The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-08-29
The Rapture OF tho Coal Combina-
ton.

IEere Is 10 De To-Day WuaV lS Cuiieu !"
coal sale--an auction sale of half million
tons-to fix the market price. Already
coal is cheaper by one dollar and half per
ton than it was before the coal coinbina-
ton went to pieces, and there Is no
doubt that within u few days it will be
cheaper STILL 1t must inevitably go dol
lar or two dollars lower in the absence OF the
coal combination. which is simply a con-
spiracy to keep up the price; and the hon.
esty of the sale to be made to-day may be
determined by the simple rule OF its result
in this way. If it keeps prices near the
point fixed by the combination it is only
lesser russo of the same nature. There
are persons who contemplate the fall IN
the price of coal with heavy hearts, who
derive from it gloomy views as to the uncer-
tainties of investments and who otherwise
see in it a whole category of causes for de-
spondency; but this is not the way it is
looked at by the millions of consumers. 1t
is evident, however, that the rupture Of the
coal combination, like nearly every other
event of any magnitude may be contem-
plated from at least two widely different
standpointS If there is anywhere in the
world gain to one man that is not loss to
some other man it is not in the sphere of the
active rivalries of commerce and speculation,
and they who nre hurt by the event that is
at least an immediate advantage to all who
have to purchase the product OF the mines
would be more than human if they regarded
cheap coal with cheerful thoughts.
simultaneously with the fall in the price
Of coal we must record also such o fall in the
price Of securities related in one way or an
other to the coal interest as to reach almost
a panic. Shares in mine property, in coal
companies and in transportation companies
run down, not of course, near to the vanish
ing point, but far enough to give heavy
hearts to their owners. 1t is said that these
shares are owned in q great degree by "the
widow and orphan" The widow and
orphan are persons for whom the heart is
always open. Their appeal is made to the
ready sympathies Of the world when the
mere statement that they are widows and
orphans spreads before the minds eye pic
ture of their helpless and forlorn condition.
In the present case it might not be imper-
tinent to offer coincidence on their posses
sion of shares in mine property. Perhaps it
would be invidious to inquire how the
widow and orphan felt in those years when
their shares paid such returns that if they
have been, unhappily, widows and orphans
for any considerable time, they have prob
ably pocketed two or three times over the
sum of their original investment. Philos-
ophy might suggest that the owners of
the worst as we'll as the best property
have to take good and bad years together /;
and justice will wonder whether the widow
and orphan who will now get only five thou
sand dollars where before they got twenty
thousand can sympathize with those other
widows and orphans who in the winter
weather buy their coal by the pailful and
ordinarily pay twenty-five cents for what,
let us hope, they may presently secure for
ten Or maybe, five. 1t is an unfortunate
feature of the case TINT widows and orphans
of the city tenements so infinitely outnum-
berthe others that if sympathy is called for
in regard to the coal revolution the first
But is there any just connection between
fall in the price of coal, which carries it
only down to q reasonable point and the
proper value of these securities of the widow
and orphan? And if the rupture of
certain combination produces such calamity
to owners, why was it ruptured or why did
it exist? AS general principle all securi-
ties are most safe and most permanently
valuable when the enterprise to which they
arc related produces only moderate and
reasonable returns. Any departure from that
toward exaggerated earnings and fabulous
dividends involves danger that is in
exact proportion to the extent Of the de-
parture. AS another general princi-
pie, equally broad, all combination"
of q certain number of interests engaged in
the production or sale of any commodity is
made at the expense of tho public and is TN
attempt to prevent the settling Of prices at
the point they would reach by the operation
of the simple laws Of trade. It is an 1T
tempt to maintain prices beyond the point
they would reach if they were adjusted sim
ply to give fair return on capital. 1t is one
of the many contrivances Of ''him that max
eth haste to be rich" 1t is a villany always,
contemplated from any moral standpoint;
but when it is based upon a commodity that
is necessary to life, as this commodity has
become; when it makes its cold and cruel
speculation on tina: without which the peo-
pie cannot live, it is crime whose authors
oro ouflawed from all human sympathies
Their calamities may be looked upon by the
public without regret
Robbery OF the Poor by Rotten
Savings Banks.
Tho failure of the Trades Savings Bank
r. n So viii