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42 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
ENGINEERS ORDERED NEW
CHARTS OF THE OHIO RIVER.
The conference of United States engineers to
consider and report on plans for improving the
Ohio river was begun on June 8 at the headquarters
of Col. E. H. Ruffner at Cincinnati, 'the
officials in attendance were Lieutenant-Colonel D.
W. Lockwood, Lieutenant-Colonel Clinton B. Sears,
Colonel Ruffner, Major W. L. Sibert, of Pittsburgh,
and Major H. Zinn, all of whom are connected
with the government's river department.
The task before them was to report on the practicability
of improving the Ohio by giving it a
six-foot stage or a nine-foot stage of water; to
define ways and means for carrying out such improvements,
the probable expense and the resulting
influence the improvement would have on
river traffic and on industries within tne river
district. The conference was in session for several
days. To get information accurate enough as a
basis for Congress to act on at its next session.
it was decided to order a number of new surveys
of various sections of the river in addition to those
at present in progress. The Cincinnati department
will have charge of several of these. It
was not considered necessary by the engineers to
give any hearing to the business bodies or the
steamboat interests to settle what improvements
are most needed. The report of the engineers
will be transmitted to Washington and will be the
basis of further action in the line of river improvements.
REPORT OF THE ZEIGLER DISASTER.
The report of the board which investigated the
Zeigler mine disaster that caused the loss of 51
lives, has just been made public by Governor
Deneen of Illinois. The findings are somewhat
severe on the owners, the report stating ,.iat the
mine had not been submitted to daily inspection
as required, cross-cuts had not been made every
60 feet and a large quantity of powder had been
stored in one of the passages, which was contrary
to the law. Legal action is likely to follow the
report, but its immediate effect will be to cause
a stricter enforcement of the mining laws in
Illinois.
The Jones & Laughlin Steel Co.. through the
Vesta Coal Co., has purchased 10,000 acres of
Washington county (Pa.) coal. The price announced
is in the neighborhood of $3,000,000. This
included two or three tracts of surface land which
were purchased with the coal. The average price
for the coal was somewhat less than $300 an acre.
The property lies in the fifth pool of the Monongahela.
"Large space pays better than small space," says
a successful advertiser of 20 years' experience.
"True, it costs more money, but the returns are
invariably greater in proportion to the increased
cost. You wouldn't expect a salesman to make
sales if he didn't talk above a whisper, neither
can you expect an advertisement to bring results
unless it is large enough to compel attention so
that he who runs may read and be convinced."
— o —
Down in Tennessee there is an editor who, waxing
eloquent over the outlook for river improvement,
opines that "when tidewater is brought to
Tennessee's mines, they can be transported and
marketed the world over." The best business
practice of the present time restricts the transportation
to the output and the stock certificates.
Peddling coal mines on either boats or push carts
is not considered good form.
— o —
A United States government engineer reports
having discovered an "inexhaustible" vein of coal
in the Panama canal strip ceded to this country.
It was to be expected that the vein would be
"inexhaustible"—they always are; but coming so
quickly after the demand that the government
specifications for coal for Panama be modified, the
discovery looks a trifle suspicious.
— o —
The fakir, like the poor, we have ever with us.
The latest coal plant is of English origin and
warns the English people that the Standard Oil
Co.. H. C. Frick and an indefinite number of other
Americans are trying to gobble the British coal
mines, effect a consolidation and corner the market.
— o —
The "Knights of Pythias of North America,
South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia"
was incorporated recently at Washington, D.
C. The reader will be permitted to do his own
speculating as to the significance of this coup.
— o —
The controversy being waged over the state and
national figures on last year's coal production
serves to prove that even if figures can't lie there
is nothing to prevent those who set them down
from doing so.
— o —
At last the affairs of the Equitable seem likely
to be settled on an equitable basis.
The report of the Columbus & Hocking Coal &
Iron Co. for the year ended March 31, 1905, shows
a deficit of $39,500, compared with a surplus of
$72,968 for the preceding year.