Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-03-14

pecally in view Of the mighty part that
ID is now playing in the Old World
and is soon destined to play in the
New
In England coal has Just doubled, and
more than doubled in price for such
quantities as the poor can bny with the
threat hanging over them that it will so
still higher, with the moral certainty that
the price will never, never rcccdc. To
the lower class there, this means suffering
intense. shivcring, freezing, perishing;-
and to the middle class, fearful addition
to the cost of.living.
To be sure we have not come TO that
pass, and the probabilities are against our
ever arriving there, for our own Geolo-
pists give up about a quarter Of our State
to the coal fields; and yet, we must re
member that only few years ago y very
learned commission of scientific English
men reported to the Queen that there
was in the Island an ample supply of
coal for twenty five or thirty hundred
yeurs to come, more or less, ana upon me
strength of it men went or begettlng
children, without the fear OF cold before
their eyes. or course coal will he cat
ried in great quantities from the United
States to that country, but reasonably
cheap fuel for the poor Englishman Is
forever an impossibility.
There may be all the coal deposited
that biologists claim, in the bowels OF the
earth here in Iowa, but in several places
veins have unexpectedly given out.
Farmers, you cannot know what Is a
thousand yards beneath your feet, but II
YOU put ont little patch Of timber you
know it is there. and when you want it
YOU can put your hand on it.
Now supposug the supply of coal was
inexhaustable, it requires preparation,
machinery, capital, to work it out and
the men who own the field and furnish
the capital in Great Britain, aud part
of PENNSYLVANIA, have conceived the Sa-
tanic idea that it is more for their inter
est to reduce the supply onehalf and
double the price, than to work full time
and produce an ample supply at fair
rates. A few years ago want of union
among golfers would have made such an
idea impossible of execution; but there is
now such a universal tendency to concen-
trate and combine and organize, that
nothing is too high or too low to be sue
cessfully performed, and | believe that in
few wears the accessible coal will be in
the hands OF men and corporations who
will keep down the supply to force the
price up to a ruinous point. But even II
| am wrong in this, ana the supply is in
cxhaustable, and that it will be mined in
sufficient quantities, still we are at the
mercy of the railroads and must depend
upon them to bring our coal to us, and
the way they are inclined to serve as is
indicated in the case cited above, of Os-
kaloosa coal being sold at New Hampton
two dollars per ton cheaper than the
same grade is sold in Independence.
Now Oskaloosa coal is carried north
over the Iowa Central II. X. and grasses
our road at Ackley; from there to New
Hampton is Just about the same distance
as to Independence Can anybody tell
me. then, why zee should not get our coal
for So. 40 per ton? Does it cost more to
carry coal Il given distance from west to
east than it does from south to north?--
twice as much9 or are the north and
south roads running themselves by carry
ing too cheap: There is no competing
road to either point.
The Legislature, | believe, will grant
all the relief it can, but it cannot anniht'
lats distance; that dreadful creature that
enters as an element into all our calcula'
tions, and robs the farmer of the results
of his toll, and gives him but 10 cents for
his corn, when the man who consumes i,
pays 60 cents for it.
Farmers are at the mercy of others in
too many respects, but position OF de-
pendence does not become them well
when they can avoid it. In the matter
of fuel they can avoid it-they are mas
tiers of the situation, and will ever remain
so if they commence at once to raise
their own timber If they have plenty
OF wood they can buy their coal cheap
but if they get short of wood they will
have to pay dear tor their coal. They
will find themselves treated as the French
man treated his debtor: IF you ave &c
money, l not want it; if you ave no
money, must ave my pay
An agent of certain railroad owning
and operating coal mine, Travelled over
the road last fall to get information upon
which to base the price of coal at the diff
ferent stations. The price was H.
gagged by distance Of carriage, but by
the price of wood at the several points. -
Where wood was plenty and cheap, coal
is furnished at low rate; but where wood
is scarce and dear, they put up the price
of coal to correspond, thus inadvertently
fulfilling the Scripture, which saith: ito
him that hath shall be given, and from
him that hath not shall be taken even
that which he hath"
MOODY Grow.