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42 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
THE ALLEGHENY VALLEY AND
LOW GRADE SCALE AGREEMENT.
The scale of the Low Grade and Allegheny
Valley fields of the Central Pennsylvania bituminous
district was signed at Clearfield on April
12, the 1904 scale ^eing re-affirmed without change.
The first meetings of the scale committee were
held at Pittsburgh on April 6 and 7, the operators'
committee was headed by Charles R. McCafferty.
president of the Monarch Coal Co.. of East Brady,
and Joel L. Brown, manager and general sales
agent of the Sligo Coal & Coke Co.. of Butler, Pa.
The miners were represented by a committee
headed by Patrick Gilday. the district president;
Vice-President William McPherson and Secretary-
Treasurer Richard Gilbert. No agreement was
reached at the Pittsburgh meetings and the con
ference was adjourned to meet at Clearfield. The
text of the agreement will be presented in the
next issue of THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
THE GERMAN COAL INDUSTRY
AND THE COAL MINERS' STRIKE.
In a recent report on the German coal industry.
Hugo Muench, I'nited Slates consul at Plauen
says:
"A statistical consideration of the coal production
of Germany will aid in illustrating the
supreme importance which the coal mines of this
country have attained in its industrial life. The
total output of bituminous or stone coal for the
year 1904 amounted to 120.694.098 metric tons.
more than 50 per cent, of which was mined in the
general district of Dortmund, in which some
200.000 miners were recently engaged in a strike.
Aside from the bituminous or stone coal there
was also a yield of 48,500,222 metric tons of lignite
(brown coal), an inferior quality of coai
which is mined mainly in the district of which
Halle is the center. Besides these there were
12,331,163 metric tons of coke and 11.413.467 metric
tons of briquettes produced, the latter being
mainly manufactured out of coal dust, lignite and
peat. The total coal production for the seven
years ended with 1904 was as follows, in metric
tons: 1898, 96,309,652; 1899. 101,639,753; 1900.
109.290.237; 1901, 108.539.441; 1902, 197.473.933;
1993. 116,664,376; 1904, 120.694,998.
"The foreign trade of Germany in coal and
coal products for the last two years is stated as
follows, the figures given representing metric
tons:
1 M coins.
1903. 1904.
Hard or bituminous 6,766.513 7,299.042
Lignite 7,962.123 7.669,099
Coke 432.S19 550.302
Total 15.161.455 15.518.443
EXPORTS.
1903. 1904.
Hard or bituminous 1 7,389,934 17,996,727
Lignite 22,499 22,135
Coke 2,523.351 2,716,855
Total 19.935.784 20.735,717
"Almost the entire import of lignite was de­
rived from Austria and its dependencies (mainly
Bohemia), while of the import of bituminous
(stone coal), great Britain furnished 5,808,032
metric tons in 1904. against 5.393.S28 tons in 1903.
and Belgium and Austria each furnished a little
over 630,000 metric tons. Of the exported product,
the following amounts went to the several
countries during the years 1903 and 1904. re­
spectively, in metric tons: Austria, 5,658,974 and
5,827,779; Netherlands, 5.ISO.531 and 5.114,626;
Belgium. 2.409.112 and 2.647.382; France, 1,073,-
043 and 1,156,775; Switzerland, 1.085.793 and 1.-
12S.637.
"To those who retain a memory of the farreaching
effects of a similar strike in the coed
fields of Pennsylvania in recent years it need
hardly be said that the great coal miners' strike
in the German coal fields not only affected the
coal industry, but also affected the industrial life
of Germany. In manufactures the quantity of
coal held in store kept the wheels moving but a
short time, and neighboring countries were looked
to at once to supply the deficiencies which constantly
occurred. The basis of all contracts in
which the cost of fuel constituted an element
were seriously disturbed. Prices of coal and of
the means of transportation threatened a pro­
hibitive rise, with the result that the weak concerns
found themselves compelled to curtail, if
not wholly suspend, operations until a settlement
of the trouble again restored normal prices and
conditions.
"At that time the blessings of a liberal supply
of briquettes were more than ever appreciated
in Germany. Made largely of material that in
the United States is commonly treated as refuse,
or disregarded because of its original lack of
calorific quality, these successful rivals of Ameri­
can anthracite gave comfort to the people when
the usual mine products failed."
The miners at the Slippery Hock. Pa., mines
struck on April 8 because the superintendent of
the mine refused to permit them to install a checkweighman
at the tipple without giving due notice.
The strike of the coal miners at the United
States Coal & Oil Co.'s plant at Holden. in Logan
county, W. Va.; has been declared off. But few
of the old miners will be able to secure work.