i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org

THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
appeciation of all the surrounding conditions often
leads to wrong conclusions. A large contract
was taken from the Boston & Maine railroad by
a Pennsylvania operator who is not working under
the same conditions as to wage scale as are the
operators who are meeting you gentlemen here.
'1 here is no one of you, either operator or miner,
CAN SAY FOR A CERTAINTY
that coal is not coming from the Southern regions."
By. Mr. Robinson: "Mr. Wigton, and at a price
less than you can produce your coal on the cars
to-day?"
By Mr. Wigton: "At a price less than we can
produce that. You can't say to-day, nobody can
say, except the man himself, whether that coal
is coming from the Southern region, in which he
is a large operator, or in Pennsylvania."
By Mr. Wilson: "Isn't the rate at which that
contract was taken 95 cents and a dollar?"
By Mr. Wigton: "That is a question I can't
probably answer to your satisfaction, but it was
taken at a price below which we can compete
and are working under this wage scale. The
Maine Central railroad, which has been a eontractor
for Central Pennsylvania coal, is taken
by the Southern regions for this year. A large
part of the New York, New Haven & Hartford,
wnich has been using Central Pennsylvania coal,
is closed with the Southern region. That is business
gone. Now, last year we lost a very large
amount of tonnage. The very item of which I
spoke would have kept 100 miners employed for
twelve months. It couldn't be taken. The result
of losing that tonnage was to force back into
a market more coal than that market could consume,
because practically Central Pennsylvania
was swept out of their New England tidewater
market, and as it stands to-day with a wage rate
such as has been in existence for the past twelve
months, there is no likelihood of their regaining
that market. That
NECESSARILY MEANS IDLENESS
to a greater or less extent to the miners; that
means idleness for the colliery itself; that means
enhanced cost for the coal that is produced, be
it much or little, which makes it still more difficult
to compete. Now, it would be all very nice
if we controlled all the bituminous coal that
comes to the Atlantic seaboard, then we could fix
a rate that was the same all around for everybody
on a fair basis, and let them go in and the best
man win. But you can't do that. You have got
to face the business condition as it exists. Do we
want to run reduced coal, sell it, give the miner
work, or do we want to be idle such as we were
last year? Now, you had a dose of it all through
the spring and summer and fall, and I have heard
it cited here about the prices of coal in the winter.
33
Now, it was a very strange thing and one that
led to a good deal of comment among operators,
that notwithstanding the interrupted railroad
transportation, the comparative scarcity of coal,
that there were no consumers in the market buying
coal, there were no consumers paying the
prices that we advertised at which coal was selling.
Almost all of it was purchased by operators
who had obligated themselves to do certain things
in the way of delivery of coal and whicli they
were unable to comply with by reason of these interrupted
transportation facilities. That is not
a fair judgment. You can't base anything on
THE HON. JAMES KERR,
Chairman of the Joint Wage Committee, who presented the
Operators' strongest arguments before the Conference with
the Miners. Mr. Kerr is well known as an ex-congressman
trum Pennsylvania, and the President of the Beech Creek
Coal Co.
that. One operator only recently said to me, "I
have been losing hundreds of dollars a clay through
the winter. Why? Because I can't get forward a
normal quantity of coal to meet obligations."
That is his misfortune, but you can't argue from
that basis that coal is going to sell higher.
"In fact, coal is offered in the market to-day,
as I have just stated, for the coming season at
prices at which Central Pennsylvania under this
wage scale can't compete. Now, last year there
was a certain amount of what may be called
affiliated business.
LAPPING OYER ALLIANCES,
which had existed through periods of time in the
past and Central Pennsylvania operators taken
in the aggregate had quite a little of that ton-