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36 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
SECOND DISTRICT MINERS MEET.
The annual convention of the United Mine Workers
of the Second bituminous district of Pennsylvania
held its first session yesterday at Altoona.
The work of the convention will take up about
five days' time and immediately after its final
adjournment the scale conference between representatives
of the miners and the operators of the
Central Pennsylvania soft coal field will be held.
The miners will re-elect their present district
officers whose candidacy is without opposition.
These officers are: President, Patrick Gilday, of
Morrisdale; vice-president, William McPherson, of
Barnesboro; secretary-treasurer, Richard Gilbert,
of Clearfield; national executive board member,
Thomas Haggerty, of Reynoldsville. The resolutions
passed at sub-district conventions indicate
that the miners will formulate a scale carrying an
advance on the present basic rates of the district.
This, as previously stated in THE COAL TRADE
BULLETIN, will be met by a counter proposition
from the operators who are unanimous in the
opinion that it will be impossible to continue to
operate the majority of the mines in the district
unless the cost of production is lowered.
WAGE SCALES OF 1896 and 1904.
The following tables, compiled by Vice-President
T. L. Lewis, of the United Mine Workers, present
an interesting comparison of the wages of Pittsburgh
district mine workers in 1896 with those of
the present:
PICK MINING. For 1896
1% in. screen
Mining screen coal, per ton $ .54
Room turning 1.71
Entry per yard and coal 61
Breakthroughs, rooms per yard 35
For 1904
1% in. screen
Mining screen coal, per ton $ .85
Room turning 3.21
Entry per yard and coal 1.74
Breakthroughs, rooms per yard 1.22
MACHINE MINING—CHAIN MACHINE.
For 1896
Loading and drilling rooms, per ton $ .27
Loading and drilling entries, per ton 25
Loading and drilling entries, per yd. ex 33
Cutting entry, per ton no
Cutting room, per ton uniform
Room turning, cutter rate
Room turning, loader
For 1904
Loading and drilling rooms, per ton $ .46°''j
Loading and drilling entries, per ton 57 9-10
Loading and drilling entries, per yard. ex. .27 1-5
Cutting entry, per ton 1397
Cutting room, per ton 10%
Room turning, cutter entry
Room turning, loading price
DAY WAGE SCALE. 1896 1904
10 hrs. 8 hrs.
Drivers, per day $1.55 $2.42
Tracklayers, per day various 2.42
Tracklayers, per day 1.35 2.42
Inside labor, per day prices 2.42
Trappers, per day 50 106%
The above statement does not include the entire
scale of wages for mining and day labor. In the
year 1896 there was generally nothing paid for
room turning, and in many places entries were
driven for a free turn.
WASHINGTON'S COAL PRODUCTION.
The report of C. F. Owen, Washington state
inspector of coal mines, shows the following tonnage:
1903. 1904.
Coal mined 3,190,477 2,905,689
Exported from coast 948,909 838,298
Coke made 47,916 46,175
Exports have been affected by the Russian-Japanese
war and by the rapid advance in the use of
petroleum fuel in California. Local consumption
has suffered from the installation of water-driven
electric generators, but the utilization as domestic
fuel is rapidly growing. All the coke is made in
Pierce county. The disastrous explosion at Burnett,
last December, has been attributed, with
certainty, to coal dust. From the evidence given
and from his own investigations. Mr. Owen concludes
that a heavy blown-out shot created a
thick dust, which formed with the liberated gases,
an explosive mixture which was then ignited by a
following shot.
TO HOLD DEPARTMENTAL MEETINGS.
The first of a series of departmental conferences
for the exchange of ideas among the heads of the
principal departments of the Pittsburgh Coal Co.
was held recently. The departments represented
included the executive, legal, sales, operating,
traffic, accounting, treasury, transportation
and engineering. The meeting is to be followed
by others to be held semi-monthly, and the subjects
to be discussed will be those of the various
departments with relation to their effect on other
departments and to the affairs of the company as
a whole. One of the principal aims of these meetings
is to simplify as far as possible transactions
between the various departments and thereby expedite
the business of the company and its subsidiary
interests.