USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume Three > Part 28
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Mr. Griffiths computes1 the percentage of coal field area con- trolled by the railroad companies as follows :
Per Cent.
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western.
6.55
Pennsylvania
6.24
Central R. R. of New Jersey
17.30
Lehigh Valley
16.87
Philadelphia & Reading
42.25
Delaware & Hudson.
2.29
Erie & Wyoming Valley
1.82
Erie
.77
N. Y., O. & W.
.28
N. Y., Sus. & Schuylkill.
.54
Del., Susq. & Schuylkill.
1.38
Uncontrolled Tonnage
3.71
Total
100.00
A few incidents in connection with the history of some of these railroads2 in relation to coal mining and transportation will be proper in this place. The company now known as the Dela- ware, Lackawanna and Western, one of the most extensive cor- porations operating in the anthracite regions, is the outgrowth of
1The capacity of the mines is the basis upon which the percentage of coal pro- duced is estimated.
2It is not within the province of this
chapter to refer more than incidentally to the history of any of the railroads of the State, as that subject is treated at length under a separate heading.
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the old Lackawanna and Western, chartered in 1851, and origi- nally was a coal carrying road from Scranton to Great Bend, but by the acquisition of other lines it reached eastward to the Dela- ware river, and a little later to tidewater and New York markets. More recent extensions of the lines westward reached Buffalo, Syracuse and Utica, and to-day it is perhaps the heaviest coal car- rier in New York State.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company dates its history as a coal carrier from about 1857, when it acquired from the State the main line of public works, comprising both canals and railroads, extending from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Now the company operates about 13,000 miles of road, extending into thirteen States. In 1895 its aggregate coal and coke shipment over lines between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia amounted to 26,800,000 tons, or about 57 per cent. of its total tonnage.
The Central Railroad of New Jersey, with its auxiliary leased lines, is one of the most important and extensive coal carrying roads in the country. It operates about seven hundred miles of railroad in this State and New Jersey, and uses 17,000 coal cars in that department of its transportation business. The Lehigh Canal forms a part of the Jersey Central carrier system, and in itself is a historic thoroughfare of traffic, having to its credit the first considerable shipment of anthracite coal in the country, and a record of uninterrupted operation since 1820, when three hundred and sixty-five tons of coal were sent from Summit Hill to Phila- delphia.
The Lehigh valley system extends over 1,000 miles of track, owned and leased, and dates its origin to the year 1847, when its ancestor, the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company, was chartered. The annual anthracite ton- nage of the Lehigh Valley company is more than 7,000,000 tons, exclusive of its operations in bituminous coal. The company owns the Lehigh Valley Coal Company and the Snow Shoe property in Centre county, including about 45,000 acres of bituminous coal
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
ands. It has 11,000 eight-wheel and 20,000 four-wheel cars in its coal carrying department.
The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad may be said to have been "brought up" in the coal carrying trade and to have become an expert in that line of business. Like the other large companies, the Reading is the result of consolidation of shorter lines, by which means it crossed the State, tapped the richest coal fields and carried their products to tidewater at Philadelphia and New York, as well as other important points. In 1871 the company bought 100,000 acres of coal lands for $40,000,000, and began mining on its own account, and in 1873 the interests of several individual producers were added to its operations. The company now ranks first among the anthracite coal carrying corporations in the, coun- try, and is well equipped for that especial service. Ten years ago it owned 892 coal and freight locomotives, 29,220 eight-wheel and 26,248 four-wheel coal cars, 487 barges, 21 steamboats and 15 steam tugs for the movement of its coal and freight.
The Delaware and Hudson company, until quite recently a carrying corporation employing both railroad and canal service, is one of the oldest operators in the anthracite fields, and traces its history to the year 1829, although the canal company was char- tered several years earlier. In 1833 the company carried 19,000 tons of coal from Honesdale to the Hudson river, and increased the amount to 150,000 tons in 1834. It now operates thirty col- lieries, which, in 1899, produced 4,429.575 tons of coal. It has 688 miles of railroad ; the canal was abandoned five years ago.
The Erie Railroad tapped the anthracite coal fields on its own account in 1881, when its management purchased 30,000 acres of land and in addition absorbed the Blossburg Coal Company. Later on other valuable properties were acquired, notably the Hillside Coal and Iron Company and the Towanda Coal Company. The Erie Railroad, in its present physical construction, is the result of various consolidations and leasehold interests, and not entirely without the operations of the law. As reorganized in 1895, the
408
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Coal Mine Trolley, 600 Feet Underground
Reproduced especially for this work from an original photograph
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system covers more than 2,000 miles of track, and 17,000 cars are required to handle the coal output. In 1901 the Erie and Wyo- ming Valley Railroad and the mining interests of the Pennsyl- vania Coal Company were purchased by and became a part of the Erie properties.
The New York, Ontario and Western Railroad, successor to the old "Midland," as best known in railroad circles, draws its supply of anthracite from mines in the vicinity of Carbondale and Scranton. It has a trackage of 500 miles and an annual coal pro- duction of more than 1,500,000 tons. The Delaware, Susque- hanna and Schuylkill Railroad, the main line of which is between Drifton and Gowen, sends about 2,000,000 tons annually to mar- ket. The New York, Susquehanna and Western, under the name of "Jermyn," carries annually about 1,500,000 tons.
In the preceding paragraphs the somewhat indiscriminate use of the expressions "railroad company" and "mining company" is apt to confuse the reader who does not understand the relations of these corporate organizations. Under the constitution no incorporated company doing business as a common carrier shall, directly or indirectly, prosecute or engage in mining or manu- facturing articles for transportation over its road; nor engage in any other business than that of common carriers, or hold or ac- quire land, except for the purpose of carrying on its business. · Under this constitutional prohibition the railroad companies are compelled to comply with the letter of the law, but whether the spirit thereof has been evaded is a question open to discussion. There is no requirement of law that prohibits the members of one corporate company having a like interest in another, hence offi- cers, directors and stockholders in a railroad company may also have similar interests in a coal mining company. This condition frequently obtains in this State, and the men who own and control railroads also own coal lands and carry on mining operations, although separate corporate companies carry on each branch of business. These interests are so closely allied that only with diffi-
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
culty can they be separated, and it is customary in ordinary speech to refer to a railroad company as owner of mining interests, whereas, in fact, such is not and cannot be the case. The mining companies, presumably, profit from the operation of the mines themselves, and the railroad companies, in like manner, derive revenues from the transportation of coal to markets.
The question of transportation, particularly its cost, has been the subject of discussion in railroad circles for many years, and so long as competition existed among the operators and car- rying roads a satisfactory adjustment of the matter was not reached. It is said that in 1895 unrestrained competition resulted in a loss to the carrying companies of more than $4,000,000. Vari- ous agreements have been entered into at one time and another as a remedy for existing evils, but as often as consummated they have been broken by the parties, and it was not until the organiza- tion of what has been styled the syndicate, in 1901, that all inter- ests became established upon a mutual and equitable basis.
The mere mention of unionism among mining employes sug- gests an all-powerful element of life in the coal producing regions of the State. The origin and gradual increase of unions, and the causes which led to their formation cannot be made a subject of discussion in this chapter, yet in a brief way there may be noted the names and date of organization of such of these bodies as have been factors in the history of the anthracite industry during the last fifty years.
The Bates union is believed to have been the pioneer of the mine employes' organizations in the anthracite region, and was in existence during the period of 1848-50. It had a membership of 5,000 persons. The Workingmen's Benevolent Association was chartered in 1868 and was continued until 1875, when it dissolved. It was a popular organization of social and benevolent character, and acquired a total membership of 30,000, or about 85 per cent. of the mining employes in the region. The Miners' and Laborers' Amalgamated Association, and a kindred organization styled
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Knights of Labor, flourished from 1884 to about 1888. They were consolidated in 1887, and attained a total membership of 40,000. The present United Mine Workers' Association began organizing in 1897, and has since become the effective labor body
Daniel Agnew
President judge seventeenth judicial district 1851; associate justice State Supreme Court 1863-1873; chiet justice 1873-1879. Made especially for this work from an engraving in possession of the Western University of Penn- sylvania
of the region, its membership including from 90 to 95 per cent. of the miners in the anthracite fields.
Under the present laws of the State miners of coal rank as skilled workmen, and must possess certain qualifications to entitle them to serve as miners. Before being "certificated" each applicant must have labored in some capacity in the mines for two years, and must have acquired a sufficient knowledge of the work in detail to meet the requirements of any emergency that may arise
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
in connection with the duty assigned to him. Thus mining has become a "trade," and, from the peculiar dangers which attend its prosecution, it is safeguarded by law as a measure of protection of life and property and not, as is sometimes charged, for the pro- tection of a certain class of workmen.
Naturally, and in conformity to the general tendency in all trade circles, the miners and mine employes have perfected an organization, as is their right, for mutual improvement and pro- tection against what they are disposed to term the oppressions of capitalist employers. But, whatever the justice or injustice of this contention on the part of mine workers, the fact remains that they have perfected a strong organization, and through their "unions" have become powerful factors in the history of coal mining in this State. Frequently during the last thirty years the miners' unions have arrayed themselves against their employers, and "strikes" have followed, generally with no substantial success to the miners' cause, and always with considerable financial loss to the employers and much inconvenience to the public. Strikes are only the exer- cise of rights, sometimes justifiable and as frequently ill-advised, but the methods often resorted to in attempting to enforce a re- dress of grievances can find no justification in the public mind.
The "great strike" of 1877 had its origin in difficulties be- tween the railroad companies and their employes, and soon the mining interests of the entire Scranton and Lackawanna districts became involved in the controversy. Disorder, riot and blood- shed followed, no good results were accomplished, and only a dis- turbance in business circles and some personal losses were its ulti- mate result.
A similar disturbance arose in 1887 and involved the mining interests of the Lehigh and Schuylkill districts. It was continued about three months, and resulted in no success to either side, but with indirect loss to both. The strike of 1900 continued six weeks, and was a general struggle between organized labor on one side and capital (represented by mining and transportation companies)
414
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on the other. In this controversy the "union" was not materially strengthened, and its recognition was not secured, but the miners generally were granted a slight advance in wages. In the great contest between the United Mine Workers' organization and the combined forces of the coal operators which began in May, 1902, there was the most determined arrayal of opposing elements known to the history of strikes in the coal regions. The merits of the claims of the contending parties are not subject to discus- sion in this article, yet so persistently was the contest waged that an adjustment of difficulties was not agreed upon until the middle of October, and then only through the energetic action of the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt.
The anthracite mines of Pennsylvania furnish employment to nearly 150,000 workmen' while in operation under normal condi- tions, and in the carrying trade several thousand additional men are constantly engaged. Again, because fuel is cheaper and more readily obtained there, the anthracite districts have become noted for the number and employing capacity of their industrial enterprises ; and it is estimated that the number of persons who directly and indirectly gain a livelihood from these fields aggre- gate more than 750,000 men-a vast army of wage-earners com- prising representatives of dozens of nationalities.
It has been estimated that the total anthracite production in Pennsylvania previous to 1820 amounted to 18,000 tons, and that of the aggregate 10,000 tons came from the Wyoming region, 3,0002 tons from the Lehigh region, and 5,000 tons from the Schuylkill region. In 1820 the number of tons mined was less than 2,000, and it was not until 1829 that the total production reached 100,000 tons, the output in that year being 133,203 tons.
1The reports of the bureau of mines show the number of employees in and about the anthracite mines for the last ten ycars as follows: 1892, 130,197; 1893, 138,021 ; 1894. 139,695 ; 1895, 143,605 ; 1896, 147,670 ; 1897, 149,557 ; 1898, 142,420 ; 1899, 140,583; 1900, 143,726; 1901, 147,651.
2 The regions here referred to were com- priscd as follows: Wyoming region, the counties of Luzerne and Sullivan; Lehigh region, the counties of Carbon, Columbia and part of Luzerne; Schuylkill region, the counties of Schuylkill, Northumberland, Dauphin, Lebanon and part of Columbia.
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
The million-ton mark was first attained in 1837, and the ten-mil- lion-ton mark in 1863. In 1901 more anthracite coal was pro- duced than in any previous year, the total for that year alone exceeding the grand total for all the years down to 1855. As evi- dence of the constant increase in production the following table has been prepared, showing the number of tons of coal produced in the years indicated :
Year.
Production.
Year.
Production.
1820.
1,965
I865
10,783,032
1825
38,499
1870.
17,819,700
1830.
209,634
1875
20,643,509
1835-
678,517.
1880.
24.843,476
1840
7,008,220
I885
33,520,94I
1845
2,344,426.
1890
40,166,327
1850
3,863,365
1895
50,846,104
1855
7,684,542.
. 1900.
51,217,318
1860
9,807,118
1901
59,905,95I
BITUMINOUS COAL
The source of supply of bituminous coal, as far as relates to Pennsylvania, covers a very large part of the State west of the Alleghany mountains, where millions of tons are mined annually to feed the furnaces of vast industries and the heaters in public and private buildings over a wide extent of territory. The high- est points of the Alleghanies are capped with the Conglomerate which underlies the bituminous coal beds, or by the lower mem- bers of the series, and the strata, dipping gently towards the west, the formation gains in thickness in that direction, and overspreads the whole west part of the State, excepting the northwest corner, and passes on into Ohio. East of the Alleghanies the coal de- posits are the anthracite, except an area of semi-bituminous on Broad Top mountain. While this coal exists in many places below the Millstone Grit, in varying measures of minor thickness, it is only above the Grit that it is found in measures of from 300 to 1,000 feet in thickness and of wide extent. The coal beds
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alternate with strata of shale, limestone, sandstone, etc., and there is a close relation between the beds and the intermediate strata. Most of the coal beds rest on grayish or whitish soft clay, varying in thickness from a few inches to thirty feet; none has yet been found on the limestone without an intermediate bed of clay. In most cases, as a coal bed at its base becomes mixed with clay, so it passes at its upper surface into black bituminous shale or slate, which is laminated like the coal, or is in thin layers and mixed with the remains of plants which entered into the coal compo- sition. Sometimes, however, the roof of the coal formation is sandstone, and rarely limestone. In the plant remains are often found fossil shells and bones and teeth of fish.
The origin of this coal is now clearly understood, from its geological distribution and its constituents. The old hypothesis, now long since abandoned, was that it was a mere bituminous compound deposited like strata of other character. But free bitumen does not exist in nature, and hence deposits of it in the rocks would be an anomaly if we could not positively indicate its origin. It is proven by ocular examination that it is composed of woody matter or vegetable remains, identical with the materials that go to the formation of peat in different parts of the world. It has been written by an acknowledged authority that "not a single case has been recorded in regard to the formation of coal which cannot find its counterpart and explanation in some of the phenomena attending the present formation of peat." Bituminous coal contains 81.2 of carbon ; anthracite contains 95.0, and lignite, 68.7, and it is believed by many that bituminous coal was de- bituminized by heat to produce the anthracite.
The first, or lowest, of the regular workable beds of bituminous coal is found in the Conglomerate of the anthracite fields and some of the outlying basins of the Alleghany field; this is com- paratively an unimportant bed and produces only the block, or furnace, coal. The next one comprises two excellent beds, gener- ally almost or quite united as a single one, but always separated
3-27
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
by a streak of fire clay, or slate, which sometimes expands to twenty feet in thickness. These beds when joined are from four to seven feet thick. Their horizon is the most extensive of any of the beds and nearly equal to the entire coal field. Above this group is found a micaceous sandstone, which can be identified in all of the great American coal fields of the Conglomerate age; it is from twenty to sixty feet in thickness and is followed by shales, fossiliferous limestone and the buhr-stone iron ore, which are generally present in the Alleghany measures. Next in the anthra- cite, and generally in the bituminous, fields are two thin, unwork- able beds, one of which, however, supplies a valuable cannel coal. Above these occur fifty to sixty feet of shale and sandstone, in which is a single coal vein from thirty inches to four feet thick and usually pure and workable. Separated from this by the Freeport limestone (eight feet thick) are two or three beds from two to four feet thick, which are sometimes united in a single bed. This constitutes the famous mammoth bed of the anthracite region and the Freeport bituminous beds of western Pennsyl- vania. Next is found from twenty to fifty feet of soft black shales on which rests the Mahoning sandstone, the largest regular sand rock in all the coal measures, ranging from fifty to seventy- five feet in thickness. Streaks of quartz crystals are found in this rock. Above this are two thin, impure beds of coal, divided by a few inches of fire clay; this becomes a single bed in the Alleghany region. Next come from two hundred to three hun- dred feet of shales, slates, sandstone and limestone, followed by the great Pittsburg bed, which has been and is so productive of gas, coking, steam-making and household bituminous coal of every variety excepting the block and cannel. This bed is from six to twelve feet in thickness. Between it and the mammoth bed, before mentioned, are from three hundred to four hundred and fifty feet of the lower barren measures ; these are marked in the bituminous as well as in the anthracite fields. The total thickness of the Pennsylvania coal measures is about 3,000 feet.
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Immediately to the west of the anthracite coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania is a semi-bituminous district, the volatile matter in the product of which constantly increases as we near the central part of the bituminous field. The Carboniferous formation ter- minates in the north part of the State, where six of the great flexures of the strata above noticed give rise to six coal basins of rich and productive mines. From these is taken the well- known Blossburg coal, which is so extensively consumed in pro- ducing steam.
In the region of Pittsburg the four or five lower beds which alone occur farther north, disappear on the surface, dipping under a shale formation in which there are no coal seams. Above the barren measures and on the high ground in the vicinity of Pitts- burg is another excellent bed of coal, which is named from the city, the greater part of the product of which is consumed in the southwest part of the State.
What is geologically known as the Great Alleghany Coal Field covers a large part of western and northwestern Pennsyl- vania, the southeastern part of Ohio, the western part of Mary- land, a large part of West Virginia, and as it continues on to the southwest, gradually narrows as it crosses the States of Ken- tucky, Tennessee, and part of Alabama. The total length of this great coal field is more than 800 miles and its maximum width between Cumberland, Maryland and Newark, Ohio, is 180 miles. The part of this great tract with which we are here interested covers the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, extending, roughly speaking, from the Broad Top mountain northeastward past a central east and west line across the State, and thence west to the State line. The northern edge of this coal area is, however, pro- longed well towards the north line of the State by five great pro- jections from the main body and by numerous small areas of coal producing territory. These projections and detached coal areas were formerly an integral part of the Great Alleghany Coal Field as originally formed, and constituted a vast level or undulating
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plain, which dipped gently towards the west and southwest. It was ultimately separated from the main field by the action of the swift-flowing surface waters, and it is here that is found the semi- bituminous coal that exists between the anthracite region of the eastern part of the State and the bituminous region of the west part.
These northernmost semi-bituminous deposits have been known as the Ralston, the Barclay (or Towanda), the Blossburg, and the North Mountain coal fields, or basins. The North Mountain field occupies parts of Sullivan, Wyoming and Luzerne counties, and is vast in extent, but its supply of coal is limited. A vertical section through its deposits shows a close resemblance to the anthracite measures and a complete identity of seams, which form the connecting link between the two formations. The Barclay coal field lies about twenty miles northwest of the North Mountain field, in the second basin from the Alleghany escarp- ment, the North Mountain being the first. It is "the extreme northeastern part of the Alleghany basin and a continuation of the Ralston basin, which, to the southwest, forms the Farrands- ville and Snow Shoe basins, and continues by Ebensburg, Johns- town, etc., as the first basin west of the Alleghanies; that is, the first, or North Mountain, formation ceases opposite Williamsport, and does not cross the Susquehanna river." ("Coal, Iron and Oil," p. 309. ) The Barclay field covers about 100 square miles, but not more than one-tenth of it has produced workable coal. The scattered productive formation was mostly denuded by action of water. The Barclay coal is excellent for steam-making, cokes with great difficulty, and contains only a small percentage of bitumen.
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