13,000,000 tons, such as had characterized the preceding years. The experience of 1923 was thus a practical demonstration of the possibility of equalizing coal shipments through off-season storage and in thereby handling maximum quantities of coal without great additional investment in railroad equipment and facilities. To this equalizing of coal traffic the railroads largely contributed through their far-sighted program of summer storage of their own fuel. (See fig. 27.)1 Prices in 1923.-As consumers' stocks were accumulating spot prices were declining (fig. 28). In January, when the wage agreement was signed, Coal Age's weighted average price of 14 coals f. o. b. mine stood at $4.38. At this price it was possible for the highcost commercial mines and thousands of wagon mines to operate. But as stocks increased prices dropped, until in June they reached $2.56. By this time the wagon mines had closed and the smaller commercial operations were following their example. Shipments under contract continued in heavy volume, but the gradual decline in open-market prices left less and less room for profit on spot sales. Pressure to reduce costs followed, and before the end of the year wage cuts were reported in some of the nonunion fields. Idle, part-time, and full-time mines. Significant of market developments in 1923 is the changing proportion of full-time, part-time, and idle mines among the 2,500 commercial operations that were reporting weekly to the Geological Survey (fig. 29). The mines included in the Survey's weekly statement were substantially the same from week to week, and the reports are comparable. These were not wagon mines, but commercial operations of some size. Altogether, the 2,500 mines yield about one-half of the output of the country, and they may be taken as fairly representative of the commercial as distinct from the consumer-owned output. In Figure 29 each bar represents the condition of these 2,500 mines of a typical week. The sections of the bar stand for the percentage in the total number of mines that were entirely idle in that week and the percentage that worked 1 day, 2 days, and so on up to 6 days, or full time. Now, in October, 1922, just after the great strike, when prices were high and car shortage was prevalent, practically all mines that could get cars at all were in operation, and only 4.2 per cent of the total mines reporting were idle. Another 8.8 per cent worked one day, 26 per cent worked 2 days, 25 per cent 3 days, and so on to the group working 6 days, which constituted 13.1 per cent of the total. The next bar shows the condition in the week of February 17, 1923, after the renewal of the wage agreement was assured and the effects of the great strike were rapidly disappearing. Demand was still very active and the number of mines closed had increased but slightly. Production of the mines at work was limited chiefly by the available car supply, and few mines were able to get both cars and orders sufficient for full-time operation. As 1923 passed the market grew less and less active. More and more properties closed, with the result that in the week of November 17, 32 per cent of the mines reporting to the Survey were idle, a percentage almost four times as great as that in the preceding February. Not less significant than the increase in idle mines was an increase at the other end of the 1 See Tryon, F. G., and McKenney, W. F., International Railway Fuel Assoc. Proc., 1924, pp. 210–239. 9786°-26-33 FIGURE 25.-Total commercial stocks of bituminous coal, October 1, 1916, to January 1, 1924. Figures represent millions of net tons and include coal in the hands of railroads, industrial consumers, public utilities, and retail dealers. Coal for steamship fuel, on Lake docks, in transit, and in the bins of householders is not included. 56 222 62 Jan. Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov. Dec. FIGURE 26.-Monthly production and consumption of soft coal in 1923. Production was very steady in 1923, but consumption showed the characteristic summer drop. The interval between the two lines of the diagram represents changes in stocks, including reserves on the Lake docks. These changes are shown in more detail in the succeeding diagram Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec FIGURE 27.-Monthly changes in stocks in 1923. Storage of very large quantities during the summer explains the steady production of soft coal in 1923. Some coal was drawn from stocks during the traffic congestion of February, but additions to stock (shown by the columns above the zero line) were made in every month thereafter until December. The maximum addition was made in July, when the railroads alone put into storage 3.4 million tons. Figures in columns represent millions of net tons |