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PITTSBURGH COAL CO. GETS
LARGEST CONTRACT ON RECORD.
The largest coal contract ever made has been
closed between the Pittsburgh Coal Co, and the
United States Steel Corporation. By its terms
the coal company will supply the steel corporation
with all the coal the latter will take from outside
interests during the next 25 years. The steel corporation
will give the coal company all of its tonnage
for plants and railroads in the Pittsburgh
district, including the Shenango and Mahoning
valleys, and for the railroads and steamships in
the Northwest, save that now cared for by the
National Mining Co., a subsidiary company of the
corporation, during the period which the contract
runs, and the corporation agrees to make no new
coal developments in Pittsburgh coal territory.
All coal received by the steel plants by river will
be handled by the Monongahela River Consolidated
Coal & Coke Co., and will be paid for delivered.
The steel corporation tonnage enjoyed
by the river company has heretofore amounted to
1,250,000 tons a year. The National Mining Co.
has operated two mines at Sygan on the Panhandle
field, one at Brownsville, and the Gates mine in
the Klondike coke region. The annual tonnage
is about 1,500,000, but the corporation has announced
that it will operate the Gates mine for
coking purposes exclusively.
The Pittsburgh district plants consume between
6,000,000 and 9,000,000 tons, varying with the
prosperity of the steel business. The contract
will care for about one-third of the coal company's
entire tonnage.
The amount of coal supplied under this contract
will not be less than 6,000,000 tons per annum and
will average nearer to 9,000,000. The price
will yield the coal company a fair profit.
The vast tonnage will enable the eoal
company to operate its mines to meet all its
requirements with far greater economies than is
possible otherwise. One effect of the transaction
will be to silence a number of absurd rumors
and speculations regarding the Pittsburgh Coal
Co.'s affairs and those of its principal subsidiary
company, and which have been exploited on every
possible occasion for some weeks past.
NEW RULING ON "SAFE" MINING.
Justice Mestrezat of the Pennsylvania supreme
court has handed down an opinion in the case of
the Youghiogheny River Coal Co. against the Allegheny
National Bank et al., in which the judgment
of the lower court is reversed with a pro
cedendo. Justices Brown and Dean filed dissenting
opinions. The opinion is of considerable interest
to coal operators. The defendants were
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 39
owners of coal lands in Westmoreland county,
conveyed to them in 1862 by a grant which gave
the bank every right to take away the coal and
open drains and air passages. In 1871 it was
conveyed to G. Greenwalt, with the reservation
of the vein of coal then being worked. In 1892
the coal was sold to the Youghiogheny River Coal
Co., which was to be indemnified from liability to
damages that might result to the surface of the
tracts of land overlying the mine by the mining
and taking away of the coal. Subsequently Greenwait
brought action for damages, alleging that
carelessness caused the land to break and subside.
The plaintiff obtained a verdict in the
lower court and the company appealed. In the
appeal it was averred that failure to leave suffi-
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The situation iu the Trade as presented for The New Pittsburgh
Coal Co., Columbus, Ohio, by Cartoonist Ireland.
cient coal in place to support the overlying surface
was not unskillful mining, and that according
to the terms of the lease, it could not be held
responsible for the sinking of the land. Justice
Mestrezat at the end of a long opinion says: "We
are of the opinion that the words skillful and
careful mining relate to the manner of working
the coal and do not impose upon the plaintiff the
duty of furnishing proper and sufficient supports
for the surface."