i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org

42 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
Judge Elliott Rodgers, who was recently elected
a director of the Pittsburgh Coal Co., has been
named as general counsel of the company, to succeed
Mr. A. M. Neeper. Mr. Neeper's retirement
from the head of the firm's law department is
JUDGE ELLIOTT RODGERS.
due to the demands upon his time from his other
interests. He will continue to be connected with
the department, as associate counsel. The changes
will be carried out as soon as Judge Rodgers is
able to transfer his work on the bench to his
associates.
Next to farming, mining in its several branches
is the most important industry in Belgium. Coal
mining leads the other branches in all respects.
The number of persons working on the farms is
about 1,250,000. There are in the mines 125,889.
There are in the coal mines 5,200 women, nearly
10.000 boys below the age of 16 and 2,600 girls
below that age. Forty years ago there were over
5,000 women working in coal mines under ground,
row there are but 84 so employed. Less than
thirty years ago there were more than 10,000
hoys working below the surface in coal mines.
Now this number is reduced to 6,865. In 1S70
There were 3,656 young girls working under
ground in coal mines; now there are none. This
was stopped in 1895. There were in the earlier
periods some years as many as 22,000 women,
girls and boys employed in the industry. There
are now not more than about 16,000 all told. In
1902 the average wages was little over $230 a
year for each workman in these coal mines.
PROTEST INCREASE IN FREIGHT RATES.
Coal operators of the New River and Pocahontas
fields met in Washington on February 27 and arranged
to present to the president and congress
facts connected with the coal interests and learn
if something cannot be done to relieve what they
term a threatened disastrous condition. They
have been informed, they say, that the Chesapeake
& Ohio and Norfolk & Western railroads
will advance the freight rates from their mines
to tidewater from $1.35 a ton to $1.60. This, they
declare, means ruin to the coal interests of the
two fields, as they claim to be operating without
profit. The operators assert that
coal for the last year has been bringing them at
tidewater 80 to 90 cents above the freight rates
and agents' commissions of 15 cents a ton. With
25 cents more taken away there would be left but
55 to 65 cents a ton, which, they say, will not pay
cost of production.
u RETAIL TRADE NOTES. H
Dexter Shoudy, of Spokane, Wash., has moved
from that city to Seattle. Wash., to take charge
of the Western Coal Co.'s business.
Thomas O'Shea has sold out his lumber busi­
Mr. Lute Hornickel, of M. A. Hanna & Co., ness and will continue in coal and grain at
Cleveland, spent a part of last week in Pitts­ Madison, Neb.
burgh looking after the interests of his firm.
*
The Kansas-Colorado Coal Co. has been incor­
Mr. William L. Affelder, superintendent of the porated at Wichita, Kan., with a capital stock of
Mosgrove coal works has been recommended for
the postmastership at Mosgrove, Pa.
$10,000.
Fremming & Co. have sold their coal business
COAL MINING IN BELGIUM.
at Omaha, Neb., to Salisbury & Wakefield.
*
E. P. Rice & Son have purchased the stock of
coal, etc.. of W. M. Shelf at Dana, Kan.
W. H. Smith has retired from the Coquille Coal
& Lumber Co. of Coquille, Wash.
The Johnson County Coal Co., of Clarksville,
Ark., has gone out of business.
The Kreeck Lumber & Coal Co. has engaged in
business at Riley, Kan.
*
H. W. White has gone out of the fuel business
at Chillicothe, Mo.