that company-in all forming a considerable part of the total output-is not sold, and the value placed upon it is either an estimate or the amount at which it is carried on the company's books. Either value is presumably the amount the coal would have brought if it had been sold or the amount other fuel for the purpose stated would have cost if it had been purchased. In other words, the values given represent returns to the operators for coal sold plus the estimated value of that not sold. The value thus fixed is more or less arbitrary and does not necessarily represent the current prices for coal sold commercially. Many mines are owned by consumers who take all or a great part of their output at nominal prices. The output of such "captive mines" is not known accurately, but it is probably between 20 and 25 per cent of the entire production. Even where the coal is actually sold large quantities may be moved on "cost-plus" contracts that provide for prices below the average spot prices in the field or the average prices received for coal delivered under ordinary contracts. The figures in the following tables therefore do not necessarily show prices or even an average of the prices of coal at the mines. Taken over a period of years, however, they do furnish an index to the rise and fall in the value of coal. The computed "average value per ton" is thus affected by the value placed by the operator upon coal used at the mine but not shipped. In order to ascertain how large an influence the inclusion of this noncommercial coal might have upon the average, the Geological Survey for several years requested operators to give separate statements of value for coal loaded at the mines for shipment, for sale to local trade, and for mine fuel and coal made into beehive coke. It was found, however, that for practical purposes the average value of all the coal produced may be accepted as a measure of the average value of the coal shipped. The values placed by operators on mine fuel and upón the coal coked were generally somewhat less than the average amounts received for the coal shipped, but the quantities to which these lower values applied were so much smaller than the quantity shipped that they affected only slightly the average for all coal produced. Thus in 1921 the average value of all bituminous coal shipped was $2.90 per ton. The average of all coal produced, including mine fuel, local sales, and coal coked, was $2.89, only 1 cent less. TABLE 58.-Value of bituminous coal produced in the United States in 1923 ESTIMATES OF VALUE INCLUDED IN THE STATISTICS If an operator who is known to have produced coal during the year will make no report of the value of his product to the Geological Survey an estimate of the value is included in the total, in order to make it complete. In 1920 and again in 1922 and 1923 a considerable number of operators were unwilling to disclose the amount they had received for their coal, and the number of estimates included in the figures was so great that the readers of these reports should be advised of the method of estimate and of the proportion of the output for which estimate was made. The method used in 1920 and 1922 was to multiply the tons of output reported by the average spot price per ton in the district as quoted by Coal Age. The same method was followed in estimating the value of the coal produced at wagon mines and at new mines from which the Survey heard indirectly through railroads or State mine inspectors, for the information from these sources showed the output but not the value. In 1923 a different method of estimate was employed. The wagonmine product was estimated as before at the average spot price for the district. Estimates of the value of the commercial product, however, were based on the average for each county of all reports from operators in the county that did specify value. The percentage of the total value of the product in each State in 1923 represented in this report by estimates is shown in the following table: TABLE 59.-Percentage of total value of bituminous coal produced in 1923 by commercial operators that is represented by estimates Of the $1,514,621,000 given as the total value of bituminous coal at the mines in 1923, $93,959,000, or 6.2 per cent, represents estimates of the value of the output of commercial mines. The total also includes an item of $3,644,000 for the value placed by the Geological Survey on the product of 2,384 wagon mines, which represented 0.2 per cent of the total value. In all, therefore, estimates had to be made for about 6.4 per cent of the total value in 1923. In the average for the whole country the proportion estimated is not large enough to introduce an appreciable error, but in the figures for some of the States the error may be serious. FLUCTUATIONS IN VALUE Changes in average value from 1880 to 1923 are shown in Table 60. The figures for anthracite are of doubtful significance, because they include both the steam and domestic sizes. In 1880 the smaller of the steam sizes were thrown upon the culm bank, but to-day all the small coal mined is sold or used, and the percentage of the small sizes is further increased by recovery from the old banks. So far as bituminous coal is concerned, however, the average is fairly comparable. From $1.25 a ton in 1880 it declined to 80 cents in 1898, since when it has been rising. In the same period commodity prices were declining, but not by as great a ratio as the record for bituminous coal here shown. From the late nineties to the outbreak of the World War the increases in value of bituminous coal roughly paralleled the rise in commodity prices. During and after the war several factors caused the value of coal to increase in a greater ratio than the level of commodity prices, and parity between the two had not been reestablished in 1923. The average for coal in that year was $2.68 a net ton at the mine, the lowest since 1919. In comparison with 1922, a decrease of 34 cents a ton is shown. TABLE 60.-Average value per net ton of coal at mines, 1880–1923 • Averages for anthracite represent amounts per net ton and include all coal produced. From Table 61 it will be seen that the decrease was felt in almost every producing State. Only Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia, of the Eastern States, and New Mexico and Colorado, of the Western States, received higher prices in 1923 than the year before. Wide differences are revealed by Table 61 between the average values of the coal produced in the several States. Of the important Eastern States, Maryland alone reported an average above $3 a ton. In the other Appalachian States exclusive of Georgia and North Carolina, whose production is insignificant-the values ranged from $2.52 in Alabama to $2.76 in Virginia and $2.75 in Pennsylvania. Average values in the Central Competitive Field were on the whole lower than in the Appalachians. For Illinois the average was $2.50, for Indiana $2.48, for Ohio $2.43, and for the Pittsburgh district as represented by Allegheny and Washington Counties, Pa., $2.70 and $2.51, respectively. This comparison of the Central Competitive Field and the Appalachians suggests that the high wage scales of the union fields were not compensated for by a larger price a ton. In the States of the western interior, ranging from Iowa to the bituminous fields of Texas, much higher average values prevailed. The average for Iowa was $3.59, for Arkansas $4.01, for Kansas $3.21, and for the bituminous mines in Texas $4.77. The higher values of the western interior region represent not larger profits but higher costs, due to high wage rates, thin beds, and difficult conditions of COAL mining. Among the fields of the far West also values higher than those of the Appalachians and the interior generally prevail. Wyoming reported an average value of $2.76 a ton, the lowest among the Rocky Mountain States but higher than the average for the Appalachians. In Utah the average was $2.89, and in all the other far Western States the average was over $3. Even the lignite produced in North Dakota was reported to have an average value of $2.36 a ton f. o. b. mines, a figure not far below the prices of the bituminous coals of the Central Competitive Field. When it is remembered that the calorific value of North Dakota lignite ranges from 7,000 to 8,000 British thermal units, as against 12,000 to 14,000 British thermal units for the bituminous coals with which it competes, it will be seen that the market for lignite is confined to those areas in which bituminous coal is handicapped by heavy transportation costs. The highest average value per ton in all the States was $4.73 in Michigan. Here thinness of beds and high wage rates combine to produce high costs, but proximity to favorable markets, which other coals can reach only by paying heavy freight charges, permits the industry to live. The figures of the table will suggest the great variety of conditions that prevail in bituminous mining, not only as to cost of production but as to differentials in transportation rates to coveted markets, which protect the high-cost producer close to the market against the otherwise overwhelming competition of lower-cost coal coming from greater distances. TABLE 61.-Average value per net ton of coal at mines, 1909-1923, by States 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 $1.31 (4) (a) Arkansas. (a) (4) (a) ·4.00 1.48 1. 56 1. 61 1.71 1.76 1.72 California. 1.79 1.92 b2.21 62.74 b2.00 2.33 3.54 € 2.85 Colorado.. 1.33 1.42 Georgia. 1.41 1.46 d 1. 49 d 1.49 1. 41 Idaho. 1. 44 4.27 3.92 2. 43 Illinois. (a) (a) (a) 1. 11 1. 17 Indiana. 1. 14 1. 12 1. 10 1.25 1.02 1. 13 1. 08 1. 10 Iowa.. 1. 10 1. 27 1.65 1.75 1.73 1.80 1.79 Kansas 1.79 1.78 1.86 1. 44 1.61 1.53 1.62 1.67 Kentucky. 1.64 1.66 1.78 .94 .99 .99 1.02 Maryland.. Montana. New Mexico. 1. 05 1. 02 1. 01 1. 19 1. 11 1. 12 1. 11 1. 18 1. 24 1.27 1. 28 1.56 1.79 1.91 1. 78 1.99 1.99 1.99 2.05 2.25 1. 65 1.79 1.72 1.76 1. 73 1. 73 1. 73 1.91 1.97 1.82 1.79 1.82 1.74 1.75 1. 62 1.73 1.29 North Carolina. 1.61 1. 44 1.47 (4) North Dakota. 1.43 1.53 Ohio. .99 1. 05 1. 03 1.07 1.10 Oklahoma. 1. 13 1.08 1. 33 2.05 2. 14 2.05 Oregon. 2.06 2. 01 2.09 2.69 3.48 2. 32 2.60 2.53 Pennsylvania (bituminous). 2.78 2. 84 2.68 .94 1.02 1.11 1.07 South Dakota.. 1. 06 1.30 1.55 Tennessee.. 2.03 1. 14 Texas. 1. 13 1.23 1.72 1.67 1. 66 1.67 1.77 1.69 Utah.. 1.65 1.56 1.66 1. 68 1.69 1. 67 Virginia... Washington. West Virginia. Wyoming... Total bituminous. 1.58 1.62 89 .90 .91 .96 1.01 1.01 .98 1. 06 2. 29 2.39 2.38 2.20 2. 17 2.27 .86 .92 .90 .94 1.01 .99 .97 1. 18 1.56 1.58 1.56 1.55 1.46 1.55 1.84 1.90 1.94 2.11 2. 13 2.30 California includes Alaska, Idaho, and Nevada in 1914 and 1915; Idaho in 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920; and Idaho and Oregon in 1921, 1922, and 1923. 4 Georgia includes North Carolina. Average for total output, including refuse from washery. The average, excluding refuse, was $1.71. • These values represent amounts per net ton and include all coal produced. 9786°-26-40 TABLE 61.-Average value per net ton of coal at mines, 1909-1923, by ⚫ California includes Alaska, Idaho, and Nevada in 1914 and 1915; Idaho in 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920; and Idaho and Oregon in 1921, 1922, and 1923. These values represent amounts per net ton and include all coal produced. SPOT PRICES OF BITUMINOUS COAL The figures of average value collected by the Geological Survey are a composite of business covered by contract or trade connections of long standing at stable prices and business on the "open market," termed by the trade "spot sales." The percentage of coal moving under contract varies greatly from time to time and from district to district. There are no exact statistics of the relative proportions of spot and contract shipments, but it has been frequently stated that under ordinary conditions from 70 to 75 per cent of the total output moves under contract. Concerning the prices of contract coal little information is available. The trade quotations deal rather with the current spot price f. o. b. mine. The spot price reflects the momentary condition of the market, as interpreted by the buyer seeking low prices, on the one hand, and by the seller attempting to place his coal at the maximum profit, on the other. Much significance therefore attaches to the course of spot prices as an index to the state of trade. The spot price should not be taken, however, as a measure of the average profit the coal producer. of |