Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-09-07
A Monster Combination.
THE combination of coal compani

Philadelphia & Reading Company OBJ
tanned new charter as the Reading
Coal q Iron Company, to own and
work coal mines and lands in Penn
sylvania. The Company bought coal
lands and interests in Schuylkill Coun-
ty, producing 100000 tons of coal
annually, paying therefor 800, 900, 900.
The other coal interests in the county
produced 3, 242, 900 tons yearly, and to
these the Company offered a combina-
ton, the owners to receive a certain
sum per ton for their coal. The offer
was accepted, and the price at which
coal was to be sold was to be fixed at
monthly meetings of the producers.
The first fixing Of prices was in Janu-
airy, 1878, to which the Lehigh Coal &
Navigation Company, the Delaware,
Lackawanna & Western Railroad Com
pany, and the Wilkesbarre Coal & Iron
Company were parties. The Pennsyl
Vania Coal Company, Lehigh Valley
Railroad Company and the Reading
Company subsequently united. In
February an advance in the price of
coal was fixed, and so, from time to
time, the prices have been ever since
fixed. In January, 1875, the Compa-
MES established regulations for the
trade. Each of the six Companies
was to be allowed to deliver at the
shipping points 100000 of tons.
The Companies were the following:
There were then in the combination
the Philadelphia & Reading, Lehigh
Valley, New Jersey Central, Delaware
& Hudson, Delaware, Lackawanna &
Western, and Pennsylvania Coal Com
pany. A standing committee was ap-
pointed for the year, to meet monthly.
In February, 1876, there was another
regulation adopted, and the prices
fixed for the year. Mr.. Asa Packer,
President of the Lehigh Valley Rail
road, refused to join the combination,
but agreed to carry out the wishes of
the Companies operating in the Le-
high region. But in April it was dis
covered that the Lehigh Valley opera
tors had sent 1000 tons of coal to
market more than their proportion Of
the whole production. This breach of
faith was patched up temporarily, but
the bad faith was repeated, and, final
ly, at the August meeting, the whole
combination was dissolved. All the
companies engaged in this ring were
coal mining as well as transportation
companies, except the Lehigh Valley
Railroad Company and the Central
Railway Company of New Jersey, the
latter owning the Lehigh & Susque-
hanna Railway.
This was exclusively combination
of the operators of anthracite coal.
This coal lies along the Valleys of the
Schuylkill, Lehigh, LackaWanna, and
Wyoming Rivers. These railroad and
canal companies have a monopoly of
the transportation, and also of the
coal lands and mines, which they
either own, or as leSSeeS or otherwise
control. Reading, Wilkesbarre and
Scranton are the centers of these sew
eral regions. The population is dense,
and are all directly or indirectly con-
cerned III the production or transport
tatiOn of coal. By including the LIE
high Valley Railway Company and
the Central New Jersey Railway Com
pany, the combination was able to die
tate to the pound how much anthracite
coal should be shipped from the
mines to market, and how much each
company should ship, and the prices
at which it should be sold. This
league was successfully operated until
this spring, when the Lehigh Valley
Railroad Company, being purely a
transportation company, refused to be
limited in the amount Of its business,
and transported all the coal offered to
it without regard to the regulations of
the league. The main purposes &C
complished by the league during it's
existence was the prevention of COM
petition. No company was allowed to
sell more than prescribed amount of
coal. 1t also accomplished a POSSIBLE
ity of having a permanency in the
price the control of the amount to be
sold enabled them to dictate the price
at which it was to be sold. To sell
coal at that price it was necessary to
limit production, and as either one of
the four districts could produce as
much coal as the annual sales of the
combination, we have an explanation
of the reason why the mines are only
worked at intervals, throwing the
miners out of employment more than
half the time, and compelling them, in
measure, to accept the wages offered
them by the companies. The anthra-
cite coal companies have not been able
to make any serious extortion on the
public in the way of prices. There is
q point to which the price of anthra