coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

26 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
take up the local differences for adjustment, the
miners declaring they would lie unable to formu­
late their demands before that date.
The operators who were members of the com­
mittee were .Messrs. W. K. Field, who presided,
G. W. Schluederberg, John A. Donaldson, J. R. San­
ford, W. W. Kiefer. W. A. Luce, M. Gallagher. XV.
M. Henderson, and the miners were represented by-
President Van Bitner, and the district scaie com­
mittee, with Secretary-Treasurer Robert Wood act­
ing as secretary of the conference.
COLORADO COAL COMPANIES SUE UNITED
MINE WORKERS OFFICIALS FOR DANAGES.
Suits demanding $4,000,000 in damages from
the national and local leaders of the United Mine
Workers of America were filed March 20 in the
state and federal courts of Colorado by the coal
companies involved in the strike in Northern and
Southern Colorado.
The first of the suits was filed in the district
court in Trinidad by the Colorado Fuel & Iron
Co. against the miners' leaders for $l,0oo,ooo
damages.
The Victor-American Fuel Co. sued in the
United States district court in Denver, the Oak
View Coal & Colo* Go. in Huerfano county and
the Rocky Mountain Fuel Go. in Boulder county.
Each of the suits charges conspiracy and "violent,
riotous, unlawful and felonious conduct."
TESTS SHOW ANTHRACITE DUST IS NOT
EXPLOSIVE BUT RETARDS FLAME OF
EXPLOSION.
Tests which have been conducted for two weeks
at the Bureau of Mines station in Pittsbrugh and
the experimental mine near Bruceton prove that
Pennsylvania anthracite dust is not explosive and
has a tendency to limit, rather than extend, the
flame of a tire-damp explosion, according to a
preliminary report made March 25, at the Pittsburgh
station.
The result of the tests is of great importance
to anthracite miners and operators, since large
amounts of anthracite dust inevitably accumu­
late in the mines; and if it were explosive it
would be a menace almost impossible to obviate.
Welsh anthracite dust is very inflammable, according
to the findings of British engineers who
conducted tests in the British experimental gallery.
The findings of the British investigators
led the Bureau of Mines to look into the situation
in this state.
The culminating experiments were carried out
yesterday at the Pittsburgh station in the presence
of James E. Roderick, chief of the Pennsylvania
Department of Mines, Harrisburg; M.
J. Brennan, inspector, Pottsville; A. H. Lamb,
inspector, Shenandoah; S. J. Jennings, inspector,
Pittston; D. T. Davis, inspector, Wilkes-Barre;
G. B. Hadesty, division superintendent, and Mr.
Garner and Mr. Price, representing the Philadelphia
& Reading Coal & Iron Co.; XV. G. Whildin,
general superintendent of the Lehigh Coal &
Navigation Co.; W. S. Norton, chief engineer,
Alden Coal Co.; H. R. Owens, Lehigh Coal &
Navigation Co.; W. Gordon Thomas, Wilkes-Barre
Colliery Co.; Charles Enzian, representative of
Ihe Bureau of Mines, Wilkes-Barre; George S.
Rice, chief mining engineer, and Spencer P.
Howell, explosives engineer, both of Pittsburgh.
TRADE DIRECTORY OF SOUTH AMERICA.
A complete revision and detailed classification
of tin- names of South American importers and
merchants, made by the American consular officers
in co-operation with the Bureau of Foreign
and Domestic Comerce, has been published as
a section of a new edition of the World Trade
Directory. The lists have been brought up to
date and are presented in uniform style, with a
finding index.
A new feature is the listing, so far as the information
could be obtained, of (1 ) the American
and other foreign agents of South American
importing firms, and (2 I of the names of the
parent firms of branch houses located in various
South American cities.
The Directory does not aim to include the
names of South American exporters, nor are
the names of manufacturers given, except those
who are, or seem likely to become, purchasers of
American materials or merchandise. The publication
is a Directory of South American buyers
lor use by exporters and manufacturers in the
I'nited States.
Tin- Directory is in octavo form, bound in
buckram, and is sold at $1.00 a copy, to cover
partially the cost of printing. Those desiring
one or more copies of this Directory should apply
to the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce
for the necessary order blank.
Markle & Frank, of Uniontown, Pa., March 16
purchased from E. E. Runion, of Sutton. XV. Va..
240 acres of the Freeport vein of coal, underlying
land in Braxton county, W. Va. The tract
is located on the southeast side of Birch river.
The amount paid by Markle & Frank for the coal
was $7,000, or about $30 per acre.
A new trans-continental coke rate of $9 per
ton from Birmingham, Ala., to the Pacific coast,
will become effective April 30. according to official
announcement made March 21. This is a
reduction of $1 per ton.