THE INTRODUCTION OF COAL INTO USE.
At the beginning of the present century the anthracite or stone coal
was in general use, in all the districts where it was found, as a fuel
for the blacksmith’s fire and the iron worker’s forge. This, however,
was the limit of its utility. It was thought to be necessary to force a
strong artificial air current up through it to make it burn, and since
this could not well be done in grates, stoves, or furnaces, there was
no demand for coal for domestic use, or for the great manufacturing
industries. Efforts were indeed made to overcome this difficulty.
Schemes without number were set on foot and abandoned. It was proposed,
at one time, to force air through a tube to the under part of the grate
by means of clockwork operated by a weight or by a spring. But the cost
of such an arrangement made it impracticable.
It seems, however, that Weiss, Cist, and Hillegas, who were developing
the discovery made by Ginther in the Mauch Chunk mountain, also solved
the problem of burning the stone coal without an artificial draft. They
had sent specimens of their coals to Philadelphia, and presumably had
accompanied them with instructions as to the proper method of burning
them. This presumption is borne out by certain letters sent to Jacob
Cist of Wilkes Barre, a son of Charles Cist the printer, who was in
company with Weiss and Hillegas. Two of these letters are now in the
possession of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society at Wilkes
Barre. An extract from one of them reads as follows:――
“I have experienced the use of them” (the Lehigh coals) “in
a close stove and also in a fireplace that may be closed and
opened at pleasure, so constructed, as to cause a brisk current
of air to pass up through a small contracted grate on which
they were laid. I find them more difficult to be kindled than
the Virginia coal, yet a small quantity of dry wood laid on
the grate under them is sufficient to ignite them, which being
done, they continue to burn while a sufficient amount be added
to keep up the combustion, occasionally stirring them to keep
down the ashes. They produce no smoke, contain no sulphur, and
when well ignited exhibit a vivid bright appearance, all which
render them suitable for warming rooms.”
This letter is dated “Philadelphia, Feb. 15^th 1803,” and is signed
“Oliver Evans.”
The second letter is similar in its recommendation and report of
success, and states that the writer, “Fred^k Graff, clerk of the
Water Works of Phil^a ... made a trial of the Lehigh coals in the
year 1802 in the large stove at the Pennsylvania Bank in Phil^a.”
So far as is known these are the first recorded instances of any
successful attempts to burn anthracite coal in grates and stoves. Dr.
James of Philadelphia has also left on record the fact that he made
constant use of anthracite coal for heating purposes from the year 1804.
These well-authenticated instances of the use of anthracite appear to
destroy the commonly accepted belief that Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkes
Barre was the first person whose attempts to burn this coal in an open
grate were rewarded with complete success. Nevertheless the value of
Judge Fell’s experiments cannot be questioned, nor can he be deprived
of the full measure of credit due to him for bringing those experiments
to a successful issue.
Until the year 1808 all efforts in the Wyoming valley to burn the
“stone coal” of the region without an artificial air blast had utterly
failed. People did not believe that it could be done. The successes
of Evans and Graff in this direction were either not known or not
credited. It is certain that Judge Fell had not heard of them. His
opinion that this coal could be made to burn in an open fireplace was
based wholly on the reasoning of his own mind. He was a member of the
Society of Friends, and had come to Wilkes Barre some years before
from Berks County. He was a blacksmith by trade, the proprietor of the
best hotel in town, and he came afterward to be one of the associate
judges of Luzerne County. When he had fully considered the matter of
burning the stone coal, and had reached definite conclusions, he began
to experiment. At first he constructed a grate of green hickory sticks,
and the presumption is that the fire he kindled in it was a success;
for he began, immediately afterward, to make an iron grate similar to
the grates now in use. The work was done by his nephew Edward Fell and
himself in the blacksmith shop of the former, and was completed in a
single day. Judge Fell took the grate home late in the afternoon and
set it with brick in the fireplace of his bar-room. In the evening
he kindled in it, with oak wood, a glowing coal fire, and invited a
large number of the most respected citizens of the place to come in
and see the stone coal burn. Only a few came, however, in response
to his invitation; they believed his theory to be impracticable, and
feared that they might be made the victims of a hoax. But to those
who came the fire was a revelation. It cleared the way for immense
possibilities. Judge Fell himself realized the importance of his
discovery, and thought the incident worthy of record. Being a devoted
member of the order of Free and Accepted Masons, he chose from his
library a book entitled “The Free Mason’s Monitor,” and wrote on the
fly-leaf, in a clear, bold hand, this memorandum:――
“Fe’b 11^th, of Masonry 5808. Made the experiment of burning
the common stone coal of the valley in a grate in a common fire
place in my house, and find it will answer the purpose of fuel;
making a clearer and better fire, at less expense, than burning
wood in the common way.
[Signed] JESSE FELL.
“BOROUGH OF WILKESBARRE,
_February 11^th 1808_.”
The complete success of Judge Fell’s experiment was soon noised abroad,
and a new era of usefulness for anthracite coal set in. From Wilkes
Barre up and down the entire Wyoming valley fireplaces for wood were
discarded and grates were set for the burning of the new domestic fuel.
This was followed, not long after, by the introduction of stoves, so
that by 1820, says Stewart Pearce in his “Annals of Luzerne County,”
grates and coal stoves were in general use throughout the valley, coal
for domestic purposes selling at three dollars per ton. At the time of
Judge Fell’s experiment there was no outside market for the product
of the mines of the Wyoming valley. The distances to the large cities
and manufacturing centres were too great, the means of transportation
too rude, and the knowledge of the use of anthracite too limited, to
warrant any serious effort to create a foreign market for it. The
attempt had nevertheless been made in 1807 by Abijah Smith, who
shipped an ark-load of coal down the Susquehanna River to Columbia, and
was obliged to leave it there unsold.
In 1808 the experiment was repeated by Abijah and his brother John,
who, profiting by the success of Judge Fell’s late experiment, took
with them an iron grate, set it up at Columbia, and proceeded to
demonstrate to the doubting inhabitants the practical value of their
coal as a domestic fuel. The venture proved successful, and after this
they found no difficulty in selling at the river towns all the coal
they could mine. After 1812 they extended their trade by running their
coal to Havre de Grace, and sending it thence by schooner to New York.
The success which attended the efforts of the Smiths appears to have
been an inducement to other enterprising citizens of the Wyoming valley
to embark in the coal trade, and in 1813 and 1814 Colonel George M.
Hollenback, Colonel Lord Butler, Joseph Wright, Esq., and Crandal
Wilcox all engaged in the mining and shipping of coal. They sent the
product of the mines down the river in arks, and up to 1830 85,000
tons had been mined in the valley for such shipment. After that year
coal was sent by the North Branch Canal just completed to Nanticoke,
and in 1846 the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad pierced the valley,
and opened a new era in transportation. So it came about that this
region, which in 1807 opened the anthracite coal trade with a shipment
of fifty-five tons, sent to market in 1887 a grand total of 19,684,929
tons.
[Illustration:
MAP
_SHOWING_
·ANTHRACITE·COAL·FIELDS·
-_OF_-
·PENNSYLVANIA·]
In the mean time Weiss, Cist, and Hillegas pushed their coal enterprise
on the Mauch Chunk mountain, opening what was afterward known as the
Great Summit Mine, and in 1803 started six ark-loads of coal down the
Lehigh River, to be floated to its junction with the Delaware, and
thence to Philadelphia. Only two of the arks reached their destination,
the others having met with disaster on the way, owing to swift currents
and unskillful navigation. Of the two cargoes that arrived safely
at Philadelphia not a lump could be sold. The owners made strenuous
efforts to find a market for it, but people did not wish to purchase
a fuel that they could not make burn. At last the city authorities
were appealed to, and, after some hesitation, they agreed to take the
coal and try to make use of it for a steam-engine employed at the city
waterworks. This they did; but all their attempts to make the alleged
fuel burn proved unavailing. They finally gave up the task in disgust,
declared the coal to be a nuisance, and caused what remained of it
to be broken up and spread on the footpaths of the public grounds,
in place of gravel. This was indeed a most ignominious failure. It
caused a sudden cessation of mining operations at Summit Hill, and for
several years the Lehigh Mine Company, utterly discouraged, made no
effort to retrieve its fallen fortunes. William Turnbull attempted to
revive the project a few years later, but his effort also met with a
dismal failure.
In 1813 Charles Miner, Jacob Cist, and John W. Robinson, all of Wilkes
Barre, renewed the enterprise at Summit Hill with great energy, and
on the 9th of August, 1814, started their first ark-load of coal down
the river to Philadelphia. Before it had gone eighty rods from the
place of starting it struck a ledge which tore a hole in the bow of the
boat, “and,” Mr. Miner says, “the lads stripped themselves nearly naked
to stop the rush of water with their clothes.” After many and varied
adventures on the swift currents of the rivers the ark reached its
destination on the following Sunday morning at eight o’clock, having
been five days on the way. Its arrival had been anticipated by its
owners, and they had called public attention to its cargo by means of
handbills printed in both English and German, and distributed freely
throughout the city. These handbills, besides advertising the coal,
gave information as to the method of burning it in grates, stoves, and
smith’s forges. They were also accompanied by printed certificates
from blacksmiths and others attesting the value and availability of
the Lehigh coal as a fuel. The owners of the ark went still farther.
They put up stoves in conspicuous public places in the city, built
coal fires in them, and invited the people to stop and inspect them.
They went to private houses and prevailed on the inmates to be allowed
to kindle anthracite fires in the grates which had been built for the
use of Liverpool coals. They attended at blacksmith’s shops, and even
bribed the journeymen to give their coals a fair trial in the forge.
Thus, by persistent and industrious, nay by presumptuous, efforts,
these men succeeded in awakening public interest in their enterprise,
and in creating a demand for their wares. The proprietors of the Lehigh
coals gave particular attention also to the instruction of the people
in the matter of igniting the new fuel. Having once disabused them
of the idea that a strong artificial air current was necessary, the
next step was to prevent them from disturbing the coals constantly by
poking, punching, and raking them, a proceeding which the uninitiated
seemed to consider of prime importance, in order to induce them to
ignite. And, strange as it may seem, this fallacy was the hardest to
overcome. Among the purchasers of the Lehigh coals in 1814 was the
firm of White & Hazard, manufacturers of iron wire at the falls of the
Schuylkill. They had been told by Mr. Joshua Malin, proprietor of a
rolling mill, that he had succeeded in using the new fuel, and as the
Virginia coal was very scarce at that time, White & Hazard decided to
test the qualities of the anthracite. They purchased a cart-load of
it, paying a dollar a bushel for it, and took it to their works. Here
they tried to build a fire with it in their furnace, giving it what
they considered the most skillful manipulation and the most assiduous
attention. Their efforts were in vain. The entire cart-load was wasted
in a futile attempt to make the coals burn. Nothing daunted, they
obtained another cartload, and determined to spend the night, if need
should be, in the work of building a coal fire. And they did spend
the night. But when morning came they were apparently as far from
the attainment of their object as ever. They had poked and punched
and raked; they had labored incessantly; but notwithstanding the
most constant manipulation, the coals above the burning wood would
not sufficiently ignite. By this time the men were disheartened and
disgusted, and slamming the door of the furnace, they left the mill in
despair, and went to breakfast. It happened that one of them had left
his jacket in the furnace room, and returning for it about half an
hour later, he discovered that the furnace door was red-hot. In great
surprise he flung the door open and found the interior glowing with
intense white heat. The other hands were immediately summoned, and four
separate parcels of iron were heated and rolled by the same fire before
it required renewing. Seeking for the cause of this unexpected result
the men came to the conclusion that it was due to simply letting the
fire alone, a theory the correctness of which they afterward abundantly
proved. Thus, by chance, these men hit upon the secret of success in
the matter of building a fire of anthracite coals. That secret is
simply to throw the coals loosely on the burning wood, and then _let
them alone_. The incident at White & Hazard’s mills becoming generally
known, people learned more from it about the process of building a coal
fire than they had learned from all their previous instruction.
Nevertheless the enterprise of the Lehigh operators was still not
destined to meet with success. They had embarked in the coal trade in
1814, while the war with Great Britain was still in progress, when it
was impossible to procure coal from England, and when coal from the
Richmond district was very scarce. They were therefore able to obtain
fourteen dollars per ton for the Lehigh coal, but even at this price
the cost and risk of mining and shipping was so great that the business
was barely a paying one. In 1815, however, peace was concluded with
Great Britain, the market was again opened to the reception of foreign
coals, and the Lehigh operators, being unable to compete with the
sellers of soft coal, were obliged to abandon the field.
Notwithstanding the efforts and energy of these proprietors the Summit
Hill mining industry did not pay, and in 1817 the mines passed into
the hands of Josiah White and Erskine Hazard. They perfected a system
of slack-water navigation on the Lehigh, and in 1820 made their first
shipment of 365 tons. The tables commonly printed showing the growth
of the anthracite coal trade usually make that trade begin with this
shipment of Lehigh coal in 1820. This, however, is not quite correct,
as we have seen that coal was sent to market from the Wyoming region
at a much earlier date. It is remarkable that, whereas in 1820 the 365
tons of Lehigh coal stocked the market, in 1831, the year in which the
system of slack water navigation was superseded by shipment on the
Delaware division of the Pennsylvania Canal, this region sent down
40,966 tons. And in 1887 there was sent to market from the Lehigh
district a total of 4,347,061 tons, an amount which would have been
much greater had not a prolonged strike of coal miners seriously
interfered with the output.
In the Schuylkill region of the Southern coal field similar obstacles
to the introduction of coal were encountered. Nicholas Allen, the
discoverer of coal in that region, had formed a partnership with
Colonel George Shoemaker, and the firm had purchased a tract of coal
land near Pottsville, on which they began mining operations in the year
1812. They raised several wagon loads of coal, and offered it for sale
in the vicinity, but with the exception of a few blacksmiths, who had
been taught its value as a fuel by Colonel Shoemaker, no one could
be found to purchase it. Allen soon became disheartened and sold his
entire interest in the property to his partner, who, still persisting
in the enterprise, mined a considerable quantity of the coal, filled
ten wagons with it, and took it to Philadelphia in quest of a market.
But it did not meet with a ready sale. People looked at the coals
curiously, considered them to be nothing more than black stones, and,
seeing no reason why they should burn better than stones of any other
color, would not buy them.
Colonel Shoemaker sounded the praises of his wares so vigorously and
persistently, however, that at last a few purchasers were induced to
take them in small quantities, just for trial. The trials, as usual,
proved to be unsuccessful, and the people who had purchased the coals,
believing they had been victimized, denounced Colonel Shoemaker as a
cheat and a swindler; while one person, whose wrath rose to a high
pitch, procured a warrant for the colonel’s arrest, on the charge that
he was a common impostor. At this stage of the proceedings, Colonel
Shoemaker, believing discretion to be the better part of valor, quietly
left the city and started toward his home by a circuitous route,
driving, it is said, some thirty miles out of his way, in order to
avoid the officer of the law holding the warrant for his arrest.
This was indeed a discouraging beginning for the Schuylkill coal
trade. Fortunately, however, not all of the colonel’s customers at
Philadelphia had met with failure in the effort to burn his coal.
Messrs. Mellen & Bishop, a firm of iron factors in Delaware County,
at the earnest solicitation of Colonel Shoemaker, made the experiment
with the small quantity of coals purchased by them, and finding that
the fuel burned successfully they announced that fact through the
Philadelphia newspapers. Other iron workers were thus induced to try
the coal, and finally all the furnaces along the Schuylkill had open
doors for it. Eventually it came into use for the purpose of generating
steam, the experiments of John Price Wetherill in that direction having
been only partially satisfactory, but those at the Phœnixville iron
works in 1825 meeting with complete success.
Still the prices which coal commanded in the Philadelphia market
were not sufficient to pay for the labor of mining it and the cost
of shipping it. So that, prior to 1818, nearly all the coal mined in
the Schuylkill region was sold to the blacksmiths of the surrounding
country. In that year, however, the improvements of the Schuylkill
navigation were completed, and afforded an additional, though not by
any means safe or sufficient, outlet for the products of the mines. By
1826 and 1827 the growing importance of the coal trade became manifest,
the Schuylkill navigation system was placed in excellent repair,
and the mining business of the district grew rapidly to enormous
proportions.
The northeasterly extension of the Wyoming coal basin, leaving the
Susquehanna River at Pittston, follows the valley of the Lackawanna
up to a point seven miles beyond Carbondale, where it cuts slightly
into the counties of Wayne and Susquehanna, and there runs out. This
extension is known as the Lackawanna region. Coal was dug up and
experimented with here at the beginning of the present century. Its
outcrop at the river bank was noted by Preston, a surveyor, in 1804.
In 1812 it was mined at Providence and burned in a rude grate by H.
C. L. Von Storch. About this time the brothers William and Maurice
Wurts, having been attracted by the mineral wealth of the region, came
there from Philadelphia and began explorations for the purpose of
ascertaining the location, area, and quality of the beds of anthracite
coal. William, the younger brother, in the course of his wanderings
through the rugged hills and thick forests of the country, chanced to
meet a hunter by the name of David Nobles, who, having fled from the
adjoining county of Wayne to avoid imprisonment for debt, was leading a
precarious existence in the woods. Nobles was well acquainted with the
country, knew where the outcroppings of coal were, and having entered
into the service of Wurts, rendered him most valuable assistance.
Their investigations having proved the presence of large bodies of
coal, the Wurts brothers next procured title to the lands containing
it, and then turned their attention to the problem of finding an
outlet to market. They decided finally to ship coal on rafts by the
Wallenpaupack Creek to the Lackawaxen, by the Lackawaxen to the
Delaware, and thence to Philadelphia. This method was experimented
on from 1814 to 1822 with varying degrees of disaster. In the year
last mentioned they succeeded in taking to Philadelphia 100 tons of
coal, only to find the market flooded with 2,240 tons of Lehigh coal.
Competition was apparently hopeless; but instead of abandoning the
enterprise, as men of less energy and perseverance would now have done,
Maurice Wurts turned his attention to a new project. This was nothing
less than to make an outlet to the New York market by building a canal
which should reach from the Hudson River at Rondout, across to the
Delaware at Port Jervis, and thence up that stream and the Lackawaxen
to the nearest practicable point east of the coal beds. But when that
point should be reached there would still be the Moosic Mountain,
with its towering heights and precipitous bluffs, lying between the
boats and the mines. The Wurts brothers did not acknowledge this to
be a serious obstacle. They proposed to overcome this difficulty by
building across the mountains a railroad, which should consist largely
of inclined planes, the cars to be drawn up and let down these planes
by means of stationary steam-engines, and to move along the stretches
between the planes by force of gravity. Having formed their plans they
set to work to carry them out. They procured the necessary legislation
from the States of New York and Pennsylvania, they secured a charter
in 1823–25 for a corporation known as the Delaware and Hudson Canal
Company, and by dint of supreme personal effort they succeeded in
obtaining capital enough to begin and carry on the work. In 1828 the
canal was completed to its terminus at Honesdale, the gravity railroad
having been already constructed from the coal fields to that point,
and in 1829 the company began to ship coal to tide-water on the
Hudson. It was a bold and ingenious scheme, and for those days it was
an enterprise of immense proportions. That these two men conceived
it and earned it out in the face of great difficulties and against
overwhelming odds entitles them to a place in those higher orders of
genius that are touched with the light of the heroic. The Lackawanna
region has been pierced by many other lines of railway, and to-day by
these great highways a vast amount of Lackawanna coal is sent to the
eastern cities and the seaboard.
But as a rule, men who invested their money in coal lands in the early
days after the discovery of coal lost the amount of the investment.
They, with prophetic vision, saw the comfort, the commerce, the
manufactures, of a nation dependent on the products of the coal mines,
but the people at large could not see so far. These pioneers made
ready to supply an anticipated demand, but it did not come. Talking
did not bring it. Exhibitions of the wonderful utility of the black
coals served to arouse but a passing interest. No other product of the
globe which has obtained a position of equal importance ever had to
fight its way into public favor with such persistent effort through so
many years. But when at last its worth became generally recognized,
when the people had reached the conclusion that they wanted it, and
its value in dollars had become fixed and permanent, then the pioneers
of the industry had vanished from the field; they were disheartened,
destitute, or dead; new hands and brains took up the work, matured
the plans of the elders, and reaped the fortunes of which former
generations had sown the seed.
In the beginning the coal lands were mostly divided into small
tracts, and held by persons many of whom thought to open mines on
their property and carry on the business of mining as an individual
enterprise. This plan of work was partially successful so long as
coal could be dug from the outcrop and carted away like stones from
a quarry; but when it became necessary, as it soon did, to penetrate
more deeply into the earth for the article of trade, then the cost
of shafting, tunneling, and mining in general usually exceeded the
resources of the individual operator, and either he succumbed to
financial distress, or disposed of his mining interests to men or firms
with more money. As the art of mining advanced with its necessities,
it was learned, sometimes after bitter experience, that the business
was profitable only when a large amount of capital was behind it.
Therefore men who had invested a few thousand dollars transferred
their interests to men who had a few hundred thousand to invest, and
these, in turn, associating other capitalists with them, doubled or
trebled the investment or ran it into the millions, forming companies
or corporations to accomplish with their more perfect organization
that which would be impossible to the individual. So it has come about
that in these later days the individual operators have given place
largely to the corporations; those who still remain in the field often
operating their mines on a small capital at great disadvantage. In the
bituminous regions, however, this rule does not hold good. There the
coal lies near the surface, is accessible, and easily mined. It needs
only to be carried to the river bank and screened as it is loaded into
boats and started on its way to market. Compared with the anthracite
regions, it requires but a small capital here to sustain an extensive
plant, and produce a large quantity of coal. Therefore we find, as we
should expect to find, that in the bituminous districts the bulk of
the coal is produced by individuals, firms, and small companies. In the
anthracite regions, however, this rule is reversed. Of the 36,204,000
tons of anthracite produced in the year 1887, 16,109,387 tons, or
nearly one half, were mined by five great companies; namely: The
Philadelphia and Reading; Delaware and Hudson; Delaware, Lackawanna,
and Western; Lehigh Valley; and Pennsylvania Coal Company. The immense
out-put of as many more large corporations left but a very small
proportion of the total product to the small companies, firms, and
individuals.
It follows, as a matter of course, that the acreage of coal lands held
by these companies bears the same proportion to the total acreage that
their coal out-put bears to the entire coal out-put. That is, they
either own or hold under lease the great bulk of the coal beds of the
anthracite regions. The value of coal lands varies with the number,
thickness, and accessibility of the coal seams contained in it. In the
very early days of anthracite mining these lands were purchased from
farmers and others at from twenty and thirty dollars to one hundred
dollars per acre. Before 1850 the price had advanced, in the Wyoming
region, to from seventy-five dollars to two hundred dollars per acre.
Recently a piece of coal land was sold in this region for $1,200 per
acre, and another piece, containing thirty-six acres, was sold at the
rate of $1,500 per acre. Perhaps from $800 to $1,000 per acre might
be considered an average price. In the Middle and Southern anthracite
regions the coal lands are of still greater value; not because the
quality of the mineral is better, nor because the market for it is more
accessible, but because the coal seams dip at a greater angle, and,
therefore, a given number of acres contains a larger amount of coal.
The system of leasing coal lands to coal operators is a very common
one, especially in the Wyoming valley, where the surface is so richly
adapted to agricultural uses. The proprietor can, in this way, retain
the use of the soil, and at the same time reap a handsome profit from
the development of the mineral deposits beneath it. He invests no
capital, runs no risk, and is sure of a steady income. As it is usual
to work leased coal seams, wherever convenient, from openings made on
the adjoining lands owned by the company, it is not often that the
surface of leased property is interfered with, or if it is, but a
comparatively small area of it is taken. The contract of lease usually
stipulates that a certain royalty shall be paid to the lessor for each
ton of coal mined, and it binds the lessee to mine not less than a
certain number of tons each year; or at least to pay royalties on not
less than a certain number of tons each year, whether that number is
or is not mined. Twenty years or more ago coal lands in the Wyoming
district could be leased at the rate of ten cents per ton. Lately a
large body of coal land was rented to the Lehigh Valley Coal Company
at forty-five cents per ton, and it is said that one proprietor at
Kingston has been offered a lease at fifty cents per ton, and has
refused it. Perhaps from twenty-five cents to thirty-five cents per ton
would be an average rate.
As an example of the immense purchases made by these companies, it may
be noted that the Philadelphia and Reading Company, in 1871, purchased
one hundred thousand acres of coal lands in the Schuylkill region, at
a cost of forty millions of dollars. And as an example of the amount
of business done in a year, it may be noted that the Delaware and
Hudson Canal Company paid in 1887 $5,019,147.16 for the single item of
mining coal, and that their coal sales for the same year amounted to
$10,100,118.69.
This concentration of coal lands and coal mining in the hands of great
corporations, aside from its tendency to stifle healthy competition,
is productive of many benefits. Coal can be mined much cheaper when
the mining is done on a large scale. This is the rule, indeed, in
all productive industries. An enterprise backed by the combined
capital of many individuals is more certain to become successful and
permanent than an enterprise inaugurated by, and carried on with,
the entire capital of a single individual. Especially is this the
rule in a business attended with as much risk as is the business of
coal mining. One person may put his entire fortune of two or three
hundred thousand dollars into a single colliery. A depression in
the coal trade, a strike among the miners, an explosion, or a fire
would be very apt to bring financial ruin on him. A company, with its
great resources and its elastic character, can meet and recover from
an adverse incident of this kind with scarcely a perceptible shock
to its business. It is simply one of the items of loss which it is
prepared to cover with a larger item of profit. There is also the
additional assurance that all work that is done will be well done. The
most careful observations and calculations are made of the amount and
quality of included coal in any tract of land before it is purchased,
and the best surveyors are employed to mark out the boundary lines of
lands. The services of the most skillful mining engineers are retained,
at salaries which no individual operator could afford to pay. Their
forces are well organized, their mining operations are conducted with
system and economy, and they are able to keep abreast of the age in
all inventions and appliances that insure greater facility in mining
and manufacturing, and greater safety to the workmen. Their employees
are paid promptly at stated periods, and the possibility of a workman
losing his wages by reason of neglect or failure on the part of his
employer is reduced to a minimum.
In general, it may be said that the control of the anthracite coal
business by the great corporations, rather than by individual operators,
is an undoubted benefit, not only to all the parties in direct interest,
but to commerce and society as a whole. The only danger to be feared is
from an abuse of the great powers to which these companies have
attained; a danger which, thus far, has not seriously menaced the
community.