Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, October 10, 1919, Page 3

Seek ta Re ws (x i y Coal farcines eee ; Prerds' on Coal Cae L Shipping Board_ Representative ‘Tells Senate Sub-Committee That bitu. minus ‘Exports’ to” Biurope ané South “America .C Be .Sprree *Vithout Exposing: Oakatiinere bz a of Coltt Winter: ne? ONT.Y PEAL MFNACE 4 Is CAR ‘SHORTAGE ack -of-Coal-Gars-i:-Feréing Many Bituminous Mines to’ Run-on ‘Pari Time, yt-Raflrogd Adininistration Representative Testifies: That, cx ceptional: Biff; ‘arts to imprest PATEK fe bison ARS that’ the etna * -torour “allies, this. were” dissiputed: b: t Sipping: Bord ent: the: remimrptinn of» which, fhe Senate * Sub Washington nto the sqft canl H. ¥ Saint, head of the £ sal Depart ment or the Shipping. Board. told Stnator_ F sin huystn’s Committee that’ tras. of bituminous coal dié te be; sipped, acros> the Atlanti¢ between. how ’and next Ape will to? ‘pjure the domestic situatiun crease in the: price of .bituminom coal here fn Fe halding in NE: reling he wast senr EF four milli SEE ig tle ding the seven maltion » tons af cost ta be aD neoowe oare only nation that can supply. that AR to Ttn!y practicaliy the nor pause an a sAitjon’ to clearnig-up the antoynded rumors: cen foal +rning the export situation, the hearing developed & ne’ that if the, Railroad Administration cat: #aterisily. reduce, car--shortage,, they chiel..cienace ts tet suestie coal, situation. will. be eliminated “hese ntatives. of the Railroad - Acithinistration auoree 2 that the car shortage proble:n was a rel «ao, Det declared thot extraordinary eflorts were m1 made to eliminate it: tens Aix Sait, who-appeared for the Shipytuy +4 oe ve n detailed account totla Senger “He Maly carrving any of this coal In her own Ships?” asked Setietor Frelinghuysen T anderstand that “Yes,” replied the witness, * {taly. iy carrying some-af this coal in her own Kettoms and: thet-the Htaban this country, has chartered a number ot anther governm€nts to carry coal to that so igh Commission in he Paris agrer Sub errt of the Ttal to Be orm thee of the efforts whitch tiie tourd ts rial fie redietion a end & +2 ee-oocration with dhe bitumineus oprracos rose blt we *upply Feyise; Ttal ‘and several other Kurdpen sctrerke with the coal which they so sorely need. visenatfeaviug th ésveountry’ at the mercy” -of-avbad water “There are dé, tan’ o fhe AMERICA‘ S$ COAL FLEE So ‘that. ‘the Committee fould have a elenr con- ception of just what the U jnited States was doing in the wa¥ of coal exporting, the witness repor d on the amount of tonnage which” the Shipping Board has-in the caal trade “On August 13," he said, “we dren and ninety-four vessels in the foreign coal trade, not including the ‘West: Indies, and a total tonnnge of nine hundred. twenty-nine thousand six hundred and cighty ~ tons. Of that tonnage, there was 85,111 to ie Swedish trade - hundred thirty-five ..uusand six handred and fom’ FE x ay from practically every Eureréan coante he said, “Thty come from Psance, Switeer sid, the Nether] ands, Denmark. taly, Greece, Portugal and Nofth African coun: ries; but the greatest presdure right at the present time is from Italy, ‘and theti Frante.” Even the. B -tish Isles had 2sked for Aiterican colt}; but none hae been supplicd. he said. ENGLAND'S PRODUCTION HitaPs. “The threatenéd coal fainine Bitope is due had one hun- prinuvily to the failing d fifedaction in thirty-three tons was in the Swiss and Netherlands England. ‘England was the feat exporting coal trade. The other tonnage was distributed as fol- nation before | the’ war, but het éxports have lows; ‘To Denmark, 7,000 tens; {taly, 105,508 drepped from’ about sisty-scven séven million tons to ap- tons; ‘France, 138,380 tons; South America, 207,512°tons; Greece, 26284 tons 7 Portugal, 9,500 tons}"Belgium, 10,500 tons. We have also sent one small shipment. of 2; 600 ton’ up to Greenlaad.” Mr.. Saint explained that all this. represented 2 Shipping Board tonnage owned by the United tion England bi np practically States and that the Shipping Board is handling " eee ae the wotld. relatively about thirty per cent of the’ coal export. That ts, she sipplied the cdal that ia shipped to, trade. | Hé added that in terms of coal it meant the bunkcring stations thtcnghoat the world ta that this country could have 668,000 tons of export supply the world’s shipping.” “coal afloat at onc time in the present supply of Questioned specificall; to American ‘ships. fue Last year, according to the Shipping Board representative. the United States exported 21,051,- ‘970 39 including approximately 16,500,000 tons proximately twénty-three ‘milliod tons. Italy got the bulk of lier coal from Engtnd:” France got'a very’ consitlerable antount. ‘The Northem neutrals y from Ei, and. South ‘deal. ot het, 608 ‘from tlie game . Senue Sub-& -rete cases of car shortage i Two. err vie Goel 29 Ioaded into Cen ~ wt. He said. we would export bout 7,000 urope for coal,’ 280 tons to Purope. said hipping Board coal 1d& col shortage y 62,168,000 tons. This shortage. w oar e3 18.300,090 tons in Germany Germany lose: a large pertion of her covl territory, and at the same time. burdens of 000,000 tons y the pence { exports are Imposed With the fields lost to Germany and the Sile eines takén r there is little reason to elicve that Ger- many will be able te produce the coal that is de- manded ef her” , TH Questior pon Ger- trent Sanr Valley Ich TO GERMANY. if su oiled with coal re Atner- ican mines, the wifness said it would pas this coun 1a ton. inchiding the fre iiness was then asked if he thought the d prices which the operators could r feivnt of itself « nis tin prices,” he replied Ner do ti ficient coal is going abroad to pa shag the price our domesue siuscon bmghi add of export voal is pracuea.ty cor Abie Loupayge situation, the Prior w “he export WD. A. Morrow, jeu J National Coal Association, and quizved him soncerung car shortage, Jabos shortage and ‘the price of bicummons ce at the ited o number of cons the different bitumi- the country. Coal prices; he said, are regitlated by preduction and because car shortage limiis production it tends to inereasd prices. He added. however, that the present prices in ‘most of the districts were well under the price set ast year by the Fuel Adnunistration and ihat the percentage gf protit on the capital invested was smail. To illustrate he cited figures showing that in 1918 the average cost of production in the Pittsburgh District was $2.06 per ton and that the average price realized wis $2.18, or a proft of merely 6.5 per cent on the capital invested. “For the first six months of 1919,” he said, “the average cost of production in the Pittsburgh District was $2.05 and the average price realized $2.24, a profit of only 2.9 per cent on the capital invested.” MUST REDUCE CAR SHORTAGE. Both Mr. Morrow abd John Callahan, ‘Traffic Manager of the National Ceal Association, agreed that in order to ptaduce the 11,000,000 tons per week for the rest of the year which, it is estimated, is necessary if a safe supply of bituminous coal is to be provided in this country this year, it would Vice Presidene ot the Morrow mine mouth. Mr cous fields throu be necessary for the Railroad Administration to oiled by the avail- make a real reduction in the car shortages hat are* now limiting production in a number of the bY ami; naug fields: i n Mr. Callahan ‘submitted, to the committice sev: eral hundresi telegrams_relating to car sho: varios mines. \. ‘These telegram: indies many.mines died been: forcedeta. shut down entirely and that others ‘were working only three’ and’ four days a week. fe nlowihg the submission , ‘of, these telegrams, Senatar Dr inghuysen galled as a srit- ness Ay G. Gutheins-<Aseistant’ Manager. of! the Cér Scrvicé® Section of the “Railroad Aamirlistration, and asked ‘fila what “was ‘being. ‘done by the, Rail road ‘Administration: to ‘help iniptove tlie: situation ’ “In the last two: weeks,” “Mr, Gatheift ‘suid: “we have made’ some -very ‘exceptional efforts to inprove the general sftintion. - We knew thats sodh as the shopinen’s, strike cante on it) wes. aie to be-bad.as. compared with what it had been. We have all’ of the regional: directors poxtod and they have their federal. mandgers posted to’ de “every: thing possibie to speed-up the mover rf eval and of empty coal cats.” We are mnaking ‘extra: ordinary efforts to takelente of all eases szhere eval is detayed cn route, by requiring daily’ wire reports from the regional directors as to yrhat.the situation is. und checking one regional director agiinst an- other, so that at overlapping Tens they: will not get caught. “We ore ‘arranging for and are getting deily renarts of all instances where coal is held at desti ions for unloading in excess of the free titne it ix allowed: that is forty-eight hours! might say ba that point that on one railroad the first re’ port tiat came in showed that the loss was the equivalent of about two huhdred cars at the mines Hratsday..as.compared ‘with what it would have been it they could have had the cars back at the minex instead. of..svaiting. for. unloading at. desti- nation. THE PRIORITY. PROBLEM... “Now, | cannot tell you from memory, certain of the other things that have-been done, but I thins that everything that could reasonably be expected with due regard to the rights of cther commodities is being done. The great problem-that we have to CAnsider is this: the coul operator has just one com- modity to think about, and that is. coal; but. we have to think of every other commodity that moves on the railroads and not- permit sny. unjust ‘dis- crimination against them.” . “You have priorities, have you not?” ‘asked Senator Frelinghuysen. “Priorities are a war time measure,” gala the Witness, “and they put a good many people out of F pesca who desire to ship other commodities than ¢oal in. open top cars; but we-have been attempting to give ‘thein a chance’ to xpcoup. © “You, are right when you say that the whole. question is how much coal have we got to have.” After a discussion aa to whether 500,000,000 tons was not a very conservative estimate for this year, Mr. Gutheim was‘asked/if Ne hed any sug- gestions to mike as to'bow to mpet the coal situs- tion. Withers et Vark Winter Cse/ so Goal Sutth igs Dependent Siow Plow Hae “Tf we are going to produce 500,000,009 tons of bituminous coal this year,” he replied. “we ave got to go along at practically, the top speed we ait in 1918, onthe xverage.- In-the' period from about the aniddte of: duly antil ‘the: middle of Nov ID18, when ctersthing possible was. tr the: preduction of bitiminous coal iveraged Pilran: 123000,000 tonsia week | do thut we ‘situation as to fepairs tia: t wns better than Tt has’ been’ necentunged somewhat, of Gyrse,as to the ‘bad otder cir situation hy the shopmen’s. strike, but in Accomplishing that record fast year, we hed'a pfefefentinl moyement of coal cary, ‘Yoaded and empty. on-a great many railroads. . tWe-fad alsova:eurtailment of the use of coal eats ‘by certain commoditits ‘of lesser necessity in the war thai coal, and the proliibition of other commodities that-were not necessary at all Your road building ‘jobs; for- instance. practically stopped. Those things-are within the power of the Railroad Administration to put back into effect and théy contributed materially to that record.” Frank MceManang, Assistant Dircctor cf Oper ation, in charge of mechanical matters for the Rat} road Administration, fcllowed Mr. Gutheim on tie stand and presented statistics concerning the nine hor df.locomotives and freight eats out of order thit year... The locomotive statistics showed that the general condition of locomotives is better today than it has been at ony time during the period of federal operation ‘or durig the three-year test period preceding. : “Therefore,” said the witness, “so far as loco- motives are cgncerned, thete is no ground for ap- prehensjon, a8 there will be sufficient power to tiandle all’ business ‘offered to the maximum capacity of terminal facilities. With respect to freight cats, the situation is somewhat different.” 99,000 BAD ORDER CARS. Roughly speaking; the witness said, there were approximately 99,000 coal cars in the shops await- ing repaits now, and that they hoped to reduce this pumbér at the rate of more than 5,000 cars per month gnless unforeseen labor troubles mater- ialiaed. “While the nutnber of bad order ‘cars is high at¢presént,” He said, “the action which has been taken by thé Qailroed Administration, will, 1 be- lieve, be suficient to mect the demand for coal cars tinless it teaches sbnormal proportions, in which event It will lot be so much duc to car shortage as to terminal’ facilities.” C.'E. Lesher, in charge of Fuel Statistics for the Geological Survey, was called by the Commit tee-in_an effort to get some accurate figures con- cerning) the ectual consumption of bituminous coal in thie ¢ountty this year. He said that the figurea were hot availnble,.as-the Geological Survey had no appropriation which it could use to secure tho friformation cusential to such an estimate. He was requésted te ask Secretary of the Interior Lane if ramicieok funds could not be made available by the Departinetit ¢f the Interior to secure this informge dex ; i o be t hes urine lame infla %