SPECIAL REPORTS FOR FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION. 27
Unverhofft, so that after 1903 only 1.72 per cent of the entire Ruhr
coal production was outside the combine. In 1906 the outsiders had
grown to 2.05 per cent and in 1907 to 2.55 per cent, but in 1911 had
decreased to 2.18 per cent. Large deposits of coal were discovered to
the north of the old Ruhr fields and these have been put in operation
by a number of strong independent firms, so that in 1912 and 1913
the following mines were opened or under way: Ickern, 750,000 tons
annual production; Arenberg, 750,000 tons; Dergardt and Friedrich
Heinrich, with 150,000 tons each ; Westfalen, Fiirst Leopold, Lohberg,
and Rhein, with 200,000 tons each. The outsiders gradually increased
their participation in the entire production to 12 per cent. The
Government-owned mines were also active, having increased their
output of 808,000 tons in 1903 to 3,300,000 tons in 1912. This rapid
growth and activity on the part of the State mines was due to a false
policy on the part of the Syndicate, which endeavored to fight the
independent State-owned mine Hibernia, which only aggravated the
Government and caused them to sink new shafts and increase their
activity.
renew outsiders are all profiting from the technical progress
made in the mining industry, due in great measure to the new processes
 developed in the deep potash mines of Stassfurth, such as freezing
 of wet slopes, the use of the diamond drill, electric traction underground,
 higher speeds of shaft cages, etc.
The discovery of new fields lying in a large crescent to the north
of the Ruhr district as far as the Dutch frontier caused an inrush
of independent companies. This inroad of strongly financed and
thoroughly efficient companies threatened the very life of the Syndicate.
 The most important, the International Boring Co., with 275
tracts, caused the Syndicate in 1905 to form the Rheinisch-Westfillische
 Bergwerksgesellschaft (the Rhenish-Westphalian Mining
Co.) and buy up the International Boring Co. at a cost of $6,780,000
marks ($8,758,640). The fields thus acquired are being held back
for the future. In addition to the old companies outside the Syndicate,
 the new companies to the north of the Ruhr district were the
Trier and Hermann mines (Gewerkschaften) ; the Auguste Victoria
mine, bought by the dye trust; the Victoria Liinen mine, owned by
the Harpener Bergbau Co.; and the extensive fields of Thyssen,
which along with the Deutsche Kaiser mine were not included 1n the
Syndicate. A price war against these new competitors was hopeless
 because of their technical efficiency. The independents also had
the enormous advantage that they were able to guarantee a uniform
quality of coal to smelters, which the Syndicate can not do, because
the Syndicate can not guarantee to deliver coal from exactly the
same mine all the time. Any variation in the coal used in charging
furnaces is insupportable in a large smelter guaranteeing a uniform
product. In the upper Rhine district the Syndicate also is compelled
 to meet competition from Belgian coal, about 2,700,000 tons
of which are sold here per year, and from the Aachener-Eschweiler
coal, which is practically anthracite, and has a market of its own
for household use and for anthracite briquets, which are widely used,
especially in Switzerland. The new iron and steel Plaats of the Saar
district under Thyssen and Stinnes have developed their own
coking plants in this district and have founded the Saar-Mosel
Bergwerksgesellschaft, which produced 11,000,000 tons in 1910.