The New York herald., 1876-08-18
The Anthraclt. Coal Ring.


the Board of Control of the Coal Ring it seems
the difficulties were once more patched up
and the weak link in the combination OF
coal companies is to be made fast and strong,
SO that the huge monopoly may continue to
stagger alone until an attack on some more
vulnerable point may break it up and bring
about lower prices. How important the coal
interests are may be judged from the fact that
the annual production of the Union reaches
over forty millions of tons, half of which
is Pennsylvania anthracite Every dollar,
therefore, which tho public is forced to pay
for hard coal beyond the cost Of production
and a fair profit means twenty millions of
dollars annually to combination of railroad
companies. These wiring further profit out
of the private miner who would be able to
undersell them but for the exactions of ex-
cessive freight Or tolls to tidewater. To
these he must submit, or by selling his coal
at the pits mouth to the railroad he may
obtain starvation prices, which sooner or
later make him glad to sell out altogether.
The determined struggle Of the coal carry
ing roads to maintain and advance the
present price of coal Is met by an opposition
equally determined on the part Of consumers,
hence the middle men or coal factors are
ton in the number Of that class The coal
auction Sales which formerly give fair
index of supply and demand, have been
suspended since 1875, SO that the great
monopolists have effectually bottled up the
avenues to any form of competition.
The six companies which dictate the price
Of coal in summer and advance it each
autumn and winter to the highest figures
that can be squeezed out of the consumers
arc the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western
Railroad; the Central Railroad Of New Jer-
sey, the Lehigh Valley Railroad the Della
waro and Hudson Canal Company, the
Pennsylvania Coal Company and the Phila-
delphia and Reading Railroad The neces-
sty which now exists for these six corpora
tions to hang together as they do has been
brought about by their extravagant and
reckless management since the war. Not
contented with the ten per cent dividends
on their constantly increasing stock which
four Of the six made and sometimes ex-
ceeded, and which the other two generally
made, for ten years past, they entered into
leases of roads and lands and land pur-
chases, urged thereto by the profits which
the enormous imitation of the iron business
and railroad building seemed to promise.
These improvements and purchases, at war
prices, were paid for by enormous pledges
of future credit just as if the business of
the country was to be always at the same
breathless tension and there were to Be no
Interruptions to prosperity. The imitation
of the past ten years we give here, the fig
ufes being the amount of the capital stock
and debit
Delaware, Lackawanna and
Western Railroad SIS, ,3763 800 S36, 535 l3S
Central Railroad of New Jer-
sey............ ............ lo3lS BOY 41,3v3 0O8
Iehigh Valley ............. 10 SS5 200 a. 22l 208
Delaware and Hudson Canal. 10 600 900 81, 660 1877
Philadelphia and Reading. 29, 49, 430 "a, 1885, S36
Totals ................ssl,1 1o2, 5l1 $2e5 ,377
Thus, the eighty-one millions which rep
resented the cost of the coal carriers of
1865 has become two hundred and sxty-five
millions now. and q closer study, not here
necessary, would show that nearly all the
imitation has been accomplished since 1868
and 1869. The road mos. prominent, by it's
immense purchases of land, &C., and con-
sequent addition to its debt, is the Phil
adelphia and Reading Railroad, and as it is
dictator in the prices Of the Schuylkill
region the importance to it of the addition
of fifteen cents per ton on the whole an
thracite trade which consumers must pay
after August will be seen by q comparison
of the years 1869, 1874 (the best year in its
history and 1875, the year Of the strike:-
Amour. of debt S., $4,000 sss 1856 900 SEQ 200 600
Amount OF stock. 29. 9.o2aooo s4,274,ooO 34277 900
Rscsip,s scs is from coal sssssoSo
other sourees. 2,ssa,oo s,Ss2ooo 5,o24 900
Gross earnings. =. II, 2os 600 H. 452ooo II o6o 600
Niles road owned. l52 27 81:
This table shows that, while the share
capital has during the past seven years in
creased from twenty-nine to thirty-four
millions, and tho debt from about eight
millions to sixty-eight millions Gncluding
the last London issue of ten millions), the
gross earnings Of the road have not mate
rally advanced; that while the coal tonnage
of the road has increased nearly fifty per
cent it is hauled for less money than in
1869, so that, this great expansion Of credit
having brought no increase of coal business
to the srailroad for which it was incurred,
the price of commodity ranking in i'm
portance next to food must be nrtifcially
kept up and all healthy competition extin-
guished to enable this and other corporn-
tions in the same situation to earn the in
terest on their bonds.
Tho Closing Performance OF Wagnsr's
TrloSy.