New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-12-20
COAL.

We have given the full hospitality Of our col
umns to Mr.. WabriJge's speech in reference to
the duties on coal, and presume that it has been
quite generally perused by our readers, who can
Judge as to the value of his argument and his
policy. His speech seems to contain one striking
omission. He tells US much OF our cotton mills,
furnaces machine shops, aud steamships, and of
the quantity of fuel they consume, but he says
nothing of the fact that these factories. furnaces
and ships owe their existence to the power of OBJ
tanning cheap fuel that has been furnished by
men whom be now desires to place without range
of protection. The quantity of coal semitic market
this year has been between five and six millions
of tuDs, or more than enough to furnish one
freight to every vessel engaged in our foreign aud
domt site trade, aud that quantity could not have
been obtained from any other source, even il we
had been willing to pay thrice the price we have
paid for it. Such beieg the case, it would seem
that the community under some Obligation to
the people who have furnished them so chesply
with 40 much heat aud power
That the community has gained largely is GER
tain; but what, on the other hand, has been
gained by the men to whom they have been 50
much indebted As yet, IS We have before had
occasion TO show little but loss to all concerned,
% is shown in the fact that the Re adiag Rail
rad, SchUylkill Csnal, Leigh Company, and M
meIous other great works within asd without
the coal region, have paid little or nothing to
their stockholders. The amount that has been
expended in improvements, with view to the
supply Of coal has exceeded hundred and dfy
millions Of dollars; and we have heard il es.
Iimsted by tlO,e who are well informed, at a
much higher figure. And the average yield, to
those concerned, has fallen as we believe, con.
sdersbly short Of common interest Under these
circumstances, the obligation would seem to have
been much larger on the side of the coal consum-
ers than on that Of the coal producers
But, as we are told, coal is higher than it has
been in past years. So is food; 80 10 lumber; 90
is iron; SO is everything we use, and ever thing
that is used BY the men who mine coal and those
who transport it to market; aud il would seem
scarcely possible that they should long continue
to pay high prices for all the things they consume
ard accept low ones for what they proiu,e e.
Carpenters, masons and people of all kinds have
been claiming high wsges because food was high,
and the men who have had houses to build have
found the cost fifty per cent more THAI ia past
times; but they do not seem ever TO have beea
disposed to charge the difficulty to account Of the
master builder, as it is now proposed 10 do with
the master miner Of coal
But a. we sre further told, our people are poor
and are out ofcSsh and cannot afford 10 buy fuel
and for that reason we wish fuel to be cheap.
What, however, is it that has deprived them of
employment Its not with the repeal Of the tariff
OF 1872, with the consequent influx of good. from
abroad that should be male at home, that has
closed our factories and our machine dlops, and
that is driving our people to beggary when they
would gladly work, and thereby earn means of
supporting their families Would not the re-
enactment Of that tariff reopen all our factories.
and machine shops, and set every body again to
work and give them the means of buying fuel
and food In regard TO this, none of our readers
can, we think, entertain q doubt. Instead of
this, however, Mr. Wslbridge calls upon the peo-
pie who lately have been employed in factories
and in the shops of all kinds about our cities to
unite in breaking down the coal men. with view
to try If fuel cannot be supplied at lower rates
than are now required to be paid, thus dis.
tributiDg, a. be seems to think, more equally the
ruin accomplished BY British free trade.
VIII the measure proposed, however, produce