The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-09-07
A Monster Combination.

A Monster Combination.
THE combination of coal companies
which was dissolved few days ago at
an angry meeting in New York has
had remarkable history. In 1872 the
Philadelphia & Reading Company OBJ
tanned new charter as the Reading
Coal & 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 2,700,0O0 tons of coal
annually, paying therefor $50, 900, 900.
The other coal interests in the county
produced 3,242 900 tons yearly, and to
these the Company offered 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, 1873, 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
rnp,nnnv C,,l,ca,nant1v ,,ni+aI In
February an advance in the price of
coal was fixed, and 50, 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
Il Hudson, Delaware, LackaWanna 4
| Western, and Pennsylvania Coal Com
| pany. \ standing committee was APP
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 Lee
high region. But in April it was dis
covered that the Lehigh Valley opera
! tors had sent 100000 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, Lehlgh, Lackawanna, and
Wyoming Rivers. These railroad and
canal companies have 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
eral regions. The population is dense,
and are all directly or indirectly con-
cerned in the production or transpor-
tation of coal. BY including the Lee
high Valley Railway Company and
the Central New Jersey RailwaytCOm-
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 ac-
complished by the league during its
existence was the prevention of COM
petition. No company was allowed to
sell more than 4 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
a 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
a point to which the price of anthra-
cite coal may be pushed, but when
prices are carried beyond that, the con-
sumption declines, and other Goals enter
into competition. TO this, and not to
any unwillingness or moral compunc-
tons on the part Of the companies, is due
the forbearance of the monopoly. The
fact, however, remains that the an
thracite regions of Pennsylvania are
capable of producing and sending to
market annually at least three times
the amount of coal that is sold. This
would, of course, materially reduce
the price of coal to consumers; but, as
the coal-beds and all the means of
transportation from the mines are
mainly owned and controlled by the
same corporations, the amount of coal
produced and transported is limited by
agreement that there shall be no COM
petition in prices, and the price to con-
sumers is fixed arbitrarily on the first
day of each month.
Now the combination is broken by
the withdrawal of the two transporta-