DEPTH BELOW THE SURFACE. Most of the mines now open are entered horizontally from the hill sides, and their depth, therefore, varies from a few feet to perhaps 300 feet; most of the mines reporting being less than 150 feet beneath the surface. THE COAL VEINS. So far as the commissioner has ascertained there are usually present three distinct veins, the distance between them varying from three to twenty feet, though frequently the upper, and occasionally the middle vein, also is absent. The first, or top vein, is of the poorest quality, and is light and but little worked, its thickness ranging from six inches to three or four feet. The second, or middle vein, is the thickest of all, ranging from one foot to eleven feet along the Manitoba road, while one report from Dickinson places the depth from fifteen to twenty-two feet. This is the vein generally worked, and it is the coal usually found on the market. The third, or lower vein, is from one to three feet thick, and is the best of all, being harder and less liable to air-slack, but is very little worked, lying usually deeper than the beds of the streams, and but little being known about it. It is generally thought to be too light to work profitably. LOCATION OF MINES AND EXTENT OF DEVELOPMENT. The mines that have been best developed are necessarily along the lines of the two railroads, though by common report some of the best coal fields in the State lie between these two, and in the Turtle Mountain region, at a distance from railroads, many mines are opened so that coal is being mined and sold to local buyers, but information has been received from very few of them. The Gaerchel mine at New Salem, Morton county, is operating a vein four and one half feet thick and has an entry of 500 feet, but no other information about its output, development or supply of coal is given. The Sims Coal company at Sims, Morton county, reports two mines at that place capable of furnishing 300 tons of coal per day. The mines are located on both sides of the Northern Pacific track, the veins being from seven to nine feet thick. It says a steady demand for coal is all that is needed to stimulate the coal mining to enable all the coal needed in the northwest to be furnished by home mines. The Dickinson Coal Mining Company at Dickinson, Stark county, reports an inexhaustible supply, this company having 160 acres underlaid with a coal vein fifteen to twenty-two feet thick. During the last three years they have shipped about 1,000 carloads, and say they could find a market for that amount every year were it not for the high freight charges imposed by the railroad. There are many other mines along the railroad west of Bismarck and elsewhere in that part of the State, but no reports have been received from them. From Ward county two reports are at hand. The Burlington mine, owned and operated by J. L. Colton, is the best developed of any mine in that part of North Dakota, and has been in operation three years. The main tunnel is 500 feet long, and the daily output is stated fifteen to thirty tons; fifteen men are employed, the pay-roll being about $35 per day. The vein is from eight to eleven feet thick. Coal from this mine is now shipped to nearly all points in northeastern North Dakota. The Foote mine, in the same vicinity, has a tunnel 250 feet long and works a vein eight feet thick. The mine of J. J. Sullivan, in the same vicinity, has been worked a year, has a tunnel of 350 feet, with several side chambers, and a vein eight feet thick. Last winter Mr. Sullivan sold 500 tons of coal, and about the same amount thus far this winter. He is now mining about ten tons per day, but is shipping none, as, though on the railroad track, the nearest station is four miles away and the freight charges are too high. Mr. Sullivan says that were railroad facilities for shipping at reasonable rates provided, he would increase the capacity of his mine to 100 tons per day, and could then deliver coal on the cars at not to exceed $1.50 per ton and make a good profit on it. There are said to be some twenty other mines in Ward county, but no particular information has been received from them, except the general statement made by all that the supply is inexhaustible. Frank D. Taylor's mine, nine miles east of Williston, near Ft. Buford, has a six-foot vein, and the proprietor estimates the supply of coal at 5,000,000 tons per square mile. His coal is loaded directly on the cars, and his mines average three to three and one-half tons per day. The government post at Ft. Buford has used it for three years. Other mines in the vicinity are worked, but none so exten sively as this one. PRICES AND FREIGHT CHARGES. All mines reporting the selling price of coal at the mines state it at $1.25 per ton. Nearly all complain of high freight charges, which prevent their successfully competing with either eastern or Montana coal, even in this State. Though this part belongs properly to the Railroad Commission, I give here some of the complaints. They claim that the railroads charge $2 per ton for shipping native coal in carload lots any distance less than 100 miles, and 50 cents per ton for each additional 100 miles or fractional part thereof. One mine owner near Minot complains that the Manitoba road ships coal from its own mines in Montana, a distance of 600 miles into North Dakota, and sells it at $2.50 per ton above the price at the mines, while the same company charges $2.50 per ton for shipping North Dakota coal from Minot to Devils Lake, about 115 miles. The mine owners usually recommend a reduction of charges to $1 per ton for the first 100 miles and one-half cent per ton per mile for additional distances, and also that where cars of coal are transferred from one road to another the receiving road shall not charge more than one-half cent per ton per mile for the distance carried by it. Some of the mine owners indicate a readiness to put in additional machinery and greatly extend their facilities whenever the freight problem is satisfactorily adjusted. Very respectfully yours, In this connection we present an open letter from J. L. Colton, Esq., read before the Legislative Assembly, and ordered printed in the Journal of the House: CITIZENS OF NORTH DAKOTA: Let the immense coal fields of North Dakota be developed-and the fuel problem is solved for all future time. The coal fields of this State are inexhaustible in quantity, and their development means millions of dollars saved to the State. There is nothing that would tend to build up Dakota as the development of native coal-if the railroads that cross the State would exercise a little leniency towards the people and do away with their present coercion policy and high freight rates on Dakota coai. Seven years ago, hearing of coal existing in the Mouse River and De Lac River valleys, I came here and examined the field, and found coal in unlimited quantities, and of a very superior quality. Believing that the Northern Pacific railroad was going to build into this country, in the spring of '84 I opened an extensive coal mine, and supplied the country around until the fall of '86. The Northern Pacific failed to tap this section of the country. In the fall of '86 the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba railroad built into this region and their main line ran within three-quarters of a mile of my mine. Here surely was an opportunity to develop the coal resources of Ward county. I went to St. Paul and interviewed the company with regard to securing rates to deliver coal to towns on their line, and also to get them to put in a siding as near as possible to the mine. They pleaded being too busy to put in a siding, but finally gave me the following rates from Minot. Besides paying these rates I was compelled to haul the coal six miles to the station. The rate per ton in carload lots was as follows: Rugby Junction $1 35 Leeds and Churchs Ferry Devils Lake... Lakota. Petersburgh. Niagara.... I 40 1 50 I 80 2 20 235 I shipped coal to those points that winter at those rates, thus introducing the coal. I proceeded to St. Paul the next fall and again endeavored to get a siding put in opposite my mine, as it would save hauling the coal six miles by team. I also solicited better rates than those previously given. And here I was given an example of the iniquitous and coercive methods practiced by this grinding corporation. They informed me that they would give me a rate that would fix me. Late in the fall their rates were promulgated, and they were so that they almost fixed me-in so much that I was almost unable to ship any coal at all, but I had to carry out my contracts for coal engaged previous to the issuing of their rates, and thus I was compelled to accede to their outrageous demands. As an instance of their unfairness, they raised the rate from Minot to Rugby Junction from $1.35 to $1.75; Pleasant Lake from $1.35 to $2; Knox from $1.35 to $2.15; York from $1.35 to $2.30; Leeds from $1.40 to $3.40; Churchs Ferry from $1.40 to $2.50 per ton. All of those places are within less than 100 miles of Minot, the shipping point. In the fall of 1888, together with the attorney of this road, I went to St. Paul to again see the company about putting in a siding for me, and also have them lessen their exorbitant and outrageous freight rates. After seeing them all a number of times and refuting the numerous arguments and excuses to put in a siding and lower the rate on coal, it is needless to state that they never complied with their agreement, for they put forth the plea of poverty, and to-day the exorbitant freight rates quoted above exist and are in full force. This same company have put a rate on wood from the Turtle mountains of $1 a cord to Devils Lake, which is near five times cheaper than they carry coal for the same distance. Farmers of Ward county receive six tons of coal for $7.50, which will run two stoves all winter; and, if the railroads would carry coal at reasonable rates, every man in North Dakota would be enabled to get six tons of coal at less than $20, and many of them much less, but what the Manitoba road does is as in a case like this: That, notwithstanding I was shipping a large amount of coal daily into the Red River valley and other sections, and paying an exorbitant rate of freight, they ordered their agent to weigh a small box of coal on a little platform scales and estimate the contents of the car in this manner and bill it according to the estimate thus guessed at, and compel me to pay freight on their estimate; also they refuse to transfer their cars onto the Northern Pacific road, so that I am unable to ship coal to Lisbon, N. D., from which place I am in receipt of orders for coal. Under such an existing state of affairs, it is not to be wondered at that the people demand cheaper fuel. Now, there is but one way out of this. The Legislature has full control of regulating the rates from any point to any other point in our State, and also to compel all railroads to put in "Ys" and siding, and to compel different roads to transfer their cars from one road to other roads. It is a fact that North Dakota is sending half a million dollars out of the State annually, when one-half of it need not he expended at all, and the other half can and should be left at home. Now, gentlernen, what we desire you to do is to sign a petition to the Legislature (petitions will be sent to you) and to write to your members asking them to pass a law compelling any railroad that has a line running near any mine in the State, and which mine, having shipped not less than ten cars of coal from any station to any other station on their line of road in the State, shall upon being petitioned by said person or persons who shipped said coal over the line, to put in a side track at the nearest point where said railroad runs to said mine, unless both parties agree to put it in at some other point, said siding to be at least 300 feet in the clear, and said road shall furnish empty cars and take away full cars from said siding the same as they do from any station on said line of road. And also that they shall carry all native coal in carload lots of not less than ten tons which is mined in North Dakota from any station or siding in the State, at the rate of $1 per ton for 100 miles or any fraction thereof if shipped to any point less than 100 miles, and at the rate of one-half cent per ton for each mile over the first 100 miles, and if said car of coal is transferred from one road to another, the second road shall carry the coal for one-half cent per mile for every ton of coal. Upon the enactment of such a law; I can furnish all the coal needed in North Dakota at the following rates, laid down freight and all included, in carload lots of ten tons or over, to-wit: Should the demand be large, the price of coal can be reduced accordingly, as the more coal mined per day the cost is less per ton. I have already mined from 50 to 55 tons of coal per day-but with a_ siding at the mine I can put out from 100 to 300 tons daily on board of cars. I have under the present existing disadvantages-to say nothing of the high freight rates-since November 1st, put out and sold from 1,200 to 1,500 tons of coal and have furnished coal at cost on board of cars to the needy in the districts in which destitution exists. There may be some who may doubt if the rates above asked are paying rates for the railroads. The Manitoba is carrying coal from Sand Coulee, Mont., for less than the amounts above mentioned. The Chicago & St. Paul is carrying coal 450 miles for 40 cents per ton, which is about one-sixth of this rate, and every road east of St. Paul is carrying coal for much less. This fuel question is a business worth fighting for-is worth agitating and striving to secure. Energetic and quick work is needed and we should all pull together for the accomplishment of this object. Yours respectfully, J. L. COLTON, On January 30, 1890, the Commissioners of Railroads presented the following supplemental report on coal freight rates: MR. SPEAKER: The Board of Railroad Commissioners have the honor and pleasure of presenting this supplemental report to your honorable body on coal rates, and herewith present a schedule which, after repeated conference with the railroad companies and coal operators, on evidence obtained on cost of production and actual cost of transportation, have mutually agreed, and this Board unanimously approve the rates herewith submitted as shown by the figures in schedule, under head of new rates, and we have the further pleasure of submitting the following correspondence: Railroad Commissioners, Bismarck: DICKINSON, N. D., January 29, 1890. Your letter of to-day just came to hand. In reply, must say that I am more than pleased with the good work you have done in our behalf. Please be kind enough to give me all the rates, and let me know when I can figure on getting them, as I have several orders depending on it. I am, very truly yours, A. C. MCGILLIVARY. BISMARCK, N. D., January 30, 1890. To the Railroad Commissioners, Bismarck, N. D.: GENTLEMEN: My attention having been called to the schedule of rates on lignite proposed to be put into effect by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company on approval of the Railroad Commissioners, I wish to say that as far as I am concerned, I am willing to take my chance with other producers on said rates. While there are some changes that should be made in the tariff, I am willing to give it a trial, with the understanding that the railroad company have agreed to make such changes from time to time as the Railroad Commissioners shall recommend. C. W. THOMPSON, The rate from Sims is practically one and a half cents per ton per mile for the first 100 miles, and one cent thereafter, to wit: Crystal Springs. 104 With a differential rate against Dickinson of forty cents east to Crystal Springs. From Sims to Jamestown. 66 Buffalo 2.00 2 00 2.00 With differential rate of 25 cents a ton agsinst Dickinson to all points east of Crystal Springs. These rates to be put in operation by the Northern Pacific railroad at once, with the understanding the Board of Railroad Commissioners shall and will make such changes as may be necessary to meet change of conditions or to prevent unjust discrimination. We also further report that this schedule of rates was shown to the officials. of the Manitoba railroad, who assured us that like rates would be adopted by their road as soon as approved by our board; and, further, they would place sidetracks wherever practicable for the accommodation of coal mines on their line. Respectfully submitted, GEO. S. MONTGOMERY, Chairman Railroad Commissioners. |