The avowed purpose of the proposed canal here under consideration, according to its advocates, is to provide a waterway to be constructed and maintained at the taxpayers' expense, including that of the coal producers, their employees,. and other taxpayers in Illinois, for the purpose of permitting coal to be shipped hundreds of miles down the Big Sandy and Ohio Rivers, and up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to points in Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota, for the purpose of displacing coal which is now moving in large part from the Illinois mines which lie in close proximity to such destination territory.

In the survey which has been submitted by the Board in support of this proposed project, no consideration whatever was apprently given to the ability and capacity of the Illinois, Indiana, and western Kentucky mines to supply the coal requirements of most of the coal consumers, in the midwestern portion of the United States, to the utter dependency of such mines for their future existence and operation upon the availability of such markets to them, of the dependency of the employees of such mines for their future means of livelihood upon the ability of such mines to supply such markets, and of the tremendous loss in freight revenue which the railroads which serve such mines would suffer by a diversion of the tonnage which they are now transporting from such mines to destinations in such territory which, in turn, would vitally affect their employees and undoubtedly require them to increase their rates on their remaining traffic for the purpose of attempting to offset the loss of revenue occasioned by the diversion of the coal tonnage which they now transport from the Illinois, Indiana, and western Kentucky mines to destinations in such territory to barges operating on the proposed canal from eastern Kentucky and West Virginia.

It would seem obvious that the Board should view the economic aspects of this proposed project from the standpoint of the United States as a whole, and not from the narrow view of the few who would presumably be benefited by the alleged low barge-transportation costs which would result from the construction and maintenance of the proposed canal at the expense of the taxpayers of the United States as a whole.

In 1944 the southern Illinois mines employed 11,495 employees at their mines and several thousand additional employees in other capacities. During the same year the mines in Illinois, as a whole, had 32,019 mine employees and several thousand additional employees in other capacities. The railroads serving the Illinois mines employ thousands of workers, and approximately 20 to 80 percent of such individual railroads' total traffic is represented by the coal tonnage which they originate at and transport from such mines. The substantial diversion of tonnage from the Illinois mines and such railroads to the eastern Kentucky and West Virginia mines and the proposed canal, proposed by the advocates of such project, will jeopardize and destroy the means of livelihood of many of the employees of such mines and railroads and the ability of such mines and railroads to maintain an adequate and efficient operation and service.

Many of the railroads serving such mines, such as the Wabash, Missouri Pacific, Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and Alton, have been or are in the hands of receivers because of bankruptcy proceedings and their inability to secure sufficient revenue to meet operating expenses. They are in no position to stand further diversions of the coal traffic which they now originate and transport.

In conclusion, I would like to point out that the returns to questionnaires which have been submitted in support of the proposed project, and which purport to show the prospective tonnage which would move over the proposed canal, are inaccurate and unsound. For example, the distance from Huntington, W. Va., which is immediately east of the mouth of the Big Sandy on the Ohio River, to Rock Island, Ill., and Davenport, Iowa, is 1,155 miles. To obtain the total distance over the proposed canal to Rock Island and Davenport, the distance from the eastern Kentucky and West Virginia mines to Huntington would have to be added to the 1,155 miles from Huntington to such point.

According to such returns to questionnaires, the advocates of such project hope to obtain a barge rate for this more than 1,200-mile haul low enough to displace coal tonnage now moving from the Fulton County, Ill., mines to Rock Island, Ill., and Davenport, Iowa, an average distance of but, approximately, 100 miles, and on a present rail rate of $1.25 per ton. According to such questionnaires the advocates of such proposal also hope to obtain a barge rate for this more than 1,200-mile haul from the eastern Kentucky and West Virginia mines to Rock Island low enough to displace substantial tonnages of coal now moving from the southern Illinois mines to such point at a rail rate of $2.25 per ton and an average distance of approximately 330 miles. Such advocates, ac

cording to such questionnaires, also hope to obtain a barge-rail rate for a total distance of approximately 1,425 miles from the eastern Kentucky mines to Mason City, Iowa, low enough to displace 50,000 tons of coal now moving from the southern Illinois mines to such point, an average distance of approximately 540 miles, and on a present rail rate of $3.15 per ton.

The nearest river port to Mason City is Davenport, Iowa, the distance from such port to such point being approximately 225 miles. It is impossible to ascertain from the survey or questionnaires which are before you, what rail rate the advocates of the proposal under consideration hope to. obtain from Davenport to Mason City on barge coal moving from the eastern Kentucky or West Virginia

mines.

The mileage scale applicable on coal in this territory, which was prescribed by the Interstate Commerce Commission, would produce a rate for this distance from Davenport to Mason City of approximately $2.31 per ton, which is but 84 cents per ton less than the total rail rate from the southern Illinois district to Mason City. This would mean that in order to be competitive from a rate standpoint, that the barge rate for the more than 1,200-mile haul from the eastern Kentucky and West Virginia mines to Davenport could not exceed 84 cents per ton. It is obvious that a barge rate as low as this could never be obtained. The rate on bituminous coal via the Federal Barge Lines from East St. Louis and Alton, Ill., to St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn., for a distance of approximately 659 miles is $1.65 per ton. This is but approximately one-half the distance from the eastern Kentucky and West Virginia mines via the proposed canal to Davenport, Iowa, Moline, Rock Island, and Chicago, Ill. Various other illustrations of the unsound estimates of prospective tonnages to be obtained for the proposed project could be cited from such questionnaires, but those given should suffice.

For all of the reasons we have stated, we respectfully submit that the proposed project is unnecessary and economically unsound, and that if constructed and if it accomplishes the results which its advocates say it will, that it will cause a very serious and injurious dislocation of the coal-mining industry in the midwestern coal field in the United States, consequent unemployment of railroad and mine employees, and a large loss of traffic to the eastern and midwestern railroads which, in turn, would undoubtedly necessitate increases in freight rates on the traffic which such railroads continue to transport.

We respectfully request that this subcommittee disapprove such proposal.

Statement showing the number of tons (2,000 pounds each) of bituminous coal produced in the United States, in the State of Illinois, and in the southern Illinois group during the years 1933 to 1944, inclusive

Authority: U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines: Annual Reports, State of Illinois, Department of Mines and Minerals.

[Monthly Labor Review for December 1939]

UNEMPLOYMENT IN A DEPRESSED COAL-MINING AREA 1

By JOHN N. WEBB, Division of Research, Work Projects Administration Pronounced differences in the severity of unemployment are to be found within as well as between the major industrial areas of the country. In some of the more populous States deep pockets of unemployment exist and persist almost unnoted because of the small weight they have in determining State unemployment totals. Thus, the Unemployment Registration Census of 1937 showed that unemployment was one and one-half to more than two times as severe in the coal-producing counties of southern Illinois as it was in the State as a whole. When further inquiry shows that these "black spots" of unemployment are the result of economic dislocations peculiar to the locality, the unusually high rate of unemployment implies the existence of what may well be called a "problem" or "depressed" area.2

Broadly speaking, a "depressed" area, as the term is here used, is one in which there is a high proportion of long-term unemployment caused by the persistent decline or the compete collapse of activity in the industries upon which the economic life of the community depends. The economic dislocations in a depressed area are of a much more permanent nature than those affecting the country at large; and it is this element of permanency that sets such an area apart in the general scene.

A DEPRESSED AREA IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

A block of counties in southern Illinois where coal mining is the major industry provides a clear-cut example of a depressed area. The decline of industrial activity in these counties began well before 1929, and had, by 1939, reached the point where two-fifths to one-half of the available labor force was without private employment.

Three contiguous counties in southern Illinois-Franklin, Saline, and Williamson-containing the richest coal deposits in a State that ranks fourth in coal production for the country, were chosen for study of the social and economic aspects of a depressed area. The choice of these counties was, in part, dictated by the fact that coal mining has been the one major industry for a quarter of a century or more. Agriculture, a poor second in importance, seems almost a contradiction in an area where coal tipples, strip pits, slack piles, railroad siding, and washery sheds are the dominant elements in the landscape. In part, also, these counties were selected because they provided a range in the degree of economic dislocation from a critical, but by no means hopeless, situation in Franklin County to one of almost complete collapse in Williamson.

The peak year for employment in these counties was 1923; 36,000 workers were employed that year in 105 shipping mines. The year of greatest coal production, as distinct from the peak in employment, was 1926. Employment, however, dropped steadily from 1923 on. By 1937, the number of shipping mines had declined to 40, and 18,000 miners had been displaced. * * * In all, mine abandonment and technological advances in the surviving mines had reduced employment opportunities by about two-thirds-from 36,000 workers in 1923 to 12,500 in 1937.

Fourteen years of declining activity in the major industry of this area has left empty stores, dismantled mine sites, weed-covered railroad sidings, and crumbling smokestacks. Near the once prosperous mine properties are poverty-ridden settlements without sidewalks, street lights, sanitation, or paint to cover the weather-beaten boards of the dwellings. Even if agriculture-the second industry of the region could have been expanded profitably to absorb the displaced workers, it is doubtful if a group of men, almost literally "bred to mining" could have adapted themselves to so different a type of activity, which, among other things, requires capital from the beginning.

Migration seems to be the only solution possible for most of these jobless men. Many of the younger workers have already left, but migration is no easy matter for the older worker. Family responsibility, personal possessions, and a highly

1 This article is based upon an unemployment census taken in connection with a survey of the depressed coal-mining area of southern Illinois made by the Division of Research, WPA. For a preliminary report on this survey, see Work Projects Administration, Seven Depressed Coal Towns, by Malcolm Brown and John N. Webb, Washington, 1939.

2 For example, see FERA, Research Monograph I: Six Rural Problem Areas, Washington, 1935. See also, Great Britain, First Report of the Commissioner for the Special Areas, July 1935, p. 2.