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28 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
SPANISH COAL CONSUMERS
MUST DEPEND ON IMPORTERS.
The general league representing the bituminous
coal interests of Spain has published a statement
embodying the report presented to the commission
appointed to study the revision of the customs
tariff, from which the following statistics are
extracted:
England has for many years enjoyed the supremacy
in this product, exporting millions of
tons (63,000,000 tons in 1903) to all countries on
the globe. She is now beginning to consider seriously
the competition into which Germany and
the United States are entering with her, these
countries having in the last few years made gigantic
efforts and increased their output a hundredfold.
The coal-bearing territory in Spain is fully as
extensive as, if not more extensive than, that of
England, and the consumption of bituminous coal
in the former country has increased considerably
(from 3.284,892 tons in 1893 to 5,230.204 tons in
1903) ; yet the production of coal in Spain in 1903
did not exceed 2,974.239 tons, which means that
2.255,765 tons had to be imported that year instead
of being produced in Spain, which would
have greatly benefited the country.
This product being very abundant in Spain, and
constituting a necessary article of increasing consumption,
since it is the very basis of every industry,
the present situation seems almost to
acknowledge a deplorable organization of Spanish
industry, placing the country at the mercy of the
foreigners, on the fluctuation of whose market it
depends. The report of the league demonstrates
that the Spanish coasts, where the consumption
of coal is greatest, are at the mercy of importers.
as Spanish bituminous coal is unloaded solely on
interior markets, the transportation charges on
coal from German or English mines to coast ports
being lower than those from the mines of Astoria
and Leon.
NEW COAL ENTERPRISE.
Application has been made at Harrisburg for a
charter for the Kennerly Coal & Coke Co., a $1,-
000,000 corporation, whose main office is to be at
Johnstown, Pa., where at least half the capital
stock will be held. The new company proposes t'he
operation of 3,500 acres of coal land at Forwardstown
and Thomas Mill, in Somerset county. The
promoters also propose a trolley line to Bens
Creek, there to connect with the Johnstown Passenger
Railway Co.'s system. J. Blair Kennerly.
of Philadelphia, and H. H. Light, of Lebanon, are
among the promoters.
MAY BUILD BIG SMELTING PLANT.
Announcement is made at Terre Haute, Ind..
that the recent trip of prominent coal operators
through Indiana, ostensibly for sight-seeing, really
was for the purpose of selecting a site for a large
smelting plant. It is said that a plant will be
erected near W. S. Vogle's mine at Glendora.
The present plan is to build about 40 houses to
shelter the workmen while the plant is being
erected. The object in selecting a site at Glendora
is to have it in the center of the coal field and
to avoid excessive freight charges. There are
eight large mines within two miles of the proposed
site.
The operators said to be interested in the company
are: W. S. Vogle. Edward Shirkie, Hugh
Shirkie, Joseph Martin, H. H. Roseman, L. R.
Witty, C. W. Gilmore, J. Gilmore and G. W. Benjamin,
who represent Chicago interests, J. A.
Worley of Evansville, and the Jeffries Manufacturing
Co. of Columbus, O.
PRODUCTION OF COAL IN GERMANY.
The production of coal in Germany in 1903 was
116,664,000 metric tons; of lignite, or brown coal,
45.956.000 tons; of coke, 11,509.000 tons; and of
briquettes, 10,476.000 tons. There were imported,
chiefly from Great Britain for gas-making purposes
6,667,000 tons of coal, and. on the other hand,
17,388,000 tons were exported to the Netherlands,
Austria. Belgium. Switzerland and France. In
connection with this subject some very interesting
statistics, showing the relative output per capita
by the coal miners of different countries, have
just been published. It has been found that in
1901 the average yearly production per workman
in the principal coal mining countries was as
follows, the statistics being in metric tons: United
States, 548 tons: Upper Silesia, 327; Great
Britain, 292; Westphalia, 247; Saar district, 224;
Lower Silesia, 195; France, 197; Austria-Hungary,
167, and Belgium, 166. These differences, which
are so striking and important in the four principal
coal fields of Germany, point not so much to the
comparative efficiency of the workmen as to geological
peculiarities, the depth and thickness of
coal deposits, the presence of water and noxious
gases, and the difficulties which beset pumping
anil hoisting the product from the mine. But
when all is taken into account, the cost of coal at
the mine's mouth varies in close accord with the
output of the individual miner in the several fields.
The mining industry of Germany employs 480,000
persons, including some women and boys, and the
average individual earnings of the whole force in
1902 were $243.30.