TABLE 77.-Coal produced in the principal countries of the world, 1920-1923 [In metric tons of 2,204.6 pounds]

Includes small quantity of asphaltite.

1,319,700,000 1, 134, 600, 000 1, 225, 500,000 1,359,900,000

Exclusive of output of State of Falcón (about 8,000 tons), for which estimate is included in total. Includes for January to May entire output of Upper Silesia, for June to December output of only that part of the province allocated to Germany.

Includes output for June to December of that part of Upper Silesia allocated to Poland.
Output of Russia in Asia included with Russia in Europe.

•Exclusive of lignite (annual production about 200,000 tons), for which estimate is included in total.
▲ Based on incomplete data.

PRODUCTION OF COAL BY STATES

FORM OF PRESENTATION

In the foregoing pages are presented the general statistical facts of 1923 for the coal industry as a whole. It remains to give the detailed figures of production by States and counties.

As the detailed statistics are useful chiefly for reference, they require no extended comment. The figures for a given area, however, can be used more intelligently if they are considered in the light of the market conditions prevailing in that area for the year. For this purpose a series of charts are interspersed with the tables showing for most of the States the trend of production in each month of 1923 and how it compares with the level of the five years preceding.

The form of these charts will be clear from a glance at the one for Alabama (fig. 45). It will be seen that the background of the chart is divided into two blocks. The larger block, at the right, covers 1923. The smaller block, at the left, covers the five years 1918 to 1922. To show so long a period it is necessary to make a change in the time scale, and so in the 1923 block each division represents a month, while in the five-year block each division represents the average for a year. Now, to compare periods of unlike length some common denominator is necessary, and the best one to use is the average output per working day. By this means it is a simple matter to compare not only years with months, but also short months like February, which would otherwise show an artificial downward jag, with long months like March. Thus the heavy black line of daily production starts at an average of 62,000 tons in the war year 1918, drops to 50,000 tons in 1919, recovers slightly in 1920, falls to 41,000 in the depression year 1921, and in 1922, when the strike closed the union mines, rises to 60,000 tons. In January, 1923, the daily average was running 72,300 tons, or considerably above the general level of any of the five years preceding. This high rate was maintained without a break until December.

The Alabama chart also shows the trend of spot prices of minerun coal f. o. b. mines as quoted by Coal Age. Prices are represented by the light dash line. The average price for the year 1919 as a whole (quotations for 1918 are not available) was $2.64; for 1920, as a whole, the average was $5.12, though during certain months of that year much higher prices were touched. In 1921 prices dropped to the level of 1919, and in 1922 they receded still further. In 1923 the line of price starts at $2.40 in January, rises slightly in February, and declines gradually thereafter to $1.90 in the last four months of the year.

The charts for the other States are drawn in the same way but with a certain exception. Because Pennsylvania's output is so much greater than Maryland's, for example, it is not feasible to plot them on the same scale. Hence, one scale has been used for the large States Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia-and a different scale for the remaining smaller States. The scale for the small States is about seven times that for the large States, and to warn the reader of the difference the scale used is conspicuously posted in the upper right corner of each diagram.

In Tables 78 and 79 are given the figures of average daily production and spot prices plotted in this series of charts.

State

1,813,000 1,650, 000 1, 845,000

January February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September October

November December

Year

1,826, 000 1,794, 000 1, 806, 000 1,813, 000 1,811, 000 1,868,000 1,923, 000 1,969, 000 1,885,000

• Alaska, California, Georgia, Idaho, North Carolina, Oregon, and South Dakota.

ALABAMA

The production of coal in Alabama in 1923 was the greatest recorded in the history of the State, exceeding that of the previous banner year, 1917, by 389,575 tons. The total output for the year was 20,457,649 tons, valued at $51,624,000, an increase over 1922 of 2,132,909 tons, or 11.6 per cent, in quantity and of $8,768,000, or 20.5 per cent, in value. Jefferson County contributed most of the gain.

The number of days worked increased from 215 to 232, the highest average among all the important coal-producing States; and, as

FIGURE 45.-Production of coal per working day and trend of spot prices in Alabama, 1918-1923. Data from Tables 78 and 79; spot prices as quoted by Coal Age

shown in Figure 45, the number of tons produced per working day in each month in 1923, with little variation, was greater than the average for any of the preceding five years till December, when it fell below that for 1918 and 1922. In 1918 this daily average was 62,000 tons, in 1922 it was 60,000 tons, and in December, 1923, it was 58,000 tons.

In 1919 the average spot price quoted by Coal Age for Alabama coal was $2.64; in 1920 it was almost double that $5.12; since 1921 the curve of price has followed a uniformly downward course, except for a slight rise in February, 1923.