New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-19

years 1871, 1872, and 1873, we nnu thaC bhe
average prices compare as follows:
Average July, 1871.-.--......s4 SO
Average July, 1872. .---...-.. u ID
Average July, 1878. Do
It will be remembered that In the early
part of 1871 there was general and pro-
| tracted strike of the miners throughout the
| anthracite regions. From the beginning OIL
the year until the middle of May the supply
| sent to market was very inadequate to the
wants of the public The price OF july 1871,
is therefore scarcity price; price more
| than sufficient to pay the cost of production
and carrying to market, with average profits
to the producers and carrying companies.
That we are stating facts will appear from
some statistics we have compiled from the
reports of the managers of the Reading Rail-
road Company.
| 1. AS tot the profits of the carrying com
pany. Notwithstanding the loss OF business
sustained by the Reading Railroad by reason
| of the strike in the first six months OF It's
fiscal year. the business of the last SIX months
| was sufficiently remunerative to enable the
company to pay ten per cent in cash on Its
! thirty-one millions of stock and add half a
million dollars to its reserve fund AS the
/ other cOal-carrying companies all paid ten per
cent it is to be presumed that they earned IT,
2. AS to the profits of mining. We are justi-
| fed in supposing that when great efforts are
4 made to increase the supply of an article, the
producers of that article are obtaining good
profit. The annual reports of the Reading
Railroad Company show that in the months OIL
| June and July, 1871, no less than 1,l46,2oo
tons of coal were carried Oh the main line Oh
that road, and that in June and July, 1872, the
number of tons carried was 923,902. showing
falling off of about 20 per cent.
1t will be instructive to contrast the rela-
| tive prices and production of June and July
of the years 1871 and 1872 with the prices and
production of 1873 We have seen that the
d Inference in prices, that is to say the dlfier-
ence between "a SO and SO So, taking the re-
suits of the Scranton auction sales as the
measure of prices, was sufficient to make
difference of twenty per cent in the coal
mined in the region tributary to the Reading
Railroad. But this year the price has recov-
cred again, having reached "a 90 at the last
Scranton sale. Ought not the production to
have recovered also, considering that there is
no element in the cost of mining or of carry
ing coal which has changed so as to make the
operation more expensive than 1T was two
years agOf
But times have changed. Since 1871 the
Reading Railroad has stepped into Schuylkill
County with thirty million dollars and bought
ND all the coal mines and lands it could lay
its hands on. The production of anthracite
coal is no longer a business the movements
of which are regulated by competition.
gigantic monopoly has been constituted.
Hence it is that with wholesale prices OF coal
higher than they were in 1871 the production
is barely even with that of 1872, when, we are
told, the mines were operated at loss. To
guard ourselves against Misrepresentation,
we will say that we are comparing
the prices and production of the months of
June and July only; not those of the whole
year, for in the first five months of 1871 pro-
duction was almost stopped by the miners
strike against reduction of wages. We have
not the exact figures, but we are able to state
from an examination of the weekly returns
that the production of 1878 is barely equal for
June and July to that of 1872 and twenty per
cent less than that of 1871. Were it not that
the coal monopoly restricts the supply, the
prices now ruling would bring to market larger
quantities than we were receiving two years
ago, for there is under ordinary circumstances
large annual increase in the consumption OF
coal. The facts admit only of one interpreta-
tion-that the coal monopoly, by creating an
artificial scarcity, has raised the price and
| checked the consumption. Whether the ex-
| tortion amounts to dollar or dollar and a
| half ton, OF more or less, there is no room
| for a doubt that in addition to all their other
taxes the people are now compelled to pay
good round tax on their fuel into the treas
uries of half dozen bloated Pennsylvania
corporations whose stock is mostly in the
hands of millionares and Englishmen.