New-York tribune., 1873-01-22
THE COAL QUESTION.

r
MERITS OF THE ,READING SCHEME QUESTIONED
acknowledgements DEFENDED.
TO the Edtfor OF The Tribune
SIR: The letter of the President of the
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company, published
in your issue of the 10th inst has been freely coped ps
the newspapers OF city, and in some instances
referred to settling the runors concerning
20 monopoze the anthracite coal business threats made
20 coerce certain parties &c Not knowing from what
source the communication In your issue of the 9th INST
emapaed and TO which OF the President OF the
Philadelphia and Roading Railroad Company reiers)'
and being in priyy to it, We arc not eaiied upon
o certify 10 its exsctness but 1t has become our re-
lucant duty reply TO the letter OF the President A
the meeting called by him on Dec 2l, last' the
President submitted his schorne. ana invited a
conference and the appointment OF a committee
1t involved our entirely abandoning the business OF
selling the Goals we and control and in which we
have engaged for years. and placing IL III MS
hands to have il mixed with "a great variety Of other
Goals be sold by agent appointed by hm IiS W
us extraordinary proposition bringing no response was
followed with the threats that II declined to cooper
ate with him. he would go his own way, even IL he
had to do IL in an ugly manner and that he would under
sell us If we cried down his coal (which we UNDERSTOOD 10
be- If stated that IL was MIXTURE or that IL was i
feror to ours The in which this was said let
no doubt in minds of those OF us who were present
abost its meaning To understand the full bearing OF
that less than two years ago, charter entitled
the Laurel Run Improvement Company" was snaked
through the Legislature Of Pennsylvania, which
confers rights TO some TO US UNKNOWN
corporators, constituting the most dangerous powers
ever conferred any corporation in this country by
it, the Laurel Run Improvement Company now inc
Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company ami
of which the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Com
pany ia the only stakeholder, has the the right to pur
chase the stock of any other corporation created for any
purpose whatever existing or hereafter TO DO Gro
ated in this State and at the same time no limit Is paeeu
to its capital stock issue Of bonds This liegtlmae
child OF the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Com
pany has been growing rapidly that 1t has already
assumed the proportion of gigantic monster threaten
ing tosswalowts parents Schemes must be concocted
necessarily to provide for its wants. and as long as the
public will swallow bonds the power OF this young giant
is well calculated to alarm every business man IN TINS
Commonwealth. We met, appointed a committee as re-
quested adopted and signed an address and sent 1t
through our committee, expressing our readiness to
meet t1eiPIesident at any time he desired our COM
mttee has been ignored SINCE Thereforeiwhie 1t
is true that the President did lot threaten to coerce by
raising the cost Of transportation and Offering the nu
merous yexatous obstacles" as stated by your corre
spondent the reader Judge how much the statement
of the latter differed in substanceirom the truth
whether the success of tho Phadelphatand Reading
Railroad alluded to by the President of the Company
refers to The business ohe company, or Ito accomplish
ing its great phanthrOpic aims 20 wat: to protect the
three great classes of people who arc the most deser
ing" viz. the OF the colliery the miners and
laborers and the public we are unable TO STATE III IL
refers to the business of the Philadelphia and Reading
Railroad Company the report to the stockholders pre-
sented by the Board of Managers at the annual meeting
of the 18th nst gives al ready iexpanaton 1t shows
an enormous Of profits very large increase In
the of transporting COAL tremendous increase IN
the Indebtedness Of the company, the reduction 10
trfing sum Of the fund, and very small
increase coal tunnage Notwithstanding the very largo
total production OF anthracite OF S3OOoo
tuns over the previous year aud with no interruption
by strikes or freshets II 1t refers TO the protection OF
the three classes enumerated in the Presidents letter.
we can assert experience that the kind OF protec
ton extended the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
Company for q few years past to the cOiery owners,
has so reduced their number that it requires but con-
tnuaon OF the to sweep the most OF them out OF
existence at an early period. single fact will strike
every business man. and establish assertion beyond
cavil:
Teniyears ago. when the entire production OF anthra
cite coal in Pennsylvania 9,566OO6 tuns the ship
ments from Port Richmond (the only point from which
the producers of Schuyki coal reach their Eastern
and Southern customers) amounted to 22s tuns; last
wear, when the production almost double, say
it was only 222313 tuns, showing practically
10 GAIN while the business has doubled. We append
the progress for every year since 1868 OF the total pro-
ducton of the anthracite region and Of the correspond
ing receipts at Port Richmond:
Aggregate production OF anthracite coal In Pennsyl-
vana from with the receipts OF coal at Port
Richmond for shipment during the corresponding year