i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org

JONES CBt, ADAMS CO. ABSORBED
BY THE PITTSBURGH COAL CO.
The Pittsburgh Coal Co. has absorbed the Jones
& Adams Co., of Chicago, owning extensive docks
on Lake Superior, a large retail coal business at
St. Paul and Minneapolis and a wholesale coal
business at Chicago and the head of the lakes.
The Jones & Adams Co. was formed in 1898 and
is capitalized at $500,000. Its docks at Ashland
and Superior, Wis., and at Duluth, Minn., have
a storage capacity of 300,000 tons and an annual
handling capacity of 600,000 tons. It has been
doing a big lake trade as well as a very large
wholesale shipping trade at Chicago. Through its
purchase the Pittsburgh Coal Co., and its subsidiary
companies, now control nearly all of the coal
shipping on Lake Superior. Outside of the anthracite
companies having docks at Superior and
Duluth, the Boston Coal, Dock & Wharf Co. and
the North Western Fuel Co., the Pittsburgh Coal
Co. has acquired practically all the dockage facilities
on that body of water.
Permanent officers of the Jones & Adams Co.
have not been elected, but temporary officers are
in charge of the business. It is expected that
the permanent officers will be elected at the annual
meeting to be held about April 1. Like the
other subsidiary corporations of the Pittsburgh
Coal Co. the Jones & Adams Co. will continue to
maintain a separate corporate identity.
J. S. Jones and H. C. Adams, the former owners
of the Jones & Adams Co., have formed a new
company for the conduct of a general coal business.
It will be known as Jones & Adams and
will have offices in the Old Colony building in
Chicago.
AN IOWA WAGE AGREEMENT SIGNED.
As a result of a meeting of the coal operators
and miners of Appanoose county, la., and Putnam
county, Mo., held at Cincinnati, la., on February
18, one of the most important wage agreements
of the year in that district was signed. The operators'
proposition to pay 88 cents per ton for digging
the coal was submitted to the local unions
affected and was adopted by a majority vote of
all concerned. The new mining rate became
effective February 16 and will continue in force
until the present Iowa wage agreement expires,
April 1, 1906. This is one of the most important
events of the year in the Iowa district for the
reason that this matter has been a source of contention
in all the scale conventions since the
joint movement was organized in the state.. The
miners reduced the mining rate on the Iowa side
of the state line 1.3 cents per ton. while in Missouri
they received an advance of one and a quar­
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 33
ter cents a ton over the rate adopted at Des
Moines last year. This rate was not accepted,
however, and caused some trouble in that part of
the district. The average price paid in Missouri
has been 88.1 cents per ton, so that practically the
miners of both states made concessions.
TO PREVENT SHORT WEIGHTS.
The legislative committee of the Retail Coal
Dealers' Association of Iowa and Nebraska and
a committee representing the wholesale shipping
interests of Omaha held a conference on February
21 and 22 at Chicago with a committee representing
the traffic departments of the Western trunk
line roads for the purpose of considering the
short weight evil. The coal men suggested the
adoption of a set of rules on the part of Western
rail lines, which it is believed will prove a corrective
measure with reference to short weight eoal.
These rules are under consideration by the rail
lines, and at a meeting to be held later it is believed
they will be adopted.
Nearly a year ago the Coal Dealers' Association
of Iowa and Nebraska, through its representatives,
held several conferences in Chicago with the general
managers of the various railroads. As a result
of these confeneces rules were adopted by
the rail lines with reference to the weighing of
coal in transit, which, it was thought, would do
away with the short weight evil. After giving
these rules nearly a year's trial, it has been found
that through laxness in their enforcement and
through inaccuracy in weighing on the part of
various weighmasters, they have not accomplished
the purpose aimed at. Although the evil of short
weight coal has been corrected to some extent, it
has not been entirely removed and the coal men
are of the opinion that further progress ought to
be made. As a consequence they have suggested
to the traffic officials of the various rail lines in
their territory a new set of rules, which it is expected
will bring still greater reforms.
New Shipping Yard For The Reading.
The cramped condition of the Philadelphia &
Reading railway yard at Palo Alto, near Pottsville,
Pa., the central point for most of that corporation's
coal shipments for the last 50 years,
has led to the company's selecting in its stead a
level plateau at St. Clair, one mile in width, for
its future yard. Surveys and inspections have
already been made, and the removal of the yard
is a matter of the near future. Large repair
shops, with a plant for rebuilding locomotives, are
among the improvements to be installed, and employment
will be given to hundreds of additional
hands,