New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-04

The farmers of the West complain of rail-
road extortiOn, yet we find from table
before us that only two of the twelve rail-
roads in Wisconsin paid a dividend in 1871.
Let us compare this showing with that OF
some of the great corporations which mOnop-
olize the supply of anthracite coal. Since
1864 the minimum dividend paid in any year
by either the Reading, Delaware, Lackawanna
and Western, or Lehigh Valley Kali
road companies, or the Delaware ana
Hudson Canal Company, is ten per
cent. The Reading has paid as high as
fifteen per cent and each of the others as
high as twenty per cent. 1t cannot be said that
the business has not been profitable to them.
Ten per cent per annum is good return for
a railroad investment, and is certainly far
above the average profits of individuals who
have embarked in the business of coal mining.
1t would be interesting to know how much
of the round two hundred million dollars
representing the capital and debt of the cor
pOrations composing the great coal combina-
ton is watered stock. A great deal OF 1T is
fictitious capital in our opinion. 1t is matter
of history that the Reading and Della
ware, Lackawanna and Western railroads,
and also the Delaware and Hudson
Canal were completed works in 1864
They were all bringing coal to Underwater III
that year, and the quantity they brought was
more than half the quantity they are bringing
now. The total anthracite production that
year exceeded ten million tons, while for the
last twelve months it has been about
eighteen millions. With completed roads
and canals, with the mines in their
possession, and about the same terminal
facilities in 1864 as they now enjoy, these
corporations certainly did not require double
the capital to do double the business. We
should Judge that an increase of capital
of one-third would be amply sufficient to
double the production. AS an instance, the
capital stock and debt of the Boston and
Albany Railroad were sixteen million dollars in
1861 and twenty-one millions in 1870, and in
the interval the business more than doubled,
great deal of double track was laid, and
other expensive improvements were made.
The figures of the coal corporations, without
further explanations, will speak for them
selves. The capital stock of the four COM
panies we have named has been increased
from $430O0,OO0 in 1864 to S00,0Oo,0OO in 1872,
or considerably more than doubled and the
debt has grown from S17,OOOOOO in 1854 to
s43,OOO,OOO in 1878. Taking the stock and debt
together the increase has been from $60,0O0,0O0
in 1854 to S133,0OO,OO0 in 1872, or 100 per cent,
while the increase in the production
of coal is only 80 per cent. In making the
calculation we have deducted from the debt
of the Reading Railroad the bonds of the
Schuylkill Canal, and also $19,0O0,000 more,
being the amount of its recent investment in
coal mines. The Delaware and Hudson Canal
Company has doubled its stock and debt since
1864, and the Delaware, Lackawanna and
Western and Lehigh Valley companies
have multiplied the nominal amount Of
their investment by three, the stock of the
two companies last named having been raised
from $13,5O0,0OO to $41,OOO,O00, and the debt
from S5,OOO,OOO to $19,OO0,0OO. (See Poor's
Manual of the Railroads of the United States.)
We suspect that the managers of these
corporations think it looks better to distribute
among the shareholders 10 per cent on twenty
millions Of nominal capital than 20 per cent on
half the amount
In those parts of the country where anthra-
cite coal is used, the consumption is reckOned
at one ton year for each inhabitant. A fam
lily of six will burn six tons, and will pay this
Winter q special tax of from $40 to $12 in
order that these great coal corporations may
do little better than paying only ten per
cent on their watered stocks. "The excep-
"tionally low price in America during the past
"year," say the managers of the Reading
Railroad in their report, "has introduced
"coal in competition with wood into districts
"where it never had been sent before; and it
ais well known that when the appliances for
"buIning anthracite coal are once introduced,
"and the advantages of that fuel once under
"stood, it is never DISPLACED by any other"
We are welded to the glowing anthracite as
the Englishman is welded to his beer, The