i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org

36 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
PITTSBURGH HEARING ON REBATES.
Judge Judson C. Clements of the Interstate Commerce
Commission began an inquiry on February
16 into the question of rebates on industrial and
terminal railroads of the Pittsburgh district.
Judge Clements heard five witnesses in a complaint
against the West Side Belt railroad, but
was compelled to postpone the hearing because of
the delay in arriving of C. F. Hartwell, a coal
operator of Buffalo, who last August preferred the
charges. Mr. Hartwell declined to testify on the
ground that he had not heard the position of the
railroads, but stated that he would probably appear
with other coal operators at the next session
which Judge Clements announced would be held
early, in the spring. The five witnesses heard
were traffic officials of the Pittsburgh district, all
of whom testified that the West Side Belt charges
were fair and equitable and that they were not
aware of the existence of local rebates.
THE MAINE COAL FIASCO.
Until a report was issued recently by the United
States geological survey there were thousands of
Maine farmers who expected to find the rocky hills
back of their homes filled with high-grade anthracite.
Two years ago the Maine legislature was
asked to give $10,000 toward searching the seams
in Washington county rocks for coal. Though the
money was not granted, the agitation led to renewed
efforts. The boards of trade in the cities
and villages took up the quest, and the tidings
spread to Washington and reached the geological
survey.
Last summer David White was sent to Maine
with instructions to search the state. The mine in
the town of Perry, where borings more than 800
feet deep had been made, turned out to be black
slate, useful in making stone walls, but of no commercial
value. The outcropping in Westfield was
indurated graphite, too hard for use in making
pencils or for stove blacking, but handy for hurling
at stray cattle. The mine opened near Gardiner
contained pure hornblende, which would have
been valuable years ago when flintlock guns were
in use.
The only spot in Maine where real coal was
found was in the town of Greenfield, where a rock
pocket holding nearly a bushel of anthracite had
been unearthed on a side hill among some mica
scu.st ledges. Geologist White admitted that coal
had been discovered at last, though the rock formation
in which it was placed was some ages older
than any ledge in which coal had been discovered
previously. It was not only immensely older than
any coal formations, but it was so aged that no evidence
of life, either animal or vegetable, was dis­
cernible. Geologically speaking, the Maine coal
mine was in the middle of the azoic period, milleniums
before any life had come upon earth.
It was so remarkable a find that Mr. White made
further investigation. He discovered that forest
fires swept over the lands of Greenland in June,
1902, burning everything down to hard pan.
About six rods away from the coal pocket a Bangor
merchant had erected a small camp for his
accommodation while hunting. The fire had licked
up the camp even to the sills and piazza, leaving
nothing but nails and ashes, but the fire had not
extended to the rocky pocket in the side hill where
the Bangor man had stored the coal he used in
broiling venison steaks. So the report states that
the only coal mine discovered in Maine was filled
with a fine quality of anthracite containing 94
per cent, of carbon, but that every ounce of it had
been mined in the Reading district of Pennsylvania.
SHIPPING CONTRACT MADE.
A contract has been made between the Pittsburgh
Terminal Railroad & Coal Co. and the
Pittsburgh Coal Co.. providing for the operation
by the Coal company of the mines of the Terminal
company (all of whose stock is owned by the
latter company), upon terms which include the
payment of a license tax by the Pittsburgh Coal
Co. of $350,000 a year, being equal to the amount
of fixed charges upon the entire authorized bonded
indebtedness of the Pittsburgh Terminal Railroad
& Coal Co., and a royalty of eight cents per ton
on the coal mined under the agreement, which is
to be applied as provided in the sinking fund provision
of the mortgage of the Pittsburgh Terminal
Railroad & Coal Co. The agreement also provides
for the payment of all taxes and insurance
by the Pittsburgh Coal Co. In further consideration
of the right granted, the Pittsburgh Coal Co.
agrees to ship over the lines of the Wabash-Pittsburgh
Terminal Railroad Co. and its connections.
a minimum amount of 4.000,000 tons of coal annually
from the mines operated by the Pittsburgh
Coal Co., which company mined during the last
year in the neighborhood of 14,000,000 tons of
coal, and this minimum to be increased proportionately
as the total annual output of the Pittsburgh
Coal Co. increases beyond the amount of
14,000.000 tons.
The New York and Cleveland Gas Coal Co. has
made arrangements to open several mines on the
Ringer farm, along the proposed extension of the
Turtle Creek Valley railroad. When the mines
are opened the railroad will be extended to a
point one-half mile West of Delmont.