per eight-hour day than 4.47 tons. The average daily product of his work is pulled down by the inclusion of the day men above and below ground, by the fact that tonnage men do not work every day that the mine is worked, by the fact that they frequently go home before the mine as a whole stops, and by the fact that men underground can not work continuously, because of unavoidable delays, such as that caused by waiting for mine cars. Nevertheless the average thus determined, which can be so easily calculated from the records available, is of value because it affords at least a rough indication of the units of labor necessary to raise a ton of coal and prepare it for shipment under the conditions that prevail at any time and place. AVERAGE DAILY OUTPUT FOR ALL MEN EMPLOYED Tables 33 to 35 present the statistics of production per day for all men employed. The variations in productivity from State to State are the subject of Table 32. The trend of production per man since 1890, when the historical record begins, is shown in Table 33 for the anthracite and bituminous-coal industries as a whole. The trend in certain of the important bituminous-coal States from 1900 to 1923 is given in Table 34 and Figure 38. Chief among the factors controlling output per worker are the natural conditions of miningnotably thickness of the seam-and the use of machinery. Statistical data on these points will be found in the report of the United States Coal Commission, pages 1877-1892. TABLE 32.-Coal produced per man and average number of days worked per year, 1921-1923, by States The figures for Utah and for Colorado in 1923 are probably too high because of the practice of men going into the mine to shoot coal and load mine cars on days when the tipple and the mine as a whole were not in operation. See note, p. 658. 9786°-26-37 TABLE 33.-Coal produced per man employed, 1890-1923 No reports of number of employees and days worked were collected by the Geological Survey in 1909. Number of wage earners on December 15 as reported by census of mines and quarries for 1909. The figures for bituminous coal exclude coke workers. Estimated. d Comparable data not available. Heavy washery output. TABLE 34.—Bituminous coal produced per man per day, 1900-1908, 1910-1923, in net tons [Computed by dividing the total production of commercial mines in tons by the product of the average number of days worked by the mines and the average number of men employed. No data available for 1909] 1923. Apparent decrease largely explained by adoption of the 8-hour day in certain nonunion fields. Affected by strike. AVERAGE FOR DEEP MINES PER MAN EMPLOYED UNDERGROUND In Mineral Resources for 1922, Part II, page 505, were pointed out a number of factors that impair the comparability of the figures of average daily output for all men employed. A better index of changes in output per man is the average production of coal from deep mines per man employed underground. This figure, which is given in the following table, eliminates the errors due to the inclusion of coal from strip pits, dredges, and washeries and to the variations in the number of workers employed in preparing the coal at the FIGURE 38.-Output of bituminous coal per man employed per day in two union and two nonunion States and in the United States as a whole, 1900-1923. The apparent decrease in 1916-1919 is due to the adoption of the 8-hour day in certain nonunion fields tipple or breaker. Unfortunately the records do not permit a calculation of this average for the years prior to 1911. It will be noted that this average of deep-mined coal per man employed underground fluctuates less than the simple average of all coal per man employed. The average for bituminous coal shows a fairly steady increase from 1911 to 1923, amounting in all to 1.14 tons, or 28 per cent. (See fig. 37.) In the meantime the length of the established working day had declined from 8.6 hours in 1911 to 8.06 hours in 1923. The average for anthracite, on the other hand, shows but little change during the period, for the average in 1923 was 2.79 net tons, against 2.75 tons in 1911. This figure, like that for bituminous coal, makes no allowance for changes in the length of the working day. 3 3 2 TABLE 35.-Coal produced from deep mines per man employed underground per day worked, 1911-1923, in net tons In making this computation certain estimates had to be made of the division of workers above and below ground and of the production of strip pits in the years 1911 to 1913. The probable error introduced by these estimates is too small to impair the value of the averages. STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS The statistics of strikes and lockouts published by the Geological Survey were discussed in detail in connection with the figures for the great strike of 1922 13 and are the subject of a special study now in preparation. It will therefore be sufficient here to present the figures for 1923 without extended comment (Tables 36, 37, and 38). In the anthracite region the year 1923 was marked by a brief suspension in September between the expiration of the wage agreement of 1922, on August 31, and the ratification of the new agreement proposed by Governor Pinchot. This suspension with certain local strikes caused a loss of 2,629,418 potential man-days, an average of 17 days per man employed. In the bituminous fields the year was generally free from strikes (Table 38). In the Cumberland-Piedmont fields of Maryland and West Virginia, however, the contest begun in 1922 dragged on for many months in 1923. Starting on April 1, 1922, it was not declared off until November 22, 1923, and therefore lasted nearly 20 months. The average time lost per man striking in Maryland was 134 days and the average per man employed, 97 days. Table 38 also records a stoppage involving 137 men in Texas which lasted 132 days. Two companies were involved. In the case of the larger company the controversy arose over the renewal of the wage contract which expired March 31, 1923. The company declaring itself unable to pay the old scale because of the competition of fuel oil, and the union being unwilling to consider a reduction, a deadlock ensued which was ended by the company's reopening one of its two mines on a nonunion basis. TABLE 36.-Summary of strikes and lockouts in coal mines, 1899–1923 " Bituminous coal mines only. No strikes of consequence occurred in the anthracite region in these years. 13 U. S. Geol. Survey Mineral Resources, 1922, pt. 2, pp. 512-519, 1924. |