| Show A review of coal aaning n utah Y C A aa agn mine inspector the year past was a very poor year for the coal industry in the state of utah due entirely y to the lack of market for the product from the data submitted by the coal opera tors to the state industrial commission and the U S geological survey the shipping mines of the state pro deuced less than four million tons and if to this be added the production from the country banks the total will be just about four million tons this is the smallest production since since 1916 when the state produced slightly over three and one half million tons the tonnages ton nages for the years since 1916 are as follows 1917 1918 1919 1920 two new properties started production during the year namely the mutual coal company and the maclean mine mine of t the standard coal company which are both in spring canyon district also the blue seal coal company did some work in the scofield district all of the old mines continued production with the exception of the utah mine of 01 the utah fuel company and the U P mine of the scofield coal company which were operated only a part of the year the two largest coi companies in the state operated with educed deduced forces but some of the other mines had more men on the payroll than last year so that the number of men actually actually engaged in the industry shows only a slight reduction reaction it is estimated that the number of men was as against in 1920 but the average number of days that lat the men worked was very much less than last year there were no labor troubles ex experienced perien ced and the com continued to pay the scale of wages established in lo 1920 10 l O the railroads were able to furnish sufficient cars to 0 move ve the coal and the falling off in production can be entirely attributed to lack of market there were three things s which contributed to the poor market which were first the general industrial depression which was acmon throughout the country s second the unusually mild fall and early winter and third the competition from foreign coals along the pacific pacific p coast the manchurian and australian coals both having ing been shipped into west coast ports in larger ties than ever before one reason which made it possible for or the foreign coals to compete with the utah coals on the coast fit was the ha high height freight rate prevailing from the utah fields elds some reduction in this rate was secured by the operators during the year but a still further reduction will wili be necessary if utah is to hold her share of the california trade one encouraging condition in the operation of the coal mines was the marked reduction in the tha number of fatal accidents there having been but 15 men killed as against 37 killed in 1920 |
