Mr. FESSENDEN. Precisely; and I think the error arose from the fact that it was included by the commissioner under that imPression without consulting anybody in relation to the matter, which was an entire mistake. It is coal, and has always been so regarded. “This mine is of but very limited capacity. In no year hasit minedandsold 20,000 tons.It has run down 1100 feet, and theyhave to sink each year. In 1866there were imported 15 thousinagnd tons, which paid a duty of $18, 750in gold, mak in currency $27, 10,000 tons out of the 15,000 wereworked into oil, and paid an excise duty to the Government of about 60,000 dollars, making a revenueto the Government on the importation of that coal of $87,000.To make that into oil there was expended on the 10,000 tons 23 dollars per ton in labor, iron, anthracite coal for fuel, and chemicals. 50 tMha oruRysl and dollar Pennsylvania xpfoerncdoitaulraendwairson paid to the Government want revenue. The prohibitory duty put on this coal shuts it outfrom this market, totally destrovsthe factorywhere the coal is worked, which cost$320,00i0n gold, and which could not now bebuilt for $700,000th, rows out of employment 150 menwho havehad steady work for nearly 8 years, and compels them to seek other employment if they can get it. To protect what? Coal in Western Virginia that is lying in the ground and will have to lie there until petro leum is 4 times the price it is now. There have been no factories built in that section of the country dfoisrcoth very purpose of working coal into oil since the of petroleum.” If this gentleman is wrong in this statement the Senfrom WestVirginia can correct him. “But all the factories that were built prior to discovery the of petroleumhave ceasedworking coaland now work petroleum, with the exception of theMays ville Oil Company in Kentucky, which has been at times working small quantities of IKanawha.” coal on the “Now, as to Virginia, that cthoealRhicaksebre'senmkinnoew, nnesairnPeaer1k8e5rs9b.uTrhge, company then owning it sold it to a company in NewYork in 1863. That company have not erectedany works to ooil from the coal, for at Parkersburg they have the petroleum from the Burning Springs of Virginia, giving them the crudeoil at their works at h9t oversoyen to 8gentspergallon. The coals of Western Virginia and Pennsylvania could not be worked into oil in competitionwith petroleum if they had no exciseduty to pay. “This prohibition of an article that pays the government so large a revenue and gives labor to 150 men, and contributes with that labor so large an amount to the industry of the country, is a thing that I cannot understand, especially when it does not interfere with the interest it is said the duty is designed to protect. Western Virginia and Pennsylvania need not fear any competition from foreign coalfor themanufactureof oil, for there is no coal in Scotlandor England that can at pete all comwith then. The Albert coal only competes to the cztent of 10,000 tons. Shale can never be imported into this country. When oil was 80 centsper gallon, and there was no excise, there were about 2,000 gallons imported from Nova Scotia freeof duty, but as it did not pay it was aban doned.” I had the curiosity to look into the commerce and navigation returns for the amount of asphaltum imported; and the value of the whole quantity imported amounts to between 8 and 900 dollars. And as to the shale, it could not be worked at all to any profit even when oil was 80 or 90 cents a gallon. As to bitumen, it is of so little conse: quence that it is not named at all in the returns; I cannot find it imported. For these reasons the commissioner, finding that these articles were of no sort of consequence, put them down at 50 cents, which is high enough for them, and as I said before, by a misapprehension the commissioner put Albertite into the same category. It had never been there be fore; it is absolutely coal and nothing but coal. Now, just look at some of these misstatements to show how loosely men make their statements. The Senfrom WestVirginia read this paper and relied upon it for his facts a paper got up by one of the men in this very company. It is a mistake, in the 1st place, to say that this article is asphaltum. It is not. In the next place it is a mistake to say that the Present duty is 25%. It is $1 25 a ton, and has always stood the same as other coal. Then it is stated that it is worth 20 dollars at the mine. It is only 7 or 8 dollars after it has been extracted.