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40 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
LEHIGH VALLEY COAL CO.
The report of the. Lehigh Valley Coal Co. for
the year ending June 30, 1905, gives the following
statements of its operations.' The capital obligations
include $1,965,000 stock, $12,968,000 bonds
and $10,537,000 certificates of indebtedness. The
yearly interest charge on the bonds is $634,400.
The stock and certificates of indebtedness are
owned by the railroad company. The total production
of coal by the company, and the minor
concerns which it controls, was as follows, in long
tons:
1904. 1905. Changes:
Lehigh Valley Co.. 4.275,131 5,605,988 1.1,330,857
Tenants of L.V.Co. 1.667,957 1,709,882 I. 41,925
Minor companies.. 1,568,870 659,341 D. 909.529
Total 7,511,958 7,975,211 I. 463,253
The gross earnings of the Lehigh Valley Coal
Co. are not given; the net earnings were $635,548.
or 7.97c. per ton of coal reported. Charges were
$500,000 for improvements and $108,676 for bonds
redeemed and other adjustments, leaving a surplus
of $26,872. Adding $1,624,429 brought forward
from previous year, made a total surplus
of $1,651,501.
The earnings of the Lehigh Valley railroad from
coal traffic for the year were $13,530,337, or 43.3
per cent, of its total revenue. The total coal tonnage
was 11,255,918 tons, and the coal traffic
amounted to 1,880,899.182 ton-miles. The average
haul on coal was 167.1 miles; the average gross
earnings per ton of eoal. $1.20; and per coal tonmile,
0.719c. These figures include only revenue
coal, and not coal for the company's use. Quoting
from the report in part: "In pursuance of the
company's policy of handling its own coal at points
where the tonnage warrants, additional coal yards
at Syracuse, Chicago. Milwaukee and St. Paul
have been secured. The advance royalty account
shows a decrease of $164,706.26, due to the improvement
and development of the coal property.
The $5,000,000 Lehigh Valley Coal Co. second
mortgage bonds and the $1,844,000 Hazleton Coal
Co. bonds owned by the Lehigh Valley Railroad
Co. and formerly held as collateral, as well as the
$2,000,000 Lehigh Valley Coal Co. five-ten year coal
pledge bonds, were canceled. The properties of
the Connell, Seneca, Righter, Warrior Run and
Wyoming Coal & Land companies were acquired
for the Lehigh Valley Coal Co. and in the place
thereof the Lehigh Valley Coal Co. issued to the
Lehigh Valley Railroad Co. certificates of indebtedness
and capital stock amounting to $11,202,000.
which have been pledged under the general consolidated
mortgage as additional collateral security."
COKE PRODUCTIONS OF SOUTHERN STATES.
In the last twenty-five years the number of completed
ovens in the southern states increased from
1,988 to 33,768, or by 31.780, equal to 1,598 per cent.,
and in the rest of the country from 10,384 to 49,731
or 39,347, equal to 378 per cent. In the same period
the coke produced in the southern states increased
from 397,776 tons to 6.244,185 tons, or by 5,846,409
tons, equal to 1,469 per cent., and in the rest of
the country from 2,940,524 tons to 17,377,335 tons,
or by 14,436,811 tons, equal to 490 per cent. In
1880 the number of southern ovens, constituting
16 per cent, of the total in the country, produced
11.9 per cent., the total coke output. In 1904 the
southern ovens, representing 40.4 per cent, of the
total number in the country, produced 26.4 per
cent, of the total coke output. The lagging in the
rate of increase of output, as compared with the
rate of increase in the number of ovens, is largely
accounted for by the fact that about 60 per cent.
of the ovens idle in the country in 1904 were in
the south, though the actual number of days of
operation and the capacity of the ovens must also
be considered in that connection. For instance,
the 40,151 active ovens in Pennsylvania having produced
an average of 370 tons each, while the 7,249
in Alabama produced an average of 323 tons, the
2,081 of Tennessee had an average output of 182
tons, while the 15,140 of West Virginia had an
average output of 150 tons.
The production in the past two years in the
southern states, excluding Maryland, for which
no statistics are given separately, may be given as
follows:
States. 1903. 1904.
Alabama 2,693,497 2,340,219
Georgia 85,546 75,812
Kentucky 115,362 64,112
Tennessee 546,875 379,240
Virginia 1,176,349 1,101,716
West Virginia 2,707,818 2,283,086
Total 7,325,537 6,244,185
Total United States.. 25,274.281 23,621,520
The executive board of the United Mine Workers
of Illinois recently appointed a committee to make
powder tests at the four' mines where operations
are now suspended owing to inability to agree on
the amount of powder necessary for blasting. The
committee consists of State Secretary W. D. Ryan,
John T. Parsons and J. H. Walker. The tests
were first made at the Solomon and Thayer mines
and later at the Divernon and Virden mines. The
general managers and superintendents of the mines
assisted in making the tests, the results of which
have not yet been announced.