i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org
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i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org
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34<br />
"If such reasons exist, that ought to be the<br />
end of this case, for the state is<br />
NOT AMENABLE TO THE JUDICIARY,<br />
THE <strong>COAL</strong> TRADE BULLETIN.<br />
in respect of its legislative enactments, unless<br />
such enactments are plainly, palpably, beyond all<br />
question, • inconsistent with the constitution of<br />
the United States. We are not to presume that •<br />
the state of New York has acted in bad faith.<br />
Nor can we assume that its legislature acted without<br />
due deliberation, or that it did not determine<br />
this question upon the fullest attainable information,<br />
and for the common good. We cannot say<br />
that the state has acted without reason, or that<br />
its action is a mere sham. Our duty, then is to<br />
sustain the statute as not being in conflict with<br />
the federal constitution for the reason—and such<br />
is an all-sufficient reason—it is not shown to be<br />
plainly and palpably inconsistent with that instrument.<br />
Let the state alone in the management<br />
of its purely domestic affairs so long as it<br />
does not appear beyond all question that it has<br />
violated the federal constitution. This view necessarily<br />
results from the principle that the health<br />
and safety of the people of a state are primarily<br />
for the state to guard and protect, and are not a<br />
matter ordinarily of concern to the national government."<br />
<strong>COAL</strong> MINING AND RAILWAY<br />
DEVELOPMENT IN MEXICO.<br />
Lewis A. Martin, United States consul at Ciudad<br />
Porfirio Diaz, Mexico, makes the following report<br />
regarding coal mining and railway development<br />
in Mexico:<br />
The principal mining developments in this section<br />
relate to coal, and there are a number of<br />
companies operating within this consular district,<br />
along the line of the Mexican International<br />
railroad. The most important companies are at<br />
Baroteran, Sabinas, Hondo, and Fuente. The<br />
Mexican Coal & Coke Co. is the most extensive in<br />
its operations. This company was <strong>org</strong>anized under<br />
the laws of New Jersey, and has a capital of<br />
over $2,000,000 gold. This company is operating<br />
several mines on its properties at Las Esperanzas<br />
and Conquista. The output now averages about<br />
40,000 metric tons per month. The coal is all<br />
sold in Mexico, with the exception of some shipments<br />
to Texas foundries and to the copper smelters<br />
in Arizona, and of some 5,000 tons manufactured<br />
into coke. It is intended to increase the<br />
present output very materially, depending very<br />
much on the supply of labor. I am informed that<br />
3,000 men are steadily employed by this company.<br />
A majority of the miners are Mexicans,<br />
but recently 350 workmen have arrived from<br />
Japan. There are also a few Chinese and some<br />
American negroes employed. The town which has<br />
grown up around these mines has a population of<br />
about 9,000. The mines have been in operation<br />
for about four years. Prospecting and construction<br />
work dates somewhat further back. The<br />
company owns and rents to its employes about<br />
1,250 houses of various classes and sizes, runs a<br />
big company store, and furnishes to its employes<br />
and others all the goods usually used in such a<br />
settlement. The store has a general assortment<br />
of merchandise, consisting of dry goods, groceries,<br />
notions, furnishings, hats, shoes, etc. All or<br />
nearly all of these goods are imported from the<br />
United States.<br />
At Hondo, not far from the Las Esperanzas<br />
mines, on the line of the Mexican International<br />
railroad, large mines are being operated by the<br />
Compania Fundidora de Fierro Acero de Monterey.<br />
This company owns a large foundry and steel<br />
plant at Monterey, and has also large interests in<br />
coal mining, both in Nueva Leon and in Coahuila.<br />
I corresponded with the company with a view of<br />
geeting a definite idea of the extent of their operations<br />
in coal mining, but the information furnished<br />
was very meager—that the company is<br />
capitalized at $10,000,000, all of which had been<br />
paid in; that in addition to the large steel plant<br />
at Monterey, it is operating large coal properties<br />
in the states of Nueva Leon and Coahuila, on the<br />
banks of the Rio Grande, and that its annual output<br />
of coal is something like 150,000 tons. I learn<br />
from other sources that the works of the company<br />
at Hondo are quite extensive, something like<br />
1,000 men being employed.<br />
I am informed that a new company is now putting<br />
down a coal shaft at Sabinas; in fact, several<br />
shafts are being opened near there. Sabinas is<br />
a station on the International railroad, 72 miles<br />
South of this city, and I am informed that large<br />
expenditures of capital are being made, and a<br />
great volume of business is expected to be done<br />
at that place during the current year. There are<br />
also extensive coal works at Fuente.<br />
The foregoing mines ship their coal into the interior<br />
of Mexico to cities along the several railroads,<br />
including the City of Mexico. The factories,<br />
and especially the smelters, demand large<br />
quantities of coal, and I am told that the market<br />
has not been overstocked, and that there is a growing<br />
demand for the product of these mines. At<br />
and in the vicinity of the mines business of various<br />
kinds is flourishing, notably the sale of dry<br />
goods, groceries, ladies' and gentlemen's furnishings,<br />
hardware, mining and farming implements,<br />
etc. It is the policy of the Mexican government<br />
to protect the several industries growing up in<br />
the republic by so arranging tariff duties as to<br />
give the infant industries a chance to grow and<br />
become thoroughly established.