The Anthracite Coal Problem [with] Map of Anthracite Coal Fields and Railroads

Congressional concerns about a railroad monopoly over the vast Pennsylvania coal fields.

“The anthracite coal measures in Pennsylvania afford a clear example of a natural monopoly. Irregularly distributed over a very limited area in northeastern Pennsylvania, as shown by the appended map, these hard-coal deposits if consolidated would not cover more than 484 square miles of territory; that is to say, an area approximately 22 miles square.” [pg. 444]

Issued as part of a report on the U.S. Industrial Commission in 1901, this interesting group of maps, charts, and text outlines federal concerns about the possibility of an impending monopoly of the coal fields of Pennsylvania. The first map highlights the valuable deposits and the lines of eight different regional railroads in operation. A chart immediately following highlights the drastic increase in domestic coal consumption between 1873 and 1900, providing visual evidence for the nation’s past and future dependence on its coal reserves.

Four additional folding maps show the property ownership of railroad companies and independent operators across some of the most important coal fields. The accompanying text elucidates the Industrial Commissions’ concerns – primarily that independent operators, previously contractors or subsidiaries of the railroad companies, were being acquired and consolidated at an alarming rate and the existing anthracite reserves were insufficient to allow for total privatization of the important commodity. The report concludes,  “A comprehensive development of these great natural resources along definite lines of policy looking to the preservation of the future supply, and its utilization of those purposes for which it is peculiarly suited, seems theoretically to be the most desirable. Whether it can be realized in practice will depend upon the wisdom and conservatism of the great interests which have it in charge.”