New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-09-28
SUPPLY AND PRICE OF COAL.

SUPPLY AMI PfISE VT NOALs
Eight years since-when Lead was supplied
10 cheaply that we had already become exporters
Of it to all parts of the world-when Iron was
being supplied by our own manufacturers so abuu'
dainty that the import was gradually declining
and would speedily have altogether ceased-and
when the supply of Coal was go abundant as to
afford every reason for believing that from year
to year it would be more cheaply furnished, be-
cause of steady improvement in the modes of pro-
duction-tght years since, we say, Nr. Walker
furnished to the Senate, then engaged in the dis
custom of his tariff bill, a statement Of the
amount of taxation imposed upon our people by
reason fthe e1eess of prices for various commod-
tiles beyond what they could be supplied for,
had we what he called perfect freedom OF
trade. The e1eess in the price of lead was,
as be pretended to show, more than the whole
selling price-that in the price of nails and many
other articles of iron was nearly equal to the
whole price at which they were sold-and the
tar paid BY coal consumers by reason Of the pro-
tectve duty exceeded, according TO his tables, by
probably a million Of dollars the rhoie sum re-
ceived by the coal producers at the various places
of production. Men who were being regularly
supplied at one dollar per tun, found TO their
surprise that they were paying tax of nearly
two dollars in excess Of the price at which they
would be supplied were Protection only abolished.
In this manner did Mr.. Walker show, to the salts
faction Of the Sham Democracy that the people
at large we're paying more than hundred mil
"A hv haLr, nf ia
enormous fraud that his bill was passed through
Congress.
Eight years have since elapsed, and lead now
sells at more than double the price at which 1t
sold when lead miners we're protected by duty
of three cents per pound. Pig iron now sells at
higher price than could be obtained for it when
the duty was nine dollars per tun; and coal COM
mands higher price than it did at any period
durngthe existence of the tariff of 1912; and thus
instead. of reduction of prices consequent upon
the adoption of British free trade, we have q
great increase of them.
If our readers desire to know why this Is so,
they need only recur to the fact that in 1850, be-
fore the mines of California came to aid in stav-
ing off the effects Of the tariff Of 1916, that meas
ure had fairly commenced to operate in closing
up the mills, mines and factories Of the coun-
try. The domestic production of lead had fall
len to one. half of what it had been in 1885,
That of iron had fallen from $50, 900 tuns to
less than half million, and the domestic con-
sumption of cotton had fallen from 53l, 900 bales
to 4O4, 900 bales. Everything thus gave token Of
an approaching revulsion; but, fortunately for the
Sham Democracy, California gold came in, and
that was speedily followed by the discovery of the
Australian gold mines, both Of which tended
largely to advance prices and Of course to in.
crease the amount of duty paid on foreign mer'
chandise under an ad ralorem tariff, and thus to
give TO our manufacturers the Protection that had
been denied by the Government. Thepoor DEM
ocrats who in 1850 had been to so great an extent
sold out by the sheriff were past recovery, but the
rich money. lenders who had purchased their mills
and furnaces were now enabled to add to their
already large fortunes-and thus was the mission
of patent Democracy accomplished. Cotton mills
now fourshed, and the consumption of las. year
was, as we see, about IS 900 bales greater than il
was fevenyears since, when itshOuld have doubled
and would have done so had the tariff Of 1912 re.
NAMED the law of the land. The production Of
iron gradually grew again, and it is now probably
rather more than it was eight years since, where
as it should be far more than double what i. then
was, and our people should now be obtaining good
American bars for $50 a tun instead Of paying
so or $50 for bad English ones. What has been
the course of things in regard to coal, as far as
its prices in this market are concerned, we eI-
bibited yesterday; what it has been as respects
the domestic production and the great market Of
the country at large, We propose now to show;
and as it lisa subject that occupies at the present
moment much Of the public attention, we have
endeayored to collect all the information neces-
ssry to the formation Of an accurate judgment as
to the original causes of the present scarcity and
increase OF price.
In the following table the reader will see at 8
glance the quantity sent to market from the sew.
ersl Anthracite regions-the Schuylkill, Lehigh
and Susquehanna-fro 1874 to the present time.
and the cargo prices of schuylkl Coal at the port