766 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1144 



The producers of coal and the transpor- 

 tation companies are concerned not so much 

 with the actual rates charged for carrying 

 coal as with the adjustment of rates be- 

 tween different coal fields and between 

 different markets. In the many years in 

 which our coal industry has been develop- 

 ing, rate structures have been built up 

 that give to this and that producing dis- 

 trict differentials over other districts — 

 "handicaps," as it were — that may be 

 based on comparative lengths of haul or 

 on the ability of the coals to compete by 

 reason of difference in quality or in cost 

 of mining or perhaps may be merely the 

 survival of past practise, for which no rea- 

 son now exists. The consumer of coal, 

 however, is interested in the actual rather 

 than the relative freight rate. 



To help toward a realization of the 

 magnitude of this transportation item, it 

 may be pointed out, first, that all but 14 

 per cent, of the output of the country's 

 coal mines, aggregating 532 million tons, 

 is moved to market by rail or water, and 

 second, that nearly half of the bituminous 

 coal (47 per cent, in 1915) and more than 

 two thirds of the anthracite (71 per cent, 

 in 1915) is shipped outside of the states 

 in which it is produced. 



Add to this statement of the extent to 

 which coal enters interstate commerce a 

 glance at the distribution of centers of 

 maximum production and maximum con- 

 sumption — the New York-Baltimore in- 

 dustrial zone, which has a total per capita 

 consumption of nearly 10 tons and lies 100 

 to 400 miles from the tributary coal fields ; 

 New England, consuming about 7 tons to 

 the unit of population and lying 400 to 800 

 miles from its coal supply ; or the populous 

 industrial district of which Chicago is the 

 commercial center, consuming 8 to 9 tons 

 per capita of coal in part hauled more than 

 400 miles from the fields of West Virginia 



and eastern Kentucky and in part 200 

 miles or less from the Illinois mines. "With 

 these facts in mind we must realize that 

 the transportation cost is necessarily a 

 large part of the country's fuel bill. 



As has already been suggested, the trans- 

 portation rate in force from any coal field 

 to any market can readily be learned by 

 the consumer who wishes to figure this item 

 in the cost of the coal he buys. Therefore 

 in the present general consideration of the 

 subject it is sufficient to state the average 

 value of this item. In the interstate traffic, 

 both rail and water, bituminous coal prob- 

 ably pays an average freight of nearly $2 

 per ton. In other words, the transporta- 

 tion costs more than the product and, as 

 some parts of the country are just now 

 learning, is sometimes more difficult to ob- 

 tain. The value of coal, like the value of 

 so many other commodities, is a place 

 value. 



The average freight charge on anthracite 

 is higher than that on bituminous coal, 

 first because the rates are higher and sec- 

 ond because, according to the reports of the 

 Interstate Commerce Commission, all move- 

 ment considered, the coal is carried a 

 greater distance. 



The cost of handling the coal, exclusive 

 of freight, from the time it leaves the pro- 

 ducer until it is in the consumer's fuel bin, 

 may be termed the marketing cost. It can 

 readily be seen that a large part of the 

 coal produced is not subject to this cost, for 

 most large users of steam coal, such as the 

 railroads and the coke manufacturers, place 

 contracts directly with the producing com- 

 panies or their selling agencies and buy in 

 the open market only when their needs ex- 

 ceed the deliveries under their contracts. 

 Much of the coal, however, both anthracite 

 and bituminous, passes through the hands 

 of a wholesale dealer or jobber before it is 

 received by the retail dealer who puts it in 



