Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1869-12-17

come IN ut $500
Why do not the ree-traders rely upon
this immense profit to stimulate importation
Of an unlimited quantity for the supply
Of our market. instead Of clamoring for a
repeal Of the duty which, upon their own
showing, is trivial?
This gap in their logic indicates sup
preston Of material facts. The scarcity is
10 anthracite coal, the duty complained Of
Is upon bituminous. There is no anthracite
coal in Nova Scotia, or anywhere else, to
come, and neither Nova Scotia nor Ameri-
can bltuminous coal can take Its place. The
trouble in the anthracite regions slightly
increased the consumption of bituminous
coal, but the extra demand soon saekened,
and the price was not materially affected
by 1t.
Repeal of the duty on bitnminous coal
would not reduce the price of anthracite
coal toauy appreciable extent the produ-
GERS of the former are 10 no fault-if the
tariR Is any protection they are just as de-
serving of it now as they ever we're, aud the
outuy against them is merely an effort BY
interested parties to excite such a prejudice
as nay result in blind raid upon the pro-
ductiye interest of the country.
The resources of the United States for
supply Of bituminous coal, under all circum-
stances, are practically unlimited, and the
duty has been and still is beneficial as
means Of saving our market from becoming
a reservoir for surplus foreign stock, and
thus steadying it, and Of extending the area
Of domestic production. The assertion that
the dlty has been tax upon the consumer
is false, for it is but the equivalent of less
than one hundred miles Of transportation.
beyond which distance from the seaboard
Nova Scotia coal, if free Of duty. would
never penetrate. The duty has helped TO
make and operate good many miles Of
railroad from which the country has derived
large incidental improvement, and, if cut
off, the development of the coal fields of
Middle Pennsylvania, West Virginia. Ohio,
Indiana, Iowa and the Southern States, in
which great activity now prevails, might be
arrested. Owing to the duty, a considera-
be part Of the domestic supply meets the
foreign upon equal terms upon the Atlantic
seaboard, but the duty being removed, it
would be in equilibrium a hundred miles
inland, and must go forward at a loss In
consequence, The seaboard cities would re-
eeive less domestic supply, aud in the end
they might find Nova Scotia coal free of du-
ty costing them more than it does now
The anthracite coal field Of this country.
and l may say Of the world, is limited in
extent, and combinations for the control of
its products are practicable Owing to a
variety Of causes, the interest has been
gradually consolidated in comparatively few
owners with large capitals, combined with
the control of lines of transportation, and
the result is a creation Of virtual monopoly
which for the first time in the history of the
country has-shown capacity for serious mis-
chief. The iron makers who are consumers
Of anthracite coal are the worst sufferers
from its high price and short supply, yet
they are 50 violently assailed and threatened
by the Chicego editor as If they were co con
spirators, and for added matter Of aggrava-
ton he elaborately misrepresents the iron
question, in such fashion as to deserve re- /
ply, which hope to make hereafter.
The attack upon the bituminous coal in
terest is wholly gratuitous, and must be at
tributed to ignorance the most dense, or
reckless maleyolence l am not defending
the Anthracite Coal Combination. All
combinations for speculative purposes are to
be deprecated, but, to NY mind, those for
enhancing the cost of the food of the peo-
pie are worst of all. The coal miners and
operators are doing now, for the first time,
what Chicago spectators in meat and bread
stuff are doing constantly. and the duly on
coal may as justly be charged with the one
abuse as with the other. The operators
we're in the coal combination at the start,
but the men took it up and carried it out
for their own benefit, for the purpose, dis
tinetly agowed, of making an increase of
wages l think strikes are generally a mis-
take, and often disastrous, and this one, so
far as the interest of the miners are con
cerned, may be no exception yet it does
seem somewhat ungenerous that there
should be such general outcry against the
workingmen, who are exposed daily to such
horrible risks as that disaster at the Avon
dale mine, reported as [ write, which is
supposed to have cost the lives of more than
two hundred men, and involves present and
prospective agonies Of body and mind, of
which the consumer of anthracite coal sit
ting comfortably by his pleasant fire, can
form no conception whateyer.-From The
PlLsLnrrh Ganl1leLhinL