New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-08-04
THE COAL COMBINATION

explanation. When they are not following inc
law of their being by practicing tyranny, they
are occupied with giving excuses for their ex
istence. =,
Such excuses the Philadelphia and Reading
Railway Company is now advertising at enor-
nous length through the newspapers. lhey
take the form of twenty or twenty-five columns
of elaborate explanations offered by the Presi-
dent of the Company to Joint Committee OF
the PENNSYLVANIA Legislature. But the COM
mittee will be easily persuaded-commlttees
generally are. The objective point OF the
demonstration is not q Legislative COM
mittee but the general consumer of coal; and
to reach this important parsonage with us
apologies and excuses. the Company is printing
(nominally as reading matter, really as an ad-
yertisement) the whole twenty or twenty-five
columns of President Governs address, wher-
ever it can induce newspapers in these hard
times TO accept it ut unusually low rates.
Mr. Gowen is an able man. He has doubt
less made ont for tho great monopoly over
which he presidcs the best case that can DC
made. lie would like us to believe ana APP
pears TO have convinced himself that the
business of mining, transporting, and selling
coal is now carried on by the hve
associated corporations in the manner
most advantageous to all concerned.
Having read his statement with some care, we
think it cOnclusively shows the contrary.
Here we have corporation with capital d
over 800, 600, 900, owning over hundred
thousand acres of coal lands operating some
/ 900 miles of railway, manufacturing IT'S
own cars locomotives, steamships, ana rail-
road iron, and taking entire charge
of four or five million tons of coal,
and experimenting every stage OF Its pro-
gress from the darkness of the mine to the
hearth of the private citizen and the furnace
of The manufacturer. IL it possible that any
exercise of the one man power can accomplish
such gigantic task with the economy with
which the work could be done were 1t
broken up and distributed among thousands
of individuals, each employing and SUI
perintcnding his own capital The sup
position is absurd. Every one of orr readers
who has bought coal mt wholesale or retail for
the past six years, by comparing the average
rrce he has paid in 1878, 1874, and 1873
with that paid in the three preceding years,
will find, we think, that coal now costs him
more than it did under system OF compet-
ton.
Young and vigorous and ably handled as Mr..
Governs monopoly is, his statement shows that
it is already stricken with those invctcratc
diseases which invariably attack such I'M
wicldy organizations. lie gives the diagnosis
of at least half dozen of them. The fangs OF
the immaculate legislators of Pennsylvania
have already penetrated its leathcry hide
The charter of the Coal and Iron Company, OF
which the Railroad Company is sole stock
holder, passed with great unanimlty." Un-
doubleday. The Legislatures OF New York and
PENNSYLVANIA would be glad to '.'Ss every
wear charters under which 100000 acres OF
coal lands might be bought and $lO,OOO,OOO
expended i'm the purchase, to say nothing
of the rich crop OF investigations
to come after. Next we are told that high
prices are paid for the lands and Mines rs
naturally must be the case when $40, 100000
are laid out in = short period. with other
great corporations in the market az COM
pettors. In the third place Mr.. GOwen
communicates fact, not unknown to us,
that the wages paid the miners are
without exception the highest in the world"
Finally we come to the taxes. Here is this
great corporation, literally proprietor of one
of the most pOpulous counties in Pennsylvania,
coal -heavers! Listen to Mr.. GOwen on the
question of local taxes:
Gentlemen another reason why the coal trade ought to
be made profitable is the trouble and expense that re-
suit The owner Of coal property from the sOeia con
ton of the coal region Iho olcriy Is owned ny nom
themselves. YOu will be amazed when show 10 you
She 0ent to wnr sr Tc d taxes pass tse
men refuse to work. and instantly The Directors
OF , ep I%"t anG distribute the proceeds the
men who are strike IA outdoor relief have here
list OF what il expended annually for the repairs Of
roads In one township year the annual cost OF
pairing country roads was 1917 per mile three hundred
and inety dollars per spent upon the
rcair OF = single mile OF country road In another il
S556 per mile; IN another 1t was $50 per mlle
in another IT $3.50 per mile; in another $40 per
mile; in another S597 per mile in another - H. and
! in another Sil5 per mile. This was the annual cost
last year OF repairing mile Of country road. We are
subjected these taxes; cannot get rid Of them The
inhabitants levy the taxes and spend the money ana all
"a Ring" formed in the coal townships or schuylkil,
Northumberland. and Colunba Counties compared TO
which the Ring of VIM ~ Tweed sink; into absolute
nsgniicance. In one township alone, where they were
system of soallcd outdoor relief the cost OF maintain
! ins each panpr was No per week; the same price;
! STATE. Hotel in Atlantic City, for expensive summer
boarding aud lodging. This sum spent in money III
addition TO tho value Of tie produce OF po Poor-ouse
/ farm. In COuyngham Township. Columbia County. IN
1878, there expended on the repairs OF ~ miles oi
road and In building one mic OF new road Sio5ll %
S2.72j per mile. We shall come to your doors next
Winter probably camorns to You for an inyss
we shall ask yon to direct your arrows against
Epe chow VINO %o are stan, ne" " whr Won would hardly
dream could exist In any civilized counry-a system OF
poys his carts all the public roads, where every
man connected with the administration of municipal
n0cent miserable. wreiched propcrtyowners have TO
foot the bills and pay all the costs and then, rhen zee
sare ourselves the very thus plundeiing the
public appear before you at Harrisburg and represent