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THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 47
THE COST OF COAL MINING*
By Edward W. Parker. United States Geological Survey
In order to do justice to the subject and to ery and is so entered on the books. Until the
the occasion, a paper on the cost of coal mining recent action of the United States Supreme Court
prepared for presentation before the Mining abolishing the contracts between the anthracite
Congress should be based upon an intensive study companies and the transportation interests, all
of the records, not too many, of typical operations the anthracite shipped to New York harbor ports
in a sufficient number of states to get results for a number of years has been sold on a per­
capable of analytical comparison and deduction. centage basis of the tidewater price, the railroads
Unfortunately, when I was asked by the Secretary taking 35 per cent, for the freight and return­
of the Congress to prepare this paper there was ing 65 per cent, to the operators. The magnitude
not time to collect data from which such a study of the task of determining what the actual value
could be made, and I have been compelled to adopt of the product is, was rather forcibly brought
as the basis of this discussion the latest official home to me last spring, when I called at the
statistics available, those of the Thirteenth Cen­ New York office of one of the big anthracite
sus of the United States, which covers the cal­ companies for the purpose of urging the expediting
endar year 1909. Since that time wages have of that company's report. It had furnished com­
been advanced in both the anthracite and bituplete reports of production, by sizes, for its
minous districts, and prices for the product have numerous mines, but had omitted any statement
been raised to compensate for (and in some cases, of values. I had written a letter urgently re­
possibly more than offset) the increased cost of questing as accurate a statement of the value as
production.
I had received of the production, and had been
If at the outset I may be permitted to make a promised the additional information. The auditor
suggestion, as to one thing needed in the coal­ brought for my observation sheet upon sheet of
mining industry (looking at it from the stand­ closely written figures, upon which the calculapoint
of the statistician and economist) it is a tions necessary to get the data had been made.
standardization in the methods of accounting. It It had taken the entire time of one clerk more
is difficult—one might say impossible—to com­ than two weeks to do the work.
pile accurate statistical data regarding cost and What goes into mining cost is in many cases
value of product when operators themselves can as difficult to ascertain. As many here well know,
not tell what their product costs nor what they the old type of wooden or corrugated iron break­
actually receive for it, and when their only means ers in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania are
Of judging whether they are making or losing giving way rapidly to modern structures or re­
money is by their bank accounts. Within the inforced concrete or other
present year the Geological Survey was requested
1'TREl'lMIOF CONSTRUCTION.
by one corporation, whose value of production is I have been reliabl yinformed that the invest­
measured by the tens of millions, to furnish statement in most of these cases is charged, not to
ments of its output ten or fifteen years ago, which capital account, but to mining expenses. It must,
it. was unable to ascertain
of course, eventually go into the cost of niining,
FROM ITS OWN RECORDS.
but it seems to me that it is an investment, not
The only reason that the Survey could not com­ an expense, and when charged into the cost of
ply with the request was that the schedules and mining should be in the form of depreciation,
tabulations are kept for two years only, for pur­ and of interest on the investment. These are
poses of comparison, and are then destroyed, as cited merely as examples of the complexities
there is no place where they can be safely stored which confront the economist when he undertakes
and the best method of maintaining their confi­ to analyze such statistics as he finds available.
dential character is to burn them.
There is a somewhat general impression that the
In the anthracite region particularly it is diffi­ mining of coal, both anthracite and bituminous,
cult to secure accurate information, not only in is a highly lucrative vocation, a nd that the
regard to mining cost, but also the value at first principal occupation of the so-called coal barons
hand of the output. A large proportion of the
anthracite is sold at so much a ton delivered at
Buffalo, or Chicago, or Milwaukee, or wherever
it may be, and the sale price of the coal at the
mines includes the freight to the point of delivis
to look pleasant as the golden stream flows
into their coffers. I venture to state, taking the
industry as a whole, that there are few lines of
industrial endeavor where, during the last ten
years, there have been smaller returns for the
capital invested and for the energy, mental and
*Address at the Sixteenth Annual Convention ol the Ameri­ manual, that has been put into it, than in the
can Mining Congress. Philadelphia, 1913,