Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1878-01-30
Light The Free Pipe Bill Not
the kind of Legislation the Com
mnnMealth Needs.

uUu Wcdllu NCOuos
Long ago PEOPLE used pine knots
for light. After they accumulated
more of this worlds goods, they used
the lard of hogs and the tallow OF
cattle for light. Each family pro
duced its own light at little cost,
The next light was whale oil and gas,
neither of which were produced by
the people themselves, but by second
and third parties, which was the
cause of the creation, as it were, of a
new industry. But all the lights OF
the fathers have given way to the
light of this day and generation.
The new light is not gathered from
the wood, extracted from hog, steer,
or whale, or generated in gas houses,
but is pumped out of the earth, and
people are pleased to call it coal oa.
Coal oil is the new light. Large com
panies and corporations have been
formed to get it out Of the ground,
and SO centralized have these organi-
cations become that they are threat
ening the equilibrium of the coal oil
business. and agitating the legisla-
tive making branch of the govern
ment of this Commonwealth by their
persistent demands. The associa-
ton, or corporation in embryo, that
is at the head of the movement,
pressing the Legislature for enact
ments, is called The Coal Oil Pro
ducing Association. The Associa-
ton is importuning the Legislature
to pass what it is pleased to call a
TREE PIPE BILL, which shall provide for
the construction of pipe line or
lines, through which coal oil is to be
run from the oil country to the ports
along the Atlantic sea board, on the
principle much ike a free railroad
law. At first sight the question
seems fair enough in the light of
Free Pipe Law, but when the inter
ests of Pennsylvania, which are the
first interests in the question, comes
to be considered, the proposed FREE
PIPE LAW falls to heavy discount,
for to give the proposed measure life
by legislative enactment, will be to
strike at interests in the Common
wealth that are sources of revenue to
the State, and sources of employ
ment for many men. 1t has already
been told that the parties moving in
the matter, as soon as they get the
law passed, will construct pipe line
to Baltimore, Md, that being the
nearest sea port. A line to Balti-
more would destroy all the oil re-
fneries in the Commonwealth, and
thus throw hundreds of men out of
employment, and render millions of
capital invested in the refneries val
ueless. 1t would destroy the coal oil
carrying trade of the railroads, and
thus again destroy the employment
Of hundreds Of men, without making
work for a single man removed. 1t
would render the millions of dollars
invested in coal oil cars and coal oil
tanks valueless, and would cut down
the revenues of the State to much
greater degree than people now real
ize, which would have to be made up
on other branches of industry. For
all this loss to the people of Pepnsyl-
vauia, nothing whatever will be re-
ceived in return. The only people
who will receive benefit, are the peo-
pie across the ocean, and the coal oil
pipe corporations. Foreigners may,
or may not, get coal oil few cents
cheaper than they now do. But grant
it, that foreigners thereby may be
benefited to the value of penny or
two on a quart, how would that bene-
fit the people of Pennsylvania Says
one, 1T Will strike at the powerful
railroad corporations who carry all
the coal oil" That is about the most
truthful thing that has been said Of
it. Grant it, that it strikes at the
railroad interest, how will that help
the State How will that help the
people? He must be a dull man who
cannot see that to so strike railroad
that employs thousands Of
men in the Commonwealth, and pays
thousands Of revenue into the State !
Treasury, and carries the products
Of the soil, and the merchandise of
millions of people, to benefit pipe
line, that in the nature of its business,
comparatively speaking, employs few
men, and pays but little revenue, is not
The kind of Legislation that the Com
needs
Through mail for cities, but give
country people in the Juniata Valley
nails on way trains.