were of practical and economic importance.
The timber in all parts of the country is
rapidly disappearing before the advancing
army of axmen; fire also destroys thousands
"I acres of forest ever}' year, and out
"I (he destruction grows some momentous
problems, as the proceedings of the congress
have made plain. Among the sub-