The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1879-03-29
Ten Yenr. Am ma NOW.


Ten Years Ago md Now.
A score Of years ago, says Wilkesbarre
correspondent, the wealth Of this city was
proverbial farms that had been only indif-
ferently productive were found to be under
laid with deposits Of coal, and the acres in
creased in value from tens to thousands
As development went, speculation began,
and real values were magnifed a hundred
fold, until the value Of Wyoming Valley
could hardly have been reckoned greater had
it been ovcrlaid with gold. The war--that
gave fictitious values to many things-gave
fictitious values to coal lands and city lots,
and real estate Of every description rose TO
prodigous prices. Companies were formed,
savings were invested, and in the popular
mind the Midas touch was everywhere.
Combinations of railway companies and coal
companies were formed, and there was a
heyday for money making. In those times
miners who earned SIS a day were not
thought to be particularly prosperous, and
money being plenty they were improvdent
and careless. ofcourse the shock of coming
back to an honest and intrinsic basis was in
evitable, and il has come. No stronger
contrast could be furnished to the student
OF political economy than the situation here
in go and that of the present.
In the days of Wllkesbarre's prosperity
residences were erected in the town to which
the adjective palatial was correctly applica-
BILE. Life was at its flood tide, and extrava-
gance of living was the rule. Men reckoncd
their future income on the basis of except
ional prosperity, and when there was a re-
turn to the ordinary and legitimate course
of business, failures were inevitable. One
fortune crumbled with the ruin Of another
One does not need a very long memory to
recall the failures Of Bennett, Phelps 4 Co.,
j. II. SwUyer, Thomos Broderick & Co., and
others who have figured in the bankrupt list
The reaction is terriblej houses that cost
! 100000 cannot find purchasers at $4,000,
and men have sold real estate for half its
cost, because Of their inability to pay the
taxes. To add to the distress, or rather, per-
haps, an equal cause Of it, the coal compan-
les have lost their heads in vain competi-
ton, and mines could not be worked with
profit at such prices as the coal rings have
made imperative. A whole mining popu-
laton has been kept at starvation wages,
while various combinations Of capitalists
have been fighting for monopolies. Dissat.
isfaction and riot have been the result on
the part of the laborers, loss OH the part Of
the owners, and the country at large has
gained less in the low prices than it has lost
in the waste of a valuable product.
MIR. T. W. Williams, Mine Inspector for
the Middle District of Luzerne and Carbon
Counties, informs us that every ton Of coal
mined last year was sold at loss of dollar
per ton thus showing a loss in round mum
bcrs 500, 100000 to an area containing 2OO,-
900 inhabitants, being an average loss oi
800 to every person; for these losses must
come home directly or indirectly TO all who
find livelihood hereabouts. This loss is ru-
inous to mine owners and lessces, who mine
as little coal as they possibly can and keer
their working forces on the ground. 1t is
an exceptional thing to find mine worked
more than three quarters time, even with @
reduced force of workmen. Out of fifty
breakers eighteen are idle. The working
force has been reduced more than 1000 mer
in three years, and the production of Goa
last year was reduced 4,Os2,372 tons from
the year previous. And yet with all thi'
reduction of productive forces coal is still
sold in the market at loss.
OF course this state of things cannot last
and there are already signs Of change
With the waking up of the manufacturing
industries of the country there is to be al
increased demand for coal. The natura
, laws of trade must, in course of time, over
power the most powerful of the companies
, and the great veins of supply will breal
through the dams of monopoly, and Aov
A., again in their legitimate channels to tn
great ocean of demand.
In the meanwhile the miners have learn
. ed how to starve- not cheerlully but will
curses on their lips and anger in their hearts
They denounce all companies, owners, les
: sees, agents and spectators, under the gen
eric name of capital They see the abund
. ant coal, the wide market, on one hand
and on the other they feel themselves hun
CRY and naked, while corporations undersel
each other, in unwarrantable efforts to ge
control of the market. Men who see thei
/ children hungry are not likely to be philos
ophic. They are desperate.