New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-10-04
THE coal TRADE.
T, ne Editor q The " Y. T1svn&

arfice' on tt1s SUBJECT ana pes caNe 10 OteY toi
publication the following additional considerations
The difficulty under which c0olmen lsbor Is
tina, to great ext cni we do not trad. directly with
the world We are sellers Of occr and is through
the men who use the power that We reach the comma
ry at large. We enable the fursace man 10 convert
bis materials into iron, Nth which he supplies con
sNmers. We furnish the power that converts cotton
uo cloth, that prints the Newspaper aud thss drives
til, ship You and the shig-owner sell 10 the world
but we sell to yen. We ar, therefore. dependent
upon the state Of trade among iron men cloth men
newspaper and steamboat men. and ;ndeed nearly ali
other portions OF the community. II they are pros
/ porous 50 are we. II they not, so are we not.
We, however, are plaesd in a wtrse condition than
they, by reason q the fact that tSey stand between
US and the ultimate consumers. We must prepare
for their demands on us long before they prepare for
those Of the community upon them. We are prepM-
ing now for an increase OF business iha! should take
place two years hence, ana during all tina, TINA -
shall have 10 take the chsnces of trade among *
classes Of men. Should the iron trade in the mean
time be paralyzed, the quantity Of Coal required may
be rendered stationary. and then prices may tall
70 where they stood in 1850. Should it go backward
the quantity required will be diminished, and our
prices may fall TO whore they stood the close of 1874
The Coal trade is always the INST 10 suffer, and 0s
last 10 recorer from revusion. Iii the in which
the risk is greatest and the profits least and is
so for the reason that have pointed out thu, it
stands behind all the other pursuits of the country.
and is wholly dependent their prosperity adver-
sity Ifyou desire evidence of this you have but to
cast your eye over our coal region which has been
built up by the sacrifice of the labor the fortunes and
the prospects of the vast majority of those who have
been connected with it.
There is much outcry against us because, for ne
first time almost frenfH gers, We have for our
commodity less than one-half of what was paid by
all before we ourselves, by our competition with
foreigners reduced the price. In that time we
have been ruined over aud over again and have
had but two or three really prosperous years say
from lsi5 to ISf7. Our region aud the roads
leading to il are strewed with the wrecks Of for
tunes and that there has remained in any life what
eN il wonderful and til evidence of the exraordi-
nary energy Of our people. How much will remain
in us few years hence, cannot say, for unfortu-
nately for US tie good do the
make. We taught the Yankees to use coal That of
the British colonies as close to them thirty years
since il now but they did not attempt 20 get 1t.
Now that we have taught them, and have given them
better fuel than is used in England they feel thom-
selves prepared TO knock out brains 10y substitut
ing Nova Scotia coal We taught your people to use
coal IN steam vessels and thus enabled you to estab
lsh your steamers and pay our share OF the
tax for their support aud yet there Is probably not
a single of them tina. would not vote for abol-
ishiDg the duty coal for the purpose OF Increasing
the sSppiy and aboishiDg the duty on iron for the
nurrose Of digirisLing he demand for our commod-
ity, and thus running us to whom they are 50 much
indebted.
Your city is enormously indebted to US for the ia
cily we have given you in establishing machinery
for all purposes and yet your representatives, IN both
Houses OF Congress are always ready to lend Their
services for injury. We taught you how you
might print newspapers cheaply and yet almost every
editor in your city looks upon US as enemies to be
crushed when opportunity shall offer: Wetaught your
Deope 10 cook Cheapy by of coal, and yet the
mass Of them would hold Themselves ready to unite in
an application to Congress iOdeprye Us OF ne market
mat IRE oursees hare made. But fer you would sill
he using wood and would be paying fifteen or twenty
dosrs a cord, and yet your housekeepers are ready
TO unite ia crusade for destruction, because, az
ter having for years been forced 10 supply thom at
prices that utterly run0us the demand has now,
ior once, come 80 nearly on a par with the supply,
~ 10 require them to pay for tun OF anthracite lit
tie more than the price Of cord Of wood Of less than
/ half the heating power.
Had YOU lot us alone in 1916, and had you not
crusl ed US in lsi9 and 1850 could now be giving
Won il required ten millions OF tuns, and doing far
better at four dollars on shpboerd than We now can
do at six dollars. IL IS Stsddy and grOctRg marsf
mat re Heed and not increase Of prce. On the
rary with increase Of market the price would stead
/ ily diminish because the machinery would every
where be improved and railroads would be enabled
TO carry cheapy, and their stockholders would Obtain
dividends from charges lower than those which now
give them none. IL costs you more 10 set up your
types for your paper TO supply 900 than would be
reqnred TO supply single thousand, ana precisely 50
Of trans ortaton made from year to year, we could
give YOU twenty millions Of tuns as readily as we now
give five, and with every year you would be more
regularly and more cheaply suppled-PreciseIy as u
tie care your department OF trade. your iarge
and efraiR market that enables you to sell your pa
per for two cests The true way to prevent the per-
manen reduction Of price IS to do as you nave here
tofore done-amuse yourselves IN cutting down our
market every third fourth year, and then sending
the sheriff otter US To endeayOr ~ collect from our
mined operators the sums they have lost in selling
coal at hsf dollar lees than 1t cost them to pro-
All he n,oG,s that ever have been realized in the
coaIreoion have been put back again We're you here
could show you that scarcely any one has ever car
redanytling away with him. Landowners expend their
rents and operators their profits when they have any,
in preparations for further improvements, and so u
with canal and railroad stockholders; and were pro-
nor estimate now made of the labor and capital that
have been applied to the improvement Of the land,
it would amount 10 a hundred million OF dollars, or
mare than tcoud p0yt0r aI me sh.PpiHg empioyed az
ne foTegR trade. Nevertheless, TINS great trale Is
TIRE sted if set Of paupers soliciting con-
iributiODs from the people whom It has enriched,
lille IL has Leggared nearly all the people who have
contributed the labor and capital by which 1t has
been built up. .
There IL 10 trade Whatever that requires steadi-
ress so much as ours because operations require
30 much time. II requires years TO make roads,
20 sink slopes and shafts 20 erect engines, and 10 Or
genize operation capable Of turning out MY or q
hundred thousand tuns year. We have to calculas
tn year what is likely 10 be required IN the next anu
following Yeas, whereas you can, at moment
demands Of advertiser and ut similar warning d.
mDish it il advertising falls of. Our trade - =.
once the mOst important and the most 6 dnGI N
OF all you know. Ii employs Ihs,,hh eS and h.
proportion 10 its product than any JILL, rannvs
CAPABLE Of greater extenson-aad YET ever pen1M
aner that feels himself ssgrisysa bo.ef ,r. ~
/ once we are little Overpaih ~" fS,,;r
totally during how many be h1s been war, Warned
AZ our expense. certain wen knV"h laoio "