Morning journal and courier., 1884-07-23

Now, as to the cost of coal. To mine it costs | about $1.5 ton. To ship it to tide water at Philadelphia, 95 miles, costs about 25 cents q ton, or S1.75 in all. The same coal retails in Philadelphia at S6. 50 and $7 ton. Thirty miles from the mines it sells for $5 ton, and the retail dealers declare they can hardly keep life and soul together on their meagre profits. Of course the Philadelphia and Reading railroad company paid at least S60, ,OOO, 900 for it's coal lands. Coal unmined is worth price. At 50 cents a ton, enough could be mined in 30 years to pay the entire debt, and the mines could be very proftably operated for at least 30 years more Many say they are good for 100 years. If, there fore, coal is worth, first cost, 50 cents ton, unmined, the value of ton to the company at tide water would be:
 Coal. 50 Mining ..-........ I 50 Total ...................... $2a5
 If the retailers profit is 50 cents ton (and that is doubtful in all cases) the company would reap profit of at least S3 ton on every ton of coal it sold. Making due allow ance for loss, wear and tear, etc, would re- duce their profits for each ton to about $2. D at tide water. That is the scheme of the coal pool. They want that profit or none at all. They want more than 100 per cent. or they will default in the payment of their in terest, cut down wages, shut up co1lieries
 
 panic in the section ill which they operate. What is the defense of the coal poo1s They say that if there are no restrictions to mining, no explicit understanding to how much each company may mine and sell, the market will be glutted all the time, prices will be cut, coal will go begging for buyers, and prices will become so low that coal mining would soon become very unproftable. They virtually kill all competition, consolidate into one giant monopoly, and compel the con sumer to pay whatever they may see fit to ask for it. The Readings capacity is equal to one-third the capacity of the anthracite coal mines of America; it's facilities for cheap mining are unsurpassed; it's coal property worth twice the money it paid for it. and yet, because it cannot realize 100 per cent. on it's coal-mining, it prefers voluntary bankruptcy, default, and general shrinkage of all it's se- curities
 Had the Reading been an independent coal miner and shipper it could have sent to mar ket, in the past three months enough coal and sold it at that, to have realized sufficient money to pay it's interest Had it sent" it's coal to market consumers would have been able to purchase coal at reasonable rates, a refreshing opportunity which the coal-pool does not propose to tolerate just yet. If the Reading company were an independent miner free from all alliances, standing upon its own bottom, as all other legitimate business enter prises should, by working full time it could et4SlAy send Io market ana sell o,UUU,UOO tons of coal every year, which would be equal to a clear profit of $1,0OO, 900 month But the pool says; ''No; shut your mines, discharge your men; wait, wait, and compel higher prices, and there is 8 chance that your profits will be greater' It was while wait ing for those profits that the Reading became apparently bankrupt, and reeled and fell un- der it's heavy load. It was waiting until the time came when the buyer, the retailer and the manufacturer would be compelled to pay exorbitant rates. It was a race between the two, and thasconsumer won, because in some instances he shut up shop rather than buy, and in other instances bought only enough to run half time. The consumer understood the al-pool, and refused to bow and buy