coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

over $1.00, so that the margin of profit to cover
interest, depreciation, and amortization was a
little less than 7 cents a ton. In some states
the expenses exceeded the returns. Take Arkansas,
for instance, where the expenses totaled
$3,630,526 and the value of the product was
$3,508,509. Other instances were:
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 49
Value of Product. Expenses.
Iowa $12,682,106 $12,816,076
Kentucky 9,940,485 10,127,987
Tennessee 6,548,515 6,691,482
Oklahoma 6,185,078 6,536,441
Virginia 4,336,185 4,392,440
Pennsylvania, by long odds the most important
producer, with an output of 137,300,000 tons,
showed a total of expenses of $117,440,000 and
of value of $129,550,000, a balance on the profit
side of a little over $12,000,000, or about 3 1-3
per cent, on the capital invested, $358,600,000.
The four competitive states, West Virginia, Illinois,
Ohio and Indiana, which rank second, third,
fourth and fifth, respectively, in producing importance,
all show such
NARROW MARGINS
between income and outlay that profits are visible
only with a microscope. The figures follow:
Product Expenses Difference
Value of
West Va $44,344,067 $43,024,716 $1,319,351
Illinois 53,030,545 51,697,504 1,333,041
Ohio 27,353,063 27,153,497 200,100
Indiana 15,018,123 14,906,831 111,292
$139,746,39S $136,782,548 $2,963,850
These four states with an aggregate production
of a little more than the bituminous output
of Pennsylvania, showed a total of less than
$3,000,000 as the excess of receipts over expenses.
The capital invested in the coal-mining industry
in these states was something over $310,000,000,
so that the returns on the capital were less than
1 per cent.
I do not wish to tax the patience of this audience
to the breaking point, but there is one
other fact to which I desire to call attention, and
that is to the conditions in the public land states,
which are also coal producers. They are California.
Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico,
North Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
All of them showed favorable comparisons with
other states. They produced in round numbers
25,000,000 short tons of coal in 1909. The value
of the product was $37,000,000; the expenses,
25,000,000* short tons of coal in 1909. The value
The capital reported was approximately $70,000,-
000, so that the average earnings on the capital
invested in these states was between 6 and 7
per cent., as compared with less than 1 per cent.
in
W r est Virginia, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana, and of
about 2.5 per cent, for all the bituminous coal
mined in the United States in 1909.
I am not present, nor have I prepared this
paper as an advocate of the coal-mine operators
of the United States. I must, in fact, confess
that when I began, less than three weeks ago,
a study of the Census bulletin, I was somewhat
surprised at the facts presented therein, though
I was somewhat familiar with the general situation.
If there is any other branch of the mining
industry conducted on such narrow, not to say
dangerous margins, I should be glad, yet sorry,
to know it, and when these figures are considered
one must feel that if there is any mulcting of
the people in the coal that goes into their heating
furnaces and kitchen ranges, the coal-mine operators
are not the robber barons. And when
the dividing line between profit and loss is so
faint, all the more credit is due to the men in
authority who are throughout all of the coalmining
regions spending thousands of dollars to
reduce the hazard and improve the conditions
under which the men work for the coal we burn.
* These figures include a small production, about
200,000 tons, valued at $300,000, from Georgia, with
the expenses and capital incident thereto. All of
the states mentioned except Colorado, North Dakota
and Wyoming were grouped by the Census
Bureau as "Other States."
The Pennsylvania Superior court has handed
down an opinion reversing the Washington county.
Pa., court in its ruling that a coal and iron policeman
employed by a corporation had no right to
accept constable's fees for work performed. The
superior court rules that the policeman, although
paid by the corporation employing him, has the
right and the privilege of doing constable's work
for other persons and therefore is entitled to collect
constable's fees for all work performed.
Judge F. B. Hutton, in the circuit court at
Abingdon, Va., recently decided that the heirs of
Frank Imboden, of Bristol, Va., were entitled to
recover one-sixth interest in 20,000 acres of coal
lands in Russell county, Va., which had been sold
to the Thos. F. Ryan interests of New York, by
Mr. Imboden, and which are valued at $10,000,000.
The Lindsay Coal Co., Caryville, Tenn., has
struck a four foot vein of coal on its propertynear
that place, after having drifted into the
mountain for 1,600 feet.
The Back Creek Coal Co.. Pruden, Tenn., has
elected these officers: President, Thomas Pruden;
vice president, C. A. Griffiths; secretary-treasurer,
Victor N. Hacker.