There followed a period of six weeks in which the market was unsettled by the uncertainties as to the possibility of another suspension and the terms on which an agreement would be ultimately reached.

FIGURE 30.—Monthly prices of anthracite f. o. b. mines, 1913–1924, as quoted by Coal Age. The diagram shows in dollars per gross ton the average company prices and average “independent” spot quotations on stove and

buckwheat sizes of Pennsylvania anthracite at the mines. Prices shown are averages of the range as quoted on the New York market. Reproduced from Coal Age, by permission

The United States Coal Commission, being without authority to prescribe the terms of settlement, called the two parties together and urged in the public interest that negotiations be resumed under some plan that would keep the mines in operation until an agreement had been reached, if necessary by arbitration. The suggestion of arbitration was accepted by the operators but rejected by the miners.?

? See Reports by the Commission to the President concerning Negotiations for Renewal of the Anthracite Wage Agreement: U.S. Coal Comm. Rept., vol. 1, pp. 138-145,

The miners and operators still failing to agree, Governor Pinchot, of Pennsylvania, called them together at Harrisburg on August 27 and after conferring with them suggested a basis of settlement in which the principal points were (a) extension of the basic eight-hour

1000
980
960
940
920
900
880
860
840
820
800
780
760
740
720
700
690
660
640
620
600
580
560
540
520
500
480
460
A40

420 0 400 Z 380

360

340 Z 320

300
280
260
240
220
200
180
160
140
120
100
80 82 85-89
60
40
20
o

MILLION TONS AND THOUSAND MEN

3.80 3.70 3.60 3.50 3.40 3.30 3.20 3.10 3.00 2.90 2.80 2.70 Z 2.60 2.50 2.40 2.30

2.20 W

MINE PRICE PER TON

(DOLLARS)

2.10 UN

1890
1891
1892
1893

1894

1895
1896
1897
1898
1899

1910

9161
216)

FIGURE 31.-Production, calculated full-time capacity, men employed, mine price per ton, and average

number of days lost at bituminous-coal mines, 1890–1923

day to the group of employees still working a longer day; (6) a uniform increase in wages of 10 per cent to all employees; (c) denial of the check off of union dues, but granting of the right of the union to have a representative present when the men are paid. Governor Pinchot's terms, with slight modifications, were accepted by the two parties on September 8, and on September 19 work was resumed at the mines after a suspension of 14 days.

The anthracite market in 1923.—The course of anthracite prices in 1923 (fig. 30) largely reflects the developments in labor relations. The year opened with independent stove coal selling at premiums of $2 to $3 a ton above the circular prices of the railroad coal companies, a sign of the shortage existing after the strike of 1922. Independent prices dropped in March and April, but by June apprehension over another stoppage caused the market to tighten and independent premiums again to increase. Company prices remained unchanged from September, 1922, to August, 1923, but advances of 75 to 90 cents were made after the wage increase of September 8. The settlement of the wage controversy without prolonged stoppage tended to calm the market, and independent prices were declining by December and were destined to drop still further in 1924.

In sharp contrast to the upward movement of the prices of domestic coal is the downward trend of the steam sizes. Heavy production of the domestic sizes created a surplus of the steam sizes at the same time that prices of bituminous steam coal were falling. Independent buckwheat was selling at a premium in January, but thereafter it plunged below the circular price, and three times during the year the circular itself declined.

GROWTH OF THE INDUSTRY

EARLY RECORDS OF PRODUCTION

The detailed statistics for the year 1923 which are presented in this report can best be understood if attention is first given to a summary of the historical growth of the industry, in which the year 1923 is seen in its relation to the past.

The earliest year of which the Geological Survey has a record of the quantity of coal produced is 1807. The Richmond Basin of Virginia was worked at a much earlier date, and it appears that some coal was dug near Pittsburgh and in the Georges Creek field of Maryland in the eighteenth century, but the statistical history of coal mining on a commercial scale begins in this country with the shipment of anthracite down Lehigh and Susquehanna rivers about 1807. The record by States is given in the table on page 545 for each year from 1807 to 1923.

Up to the Civil War the production of anthracite exceeded that of bituminous coal. Since then the extraordinary increase in the industrial consumption of the country has carried the output of bituminous coal far above that of anthracite. The peak of production of soft coal in 1918 was 5.8 times as great as that of anthracite.

BITUMINOUS-COAL INDUSTRY

The modern history of bituminous coal mining may conveniently be dated from 1890, when the Survey's more complete record of production, men employed, and days worked begins. From that year to 1923 the quantity produced increased fivefold, the value of the product fourteenfold, and the number of employees between three and fourfold. The principal statistical facts of the industry for each year of this 34-year period are shown in Table 4.

The production in 1923, indicated by the heavy black line of Figure 31, has been exceeded but twice in the history of the industrynamely, in 1918 and in 1920. Nevertheless, the output for 1923 fell short of what might have been expected from the rate of growth in the years before the war. The average value of the coal produced in 1923 was less than in any of the three years preceding, though greater than in 1918. The average for 1923 was $2.68 a net ton at the mine, as against $1.18 in 1913; in other words, it was more than twice the pre-war value.

Though the production in 1923 was less, the number of men employed was much greater than in either 1918 or 1920. Between 1920 and 1923 there were added to the pay rolls of the industry 63,000 men. At the same time a remarkable increase occurred in the output per man employed per day. This figure has been steadily rising: In 1890 it was 2.56 tons; in 1920 it stood at 4 tons. This was an increase of 56 per cent in 30 years. From 1920 to 1923 the production per man increased even more rapidly, and in 1923 it stood at 4.47 tons. Probably the chief factor in the increasing output per man is the adoption of machine mining. In 1891, the year of earliest record, 5.3 per cent of the bituminous coal was cut by machine; in 1923 the proportion had risen to 66.9 per cent.

With an increase both in the number of men worked and in the average output per man per day, there was a large increase in the productive capacity of the industry. The best measure of capacity that is available, plotted with the dot and dash line in Figure 31, shows a more rapid increase for the period since the war than before. This increase in productive facilities at a time when the demand for coal was stationary, if not declining, has brought idleness both to the capital and the labor in the mines. The industry has become accustomed to part-time employment, for in the year of first record the number of days worked averaged but 226, leaving 82 possible working days in idleness. But the time lost has been greater since the war than before on account of the increase in productive capacity above noted. The black columns at the base of Figure 31 indicate the amount of lost time in each year. The low point-59 days- , was reached in 1918. The high point of 166 days came during the great strike of 1922, when many mines were idle for 5 months or more. Even in 1923, with an output exceeded but twice before, the

. labor and capital in the industry were idle on the average 129 days and worked on the average 179 days. The time lost on account of strikes in 1923 was 2 days on the average for all men employed, as against 78 days in 1922.

The salient features of 1923 and the years immediately preceding may be summarized in a word. The number of employees and the output per man have been increasing and with them the potential capacity. The demand has been stationary or even declining. The average time worked has therefore been decreasing, and with it prices have tended to fall. The working of these broad tendencies

. in the several departments of the industry forms the subject of the figures that follow.

TABLE 4.-Growth of the bituminous coal mining industry, 1890–1928

()

5.3

$0.99

99 99 96 91 86 83 81 80

(0)

271

. 87

335

1890. 1881. 1892. 1893. 1894. 1896 1896 1897. 1898. 1899. 1900 1901. 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1918 1916 1917 1918 1919. 1920 1921 1922 1923

111 118 127 128 119 136 138 148 167 193 212 226 260 283 279 315 343 396 333 380 417 406 450 478 423 443 603 552 579 466 569 416 422 565

381 451 374 405 469 451 618 565

162 163 178 194 214 216 221 232 243 254 279 309 348 387 425 460 496 520 531 560 592 593 622 635 668 672 673 699 717 736 796 860 916 970

226 223 219 204 171 194 192 196 211 234 234 226 230 225 202 211 213 234 193 209 217 211 223 232 195 203 230 243 249 195 220 149 142 179

304 340 370 410 438 461 478 513 516 643 556 550 549 572 584 557 561 603 615 622 640 664 688 705

11

82 85 89 104 137 114 116 112 97 74 74 83 78 83 106 97 95 74 115 99 91 97 85 76 113 105 78 65 59 113

88 159 166 129

35

నివలుండ-అందమ-3-లు-100

2. 56
2. 57
2. 72
2. 73
2. 84
2. 90
2. 94
3. 04
3. 09
3. 05
2. 98
2. 94
3. 06
3. 02
3. 15
3. 24
3. 36
3. 29
3. 34
(%)
3. 46
3. 50
3. 68
3. 61
3. 71
3. 91
3. 90
3. 77
3. 78
3. 84
4. 00
4. 20
4. 28
4. 48

81 71 80 98 95 67 73 104 98 56 95 75 71 94 101 74 61 58 88 82 156

88 127

1. 04
1. 05
1. 12
1. 24
1. 10
1. 06
1. 11
1. 14
1. 12
1. 07
1. 12
1. 11
1. 15
1. 18
1. 17
1. 13
1. 32
2. 26
2. 58
2. 49
3. 75
2. 89
3. 02
2. 68

11.9 15. 3 19. 5 22. 7 24. 9 25. 6 26.8 27.6 28. 2 32.8 34. 7 35. 1 37. O 37.5 41.7 43. 9 46.8 50.7 51. 7 55.0 56. 5 55. 5 55. 9 59. 2 59.8 65. 6 63. 2 66.9

10

493

19
4
4
4

502

665 1, 249 1, 492 1, 161 2, 130 1, 200 1, 275 1, 515

25
6
3
78
2

• Computed by dividing production in tons by the average number of days worked and multiplying the quotient by the theoretical full time, 308 days.

No data.

ANTHRACITE INDUSTRY

A different picture is presented by the historical summary of anthracite mining in Table 5. From 1890 to 1923 the production of anthracite has barely doubled, whereas that of bituminous coal has increased fivefold. The value of the anthracite output, on the other hand, has increased nearly ninefold.

In the number of employees, the figures for which include boys, particularly in the earlier years, the increase has been but 25 per cent from 1890 to 1923. At the same time the output per employee per day has shown no great change. The presence of culm-bank coal in the statistics makes it difficult to interpret the average output per man per day, but the figures as they stand show an increase from 1890 to about 1899, followed by a slight decrease. There has, however, been a notable improvement in the average number of days worked. It stood at 200 in 1890 and at 268 in 1923. This increase in the amount of productive time has come about since 1902, for in the years preceding the great strike of that year the working time, if anything, declined. It is the increase in number of days worked that has made possible a relatively large increase in production with a small increase in number employed.