i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org

i:i
PERTINENT PARAGRAPHS.
The terms of five mine inspectors in the Penn
sylvania anthracite region will expire this year.
Two of the vacancies have been provided for by
the re-election of the present incumbents, who are
the first to be selected under the new law. They
are John Curran of the Thirteenth district, with
headquarters at Pottsville, and P. C. Fenton, of
the Eleventh district, with headquarters at Mahanoy
City.
By a resolution, passed at a special stockholders'
meeting held April 10, the Colonial Coal & Coke
Co., Keystone building, Pittsburgh, Pa., changed
its corporate name to Old Colony Coal & Coke Co.
The business of the company will be conducted as
heretofore by the same management.
Oklahoma newspapers are advocating the purchase
of the Choctaw and Chickasaw coal lands,
aggregating 500,000 acres, to use as a common
school endowment for the new state. Up to
November 30, last, Oklahoma successfully handled
land endowments yielding $2,495,530.89.
The Fairmont Coal Co. has renewed its contract
to supply the Cincinnati Traction Co. with coal
for the present year. The traction company used
about 300 tons of coal a day. This is the third
year the Fairmont company has secured the contract.
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 45
Belgium has a larger coal area in proportion to
its size than any other country in Europe, or perhaps
in the world. The coal mines of Belgium
are also among the deepest in the world.
The Youghiogheny & Ohio Coal Co., operating
three mines in Belmont county, O., has contracted
with operators at Irwin, Pa., for 300,000 tons of
coal to help fill lake shipments.
The area known as the Pittsburgh coal seam, in
the Western part of Pennsylvania, and in part of
Ohio, supplies about one-fourth of the coal mined
Coal prospectors in Nevada announce that suffi­ in the United States.
cient coal to meet the needs of the state indefinitely
has been located. A large part of the de­ The governor of Hong Kong has issued another
posits is in the Tonopah district and several open­ proclamation against the exportation of coal, exings
have been made. The coal is said to be a cept "bunker coal," for use on the vessels which
semi-anthracite.
cars at Tonopah.
It sells at $7.50 a ton on the take it aboard.
When Mine Workers Were Bondsmen.
In his "History of Coal Mining." R. W. Galloway
points out that what appear to be traces of a
primitive state of servitude existed in Staffordshire,
England, where the laborers employed in
the haulage of coal continued to be known as
"bondsmen," a name probably coming down from
a remote period, a supposition which receives support
from a pecu'.iar service required of them
known as "buildases." This consisted in working
at times in the morning without receiving any payment
beyond a drink of ale. This custom of exacting
labor without pay is supposed to represent
some ancient service required from their tenants
by the monks of the abbey of Buildwas, in Shropshire,
whence the name was derived.
Adjustment In The Pittsburgh District.
A company capitalized at $500,000 has been
formed by State Senator J. C. Stineman and other
(coal operators and business men of Camb|ria
county. Pa., to develop 3,000 acres of coal land in
the Pocahontas district of West Virginia.
President Patrick Dolan and Secretary William
Dodds, of the United Mine Workers of the Fifth
Pennsylvania bituminous district, will attend meetings
on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this
week at Harwick, Mercer and other points in the
Northern section of the district to make final
adjustments and interpretations of features of
scale agreements. Similar meetings were held
A high record in the price of Fayette county. the latter part of last week at Ellsworth and
Pa., coal lands was established recently when a Beaver Falls. There have been a number of local
deal went through for the sale to the Struthers disputes over scale provisions and working rules
Furnace Co., of Struthers, O., of 240 acres of in the Pittsburgh district, lately, and the miners'
coal at $1,200 an acre.
officials have been kept busy effecting settlements,
which has led to the suggestion in the Mine Work­
A new mining district is to be created in Penners Journal that "if the members of the organizasylvania.
It probably will be made up of adjoining
parts of Fayette and Greene counties, to which
possibly, a part of Washington county will be
added.
tion would devote a little more time to studying
the terms of the wage agreement and the laws of
the organization, many of the local differences
that exist might be averted."