coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

34 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
ploys a large number of negroes occasionally relieves
the evils which follow to the negro himself,
and to society at large, from the congestion of the
race in the slums of cities, by sending a diplo­
matic member of his force, a negro himself, to tell
them of the attractive possibilities of work in the
mines. This colored missionary of fortune is usually
successful in landing a number of his
brethren, and recruiting the ranks of the com­
pany's miners by their permanent addition, as
they find the pay better than they get for ordinary
day labor and other conditions not uncongenial,
and plenty of their fellows with whom to associate.
It is not meant to indicate that the negro is a
perfect employee. Around paydays at the mines
he is quite as much inclined to take a day off to
"blow in" his money as the average run of miners,
and the average specimen has the faults of his
race; but he also has virtures which, for the purpose
of the employer of labor who knows how to
handle men, are worth consideration.
ALBERTA'S COAL RESOURCES.
According to an annual report issued by the
provincial government of Alberta, 289 coal mines
in Alberta, employing 6,610 men inside and 2,253
men outside, produced 4,306,346 tons of coal,
130,861 tons of briquets, and 65,167 tons of coke
during 1913, an increase of nearly 25 per cent.
over 1912, writes Consul Samuel C. Reat, Calgary,
Alberta, Can. Of this output, 1,000,000 tons
of coal were exported to other Provinces in Canada
and to the United States.
The classification of the output of 1913 is as
follows: Bituminous, 2,374,401 tons; lignite,
1,763,225 tons; anthracite, 168,720 tons; used in
coke production, 104,012 tons. With the introduction
of new capital and the opening of large
mines, adequately equipped with American machinery,
there is every reason to believe that the
exportation of coal will be increased during this
and coming years.
It is stated that the tonnage in 1913 would have
been much larger but for the extremely mild
weather early and late in the winter. The increase
of output during the last eight years has
been about 500 per cent., the tonnage being as
follows since the organization of the Province:
1905, 811.228; 1906. 1,385,000; 1907, 1,834,745;
1908, 1,845,000; 1909, 2,174.329; 1910, 3,036,757;
1911, 3,694,564; 1912, 3.446,349; and 1913, 4,306,-
456 tons.
Experts estimate that the actual and probable
coal resources of Alberta total 1.975,039,000,000
metric tons, or 14 times the reserves of British
Columbia, 18 times more than Saskatchewan, and
110 times greater than Nova Scotia, at present
the largest producing province in the Dominion
of Canada. The Edmonton district has a coal
area of 77,184 square miles of coal fields in Can­
ada.
There are three distinct coal horizons in Al­
berta: The Kootenay or Lower Cretaceous; the
Belly River or Middle Cretaceous, and the Edmonton,
lying at the top of the Cretaceous. The
upper Edmonton formation covers an area of
24,779 square miles, while the lower Edmonton
formation occupies 52,405 square miles.
The Belly River formation in eastern Alberta
covers 16,000 square miles, the best coal occurrng
on its borders, where there are persistent seams.
Lignite seams occur at Medicine Hat, Taber, and
Lethbridge; it has also been found at Tofield,
Calgary, and Edmonton. This series is identical
with that at Peace River, known as the Dunvegan.
The Kootenay formation produces the most
valuable coals found in Canada. The areas are
on the outer ranges and in the foothills, from
the international boundary to the north of the
Athabasca river, loo miles north of Edmonton,
beyond which, explorers say, the coal areas are
confined to the foothills. The Moose Mountain.
the Cascade Basin, the Bighorn, and the Brazeau
districts contain immense seams of commercial
coal.
The geological survey of Canada gives these
figures of Alberta's coal resources:
Actual reserves—Anthracite, 668,000,000 tons;
bituminous, 3,209,000,000 tons; semi-bituminous
and lignites, 384,908,000,000 tons.
Probable reserves—Anthracite, 1,000,000,000 tons;
bituminous, 194,883,000,000 tons; semi-bituminous
and lignites, 491,271,000,000 tons.
In a decision handed down recently the United
States Supreme Court upheld the legality of an
order issued by the Iowa Railroad commission
against the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry.,
involving the rate to be charged on a shipment of
coal which originated east of the Mississippi river
and was trans-shipped at Davenport for a point
in the interior of Iowa. The railroad contended
it w-as interstate business and not within the
jurisdiction of the Iowa commission, but the
supreme court held otherwise and issued a mandatory
order directing the road to comply with
the commission's ruling.
Taking advantage of the new Pennsylvania law
the borough council of Shenandoah, Pa., has ap­
pointed the following members of the bureau of
mine inspection and surface support: Rev. D. I.
Evans, president: John Cantlin, secretary; P. J.
Murphy, Edwin R. Williams, and A. R. Ploppert.