New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-11-01
A MEDITATION ON COAL.


We have just been laying in our winters stock Of
Coal and paying SCI per un for tan operation which
many Of our readers have doubtless paralleed, and
which has probably melted in their minds, as in ours
some serious ard we trust practical eogitation. We
csn remember paying higher prices than this-slO to
Sll in 1861 and we have nlistinct recollection
of winter having set in early suddenly and severely at
the c,ose of ISL and Coal hereupon rising suddenly
TO SIG per tun; but these were extreme cases and
we are confident that for several years past Coal was
not 70 high in October by several per cent is
We paid $54 last year and thought that rather high
and now we find it marked mp another dollar
For what reason Labor, we hear, is somewhat
higher than last year. but we don't believe the
in shirt-seeyes who removed and loaded and trans
ported and carted coal have received twenty-five
cents in the average per un than they ddastye
On tie other hand, more coalmneshave been opened,
more railroads constructed completed more cars and
canalbOats bnt, and more experience as TO the most
economical and efficient methods of digging and trans
porting Coal We doubt that the Coal which our citi-
zens will burn the ensuing winter, has actually cost
more than did the like quantity which they burned
last winter.
Ofcourfe we are not grumbDg at the coal-dealers-
lot that there is not higher law than this, but that
Society not now in condition TO act upon it, If Coal
were to be had here for 50 per un, how many of US
buyers would insist on paying - or s., because it
was demonstrated that the article had actually cost
much and could not be sold lower without running the
sellers And they have exactly the same right to ask
$50 that we would have to buy at 80 if we could find
sellers at that price.
But why must we pay So so for Coal in this City
Philadelphia and Baltimore pay less yet their tns are
ninth larger than ours. 49, because they nearer
the coallnines is the ready reply No Sir just there
is your mistake They scarcely if at all nearer the
Coal formation than we are but they have railroads
leading directly into it, while have noneand there
in is our disadvantage. We bring our Coal from the
Loheh and Susquehanna valleys by way OF Philadel-
pha, q hundred miles South and Rondout, as far
North and pay double transportation and in winter
are shut out from Of supply so that our
cCadealers have only to lay in short or moderate
supply in summer and autumn, aud, when too late for
Others to obtain they may combine and charge
about as much as their cOnsciences will allow.
Up at the Crystal Palace, they have some magnif-
cent epecimens of Coal showing that the veins whence
It was taken are twenty or thirty feet thick while the
quality could hardly be better Those specimens come
from the vicinity Of Wilkesbarre, the Susquehanna,
in the midst Of that bOunteOus and beautiful Wyoming
Valley where the noble river approaches nearest to
our City before turning away southwestward to find
an outlet in Chesapeake Bay. There-we do not say
especially at Wkesbarre but at some point in or near
that yaog-is best point of access to the Coal
Region with which we ought to have had direct inter
course years ago. wide, double-track railroad,
stretching directly from City TO the cOalbeds at
the most eligible point should have been constructed
long since Such road if now in operation would
save almost every family in City from 80 to $40
on this winter Coal while thousands Of manufactures,
hotels c. would be benefited from ten TO hundred
times that extent Our establishment uses but a small
amount of steampower yet could pay tax Of 800
per for the support OF great coalrOad to the
SusqBetanna, Yet make money by il.
There was some stir early last sumner on this sub
ect ard the friends Of two OF three rival routes raised
considerable din as to their feasibility and advantages
respectively; until at length we were informed that
the stock Of one of them had been actually taken and
the road would be promptly built. But we have not
yet heard of this any rival project being actually
and vigorously pressed forward toward completion and
we fear that our citizens viii have TO burn dear Coal
rext winter as well as this What is to be done
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