The Retail Coal Trade 



395 



ordinary times from 70 cents per ton, as 

 a minimum, to over $10 for anthracite 

 at a remote distance. The railroad com- 

 panies seldom receive less than a dollar 

 a ton as their total charge for loading, 

 transporting, and distributing a ton of 

 coal, nor often more than $2.50. Thus, 

 on the average, the freight more than 

 doubles the cost of the coal by the time 

 it reaches the city for consumption. 



Curiously enough, for only a few cents 

 more than the rate for a short haul coal 

 is often hauled over five times as many 

 miles to competitive points. Thus the 

 rate of hauling coal varies from one- 

 tenth of a cent per ton for each mile 

 hauled, as a minimum rate, to over 

 twenty times that rate on certain short 

 hauls. It costs the retail dealer $1 to 

 take the coal from the cars and deliver 

 it in the consumer's cellar. The re- 

 mainder of the cost of a ton of coal to 

 the consumer represents the dealer's 

 profit. Thus, in New York the price 

 of anthracite for stove size on the re- 

 sumption of mining after the strike was 

 $5.00 per ton at the dealer's yard. The 

 cost of delivering this was as follows : 

 Unloading at yard, 25 cents; insurance, 

 2 cents ; screening, 10 cents ; hauling 

 to consumer, 38 cents ; delivery in cel- 

 lar, 25 cents — total, $1.00. 



The general retail price is put down 

 as $7.00, leaving the profit of the dealer 

 $1 .00, or 20 per cent on his cost. Under 

 these conditions the supply of coal in 

 the United States has been generally well 

 up to the demand, and the trade has 

 been fairly satisfactory ; so that the pub- 

 lic has taken little interest in the general 

 coal supply beyond the mere price for 

 each particular locality. The regions to 

 be served by bituminous coal and those 

 supplied by anthracite have, in general, 

 been well defined. There has been keen 

 competition at only a few points. In 

 general, the requirements of the trade 

 were well known and amply supplied, 

 but late in the spring of this year an- 



thracite mining was abruptly stopped by 

 the great strike, and the small stock in 

 the hands of dealers was at once at a 

 premium. This small supply, which 

 was weekly supplemented by meager 

 shipments of coal washed from waste 

 dumps at the mines, was carefully hus- 

 banded and doled out only where abso- 

 lutely necessary, like food in a siege or 

 a famine. The previously satisfactory 

 supply of coal was profoundly disturbed. 

 Anthracite supplied practically the en- 

 tire fuel for a certain well-defined ter- 

 ritory, including the states of New 

 York, New Jersey, eastern Pennsyl- 

 vania, and including also the principal 

 consumers of coal as far south as Wash- 

 ington. 



In calling this strike the miners took 

 advantage of a favorable opportunity 

 for continuing the discussion of issues 

 between the coal miners and the oper- 

 ators, which they did not consider sat- 

 isfactorily concluded at the previous 

 great strike, which lasted from Septem- 

 ber 17 to October 27, 1900. 



The issues of the strike which has 

 just closed, as definitely stated, are as 

 follows : 



" 1 . That there shall be an increase of 

 20 per cent to the miners who are paid 

 by the ton — that is, for men performing 

 contract work. These men involve 

 about 40 per cent of all the miners. 



2. A reduction of 20 per cent in the 

 time of per diem employes. The mines 

 are operated about 200 days per year, 

 ten hours per day. This demand, if 

 granted, would result in reducing the 

 day to eight hours (20 per cent), so 

 that the mines would be operated 240 

 days at about the same pay ; hence an 

 equivalent of 20 per cent increase in the 

 earnings, no increase in the rates of per 

 diem employes being demanded. 



3. That 2,240 pounds shall constitute 

 the ton on which payment is based for 

 all coal mined where the miners are 

 paid by weight. This would apply in 



