New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-20
THE COAL MONOPOLY.


minds of our readers, that the monopoly In
anthracite coal is analogous In every respect
to those monopolies which existed IN England
at the beginning of the seventeenth century,
when Queen Elizabeth granted patents to the
creatures of her court for the exclusive
sale of leather, salt, COAL and other ar
ticles. That polite queen, perceiving
that her people were indignant at the
blood-letting they were subjected to
at her hands, Cancelled of her own will the
most grievous and oppressive of these
patents. The same regard for the public good
which influenced the conduct of despOtic
sovereign cannot we fear, be reasonably ex-
pected to control the action of the Pennsyl-
vania Legislature. By Section 26 of Article 1.
of the present Constitution of that State,
power is given to the Legislature "to alter,
"revoke, or annul any charter of incorpora-
ton hereafter conferred by or under any
Especial or general law, whenever, in
"their opinion, it may be injurious to
"the citizens of the Commonwealth;
in such manner, however, that no injustice
shall be done to the corpOrators." The fore
going became a part of the Pennsylvania
Constitution in 1857, and the charter of the
Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Com
pany is subject to the operation of the pro-
vision. The Coal and Iron Company afore-
said has expended thirty million dollars in
buying up the coal mines and lands of Schuyl-
kill County, and the Reading Railroad Com
pany is its only stakeholder. The powers
conferred on these corporations are palpably
being used, not only to the injury of citizens
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but to
the manifest detriment of millions of others
of the people of the United States. The pub
lie good requires that the Philadelphia and
Reading Coal and Iron Company be dissolved,
and the business of mining coal in Schuylkill
County again left to private enterprise. The
Reading Railroad, down to the commence
ment of the present year, found no insur-
mountable difficulty in making liberal profits
on it's capital from its legitimate transportation
business. The coal trade was probably about as
bad in the three years 1870, 1871, and 1872
as in any similar period In its history; yet
we are able to say, after faithful examna-
ton of the elaborate annual statements of the
managers of this Reading Railroad to its stock
holders, that the Company appears unquestiOn-
ably to have earned the thirty per cent in cash
which it distributed in dividends during those
three years. After the wholesale robbery of
the public in which the Reading Coal and
Iron and Railroad Companies are now en-
gagged, we know not what pecuniary loss
would amount, in the sense of the Constitution,
to injustice" to them. Probably the monopo-
lists in sea coal thought they were unjustly
treated by Queen Bess in having their mo-
nopOly taken away. 1t would, nevertheless,
be an evil sign for a Pennsylvania court so to
interpret the word injustice as to perpetuate
monopoly. 1t is not injustice that man
should be compelled to part with money I'M
Justly obtained, or to cease from unjust
dealings
We do not feel that it is necessary for MS to
define here the size and scope of the anthracite
coal monopoly. We have, however, few
words to say on the subject. The anthracite
coal production of the year 1873 will probably
be between eighteen and nineteen million tons,
Of which about fifteen million tons will be
used by those who cannot possibly provide
themselves with other fuel, except at ruinous
trouble and expense. To talk of breaking down
the combination by a resort to bituminous coal
is utter Stiffness, because the bitumin0us coal
is not to be had in sufficient quantity.
We all remember what an outcry was raised
about eighteen months ago when it was at
tempted to establish monopoly in petro-
leum. and how speedily the projectors were
forced to abandon their enterprise Yet a
monopoly in petroleum would be TN evil of
far less magnitude than the one we now have
10 cope with Richard Golden said, in a
speech on the Corn laws, in 1914: "Our fore
fathers abolished this System [of m0nopolies
" granted by TIE Tudorsl; at time. too,
"mark Won, when the sion manual
"of tnr sovereign had somewhat Of