394 MINERALS YEARBOOK


size. Where no coal was produced the operator is advised, "If idle, abandoned,
or worked out please so state." If the owner reports that the mine is "abandoned"
or "worked out" it is taken off the list; or if after due inquiry through
the local post office no owner of the property can be found and the railroad
records show no tonnage shipped for years, the mine is taken off the list.
If, however, the owner reports the mine as "idle" it is kept on the list
as a potential producer. In short, until the Bureau is advised to the contrary,
statistically speaking the mine is not dead.
 The lists were therefore examined to see how many mines were still bemg
carried as idle but not definitely abandoned. It was found that at the end
of 1930 there were 1,355 such mines. Some of them had mined no coal since
1923, and others had been shutting down in each year since. By years the
record was as follows:
 Capacity, tons
219 had been idle since 1923 17, 000, 000
118 had been idle since 1924 19, 000, 000
83 had been idle since 1925 13, 000, 000
151 had been idle since 1926 12, 000, 000
313 had been idle since 1927 42, 000, 000
210 had been idle since 1928 27, 000, 000
261 had been idle since 1929 30, 000, 000
 Total to end of 1930 160, 000, 000

 As a mine closing 10 years ago would be more likely to reach the stage of
definite abandonment than one closing 3 years ago, it was natural that the
largest number of these statistically idle but not abandoned mines should
consist of properties closed toward the end of the period. The largest single
number, 313 mines with a capacity of 42,000,000 tons, dropped out during
or after the strike of 1927. Capacity of 27,000,000 tons had been idle since
1928, and capacity of 30,000,000 tons had been idle since 1929.
 In all, the 1,355 mines had a capacity at 308 days of 160,000,000 tons a
year, equivalent to, roughly, 100,000,000 tons of normal production. Although
the classification of idle but not abandoned is far from precise, the figures
indicate a very large shut-down capacity which could conceivably resume operations
if the price were attractive enough. If the country were plunged into another
World War, with acute shortage of fuel, many would doubtless reopen. On the
other hand, at the price levels of recent years they are clearly out of the
running. They were high-cost operations when they were forced to close. Since
then, rapid depreciation has further impaired their competitive standing,
while in the meantime the surviving mines have increased an inherent advantage
by further mechanization. One practical test of the response of the shut-down
capacity to price was afforded by the price flurry in the fall of 1926. The
9-month strike of the British miners had created a vacuum in the sea-borne
coal trade, and the unexpected demand from overseas was added to heavy purchases
at home, as consumers built up their stocks to prepare for the end of the
Jacksonvifie wage agreement. From $1.91 in July spot prices jumped to $3.19
in November, with sales along the seaboard at stifi higher figures. Yet while
some mines reopened in 1926, many others closed, and the capacity in operation
at the end of the year was no greater than at the beginning. The test indicated
that more than a short-lived flurry of high prices is needed to revive suspended