224. State Bank (Montgomery, AL)

Article Text

Mr. F. S. Lyon, the commissioner and trustee for the old State Bank of Alabama and branches, has reported to the State authorities a statement of his collections from the 1st of January to the lat of July. The aggregate amount is $142,382 39. The following are the collections on behalf of the Mobile branch:- Amount collected on debt marked "good"....$16,041 44 On debt marked "doubtful" 14,628 22 On debt marked "bad" 1 501 85 On debt not classed 47.602 64 Total $79,774 15 The aggregate amount collected for the Central, or mother bank, is $23,672 36; for the Montgomery branch $18,280 22; for the Decatur branch, $20,432 89; for the Huntsville branch, $72 77. The annexed communication in relation to the affairs of the Cumberland Coal and Iron Company, came very near losing a place in our columns om account of its great length; but i's importance, and the number of peo- ple interested in the subject, have induced us to give it. Is confirms all the statements we have made regarding the mismanagement of this mammoth concern, but points out a remedy. It is, we believe, in the power of the stockholders to remove many of the causes which have weighed so heavily and so disastrously upon the opera- tions of the Company; and if after this appeal, they re- main quiet, they are beyond all hope, and entit ed to to sympathy from the community:- # CUMBERLAND COAL AND IRON COMPANY. TO THE STOCKHOLDERS-Being a resident on the banks of the Potomac, and baving some knowledge of the Cumber- land coal fields, which many of you are probably not in possession of, I address you a few remarks on the subject of our property and its management, for I myself am a stockholder as well as yourselves, which may be of in- terest to you; and which, if properly regarded and acted on may save you much sacrifice in your stock. To en- able ourselves to understand the subject fully we must look at the geological character and extent of the Cun- berland coal basin, extending from Pennsylvania from a point nearly northwest of Will's mountain, for about forty five miles in extent, across Maryland, from four to ten miles in breadth, and terminating in Virginia, near Westernport, Allegheny county, Maryland. This basin, is a detached field, and not a part of the great Allegheny bituminous coal field, which lies west of the Allegheny Mountains; it contains less bitumen, and more carbon, to the same weight of coal; it does not produce as much gas, is not susceptible of the same high polish as the more bituminous coals of the Allegheny mammoth field, especially the cannel coal, of which latter species the most beautiful jet like orna- ments may be made, without materially soiling the fin- gers. Nor does it resemble the anthracite in the latter's slowness in ignition, and intensely heating and corroding effects upon the bars of the furnace of the steam engine It is, consequently, better adapted to the purposes of manufacturing, and of propelling steamboats and loco- motives, than either of the other two kinds of coal From numerous evidences, well known to geologists and mineralogists, the coal measures, or the series of alter- nating seams of coal and sandstone, and slate clay, which are always found in coal fields, have been formed by a vegetable growth of land plants, tree ferns, &c; that this vegetable growth was afterwards overflowed with water, and afterwards the deposits from this overflow of the waters became dry land again; upon which a se- cond growth of vegetable productions has arisen, to be again, in their turn, overflowed with water, and to be covered with a deposit of sand and clay; which again becoming dry after the evaporation of the water produced another vegetable growth; which, in its due time, is also covered with water and the de- posits of the debris of other parts of the solid portion of the earth And thus we have an explanation of the alter- nating seams of coal, sandstone and slate clay, which are found of such different thicknesses, and in such greater or less numbers in all coalfields, varying in different parts of the world from one to sixty alternate beds. The Cum- berland Coal field is not an exception to this; and the different seams of its coal, which are found to correspond in thickness, and other characteristics, although now in different valleys, as the "George's Creek" and "Jan- ning's Run," &c., &c., were doubtless of the same geological epoch; was formed under like, or rather the same geolo- gical circumstances; and, in the bulk are unquestiona- bly of the same quality. Why then, it may be asked, are the seams now found with a high ridge intervening? The answer is, that the parts of what was once the same continuous field, have been rent asunder by physi- cal causes, similar to those which have formed the "faults" and "dykes" in all coal fields, the basaltic, or trap-rock, (similar to what forms the "Palisades" on the Hudson,) while in a semifluid state, and by reason of some great convulsion of the interior of the earth, has rent asunder the field, and forcing itself up from below the coal strata, has protruded itself through the vast fissures formed, and then congealed again forming vast ridges, with the debris of the sand-stone, clay-slate, and other superincumbent strata, and the separated coal beds falling upon the sides of the ridge, and resting upon its inclined sides, form the present coal measures which crop out here and there on the sides of the ridge thus formed. While the more liquid basalt and other rocks, melted by the heat of the trap-rock, flow in this the smaller fissures of the sand stone and coal beds, and form the numerous faults and dykes which are found interspersed throughout all coal fields which are mined for coal Hence we have an explanation of the differ- ence in the quality of the coals which lie contiguous to the trap-rock, and that which is found in the more distant parts of the same seam of coal. The for- mer being exposed to the more intense heat of the trap- rock, become more carbonized, and loses much of its bituminous character; while the latter retains the cha- racteristics of the seam, as it was before the convulsion, which has formed the ridge intervening. And thus we see that local specimens from the different points more or less contiguous to the trap or basaltic dykes present no reliable evidences of the real character of the coal in the interior of the seam, or of the bulk of the coal mines, which we may thus wish to test. But the different seams of the same original coal field being of the same thick- ness on both sides of the basaltic ridge and the nume- rous smaller dykes, and being formed under the same geological circumstances, present the same character- istics, have the same general character and, in the bulk, furnish the same quality of coal. Hence, we may fairly assume that the seams of like thickness, and in cor- responding positions on the different sides of the ridges, and dykes which have broken up the original coal measures in the Cumberland coal basin, are of the same quality of coal; will burn equally well; possess the same evapora- tive power; contain the same amount of carbon and, in all respects, be found alike except where they have been operated upon by local disturbances. The value of the mines then, which contains different parts of what were once the same coal seam, must depend upon the greater or less facilities of getting the coal out of the mine, and of getting it into market afterwards. Your coal property possesses advantages over most others in that region in the facilities alluded to; and energetic and economical management is all which is required to render it im- mensely productive. Will you, then, rest supinely, while the more active and shrewd speculators, having got control of the man- agement of your affairs, shall have shaped the policy to make their own fortunes at your expense? Or will you demand of your servants-the President and Directors of your company-that they shall at once take active and efficient measures to bring down the coal to the sea- board? That they shall at once put on all the hands which can be accomodated while working the mines; that they shall at once put on all the boats, and make arrangements for all the cars which the canal and Baltimore and Ohio railroad can usefully employ. That, instead of allowing the President and his depen- dents the exclusive sale of coal at the wharves, made to suit his own views and the policy of the cliqus with which he may be operating require him to employ active bu- siness men in the trade, to effect sales on account of the company, and to make contracts for supplies of coal to be delivered during the fall and winter. If these measures are adopted there can be little doubt of an immense business being done by the Cum- berland Coal Company But if you remain inert and too confiding, certain parties will make their own fortunes, and, finally, buy your property for less than half its real value, when it may suit their purposes to allow the stock to rise again in the market; and to sell out again at high prices to another set of dupes, who may confide in their management again. You are said to possess 10 000 acres of good coal land; 7 000 of which embrace the "big vein" of the Cumberland coal basin; you have seven mines already opened; six of which have horizontal drift or "adits" passing through and into the fifteen feet vein, and the seventh is approached through a slope gallery, by means of a stationary en- gine. They are said to be capable of a daily production of 2.000 tops; or at the rate of 600,000 tons per annuum! which might easily be increased to 1,000,000 tons! So has said your late President Mr. Holbrook. Then, why has not some liberal portion of this 600,000 tons been taken out of the mines? Simply because it