St. Paul daily globe., 1886-02-08
COAL COMBINATION.
The Great Drexel- Morgan Scheme to Unite
the Coal and Trunk Lines Losing
Ground.
Excellent Prospects for a Shifting Of
freights to New Orleans and Other
Southern Ports.
rAutter Created by n RumOr of
NesoIauons for the Sale of the
b. IL o. Telegraph.
Ihe western Union ''win Buy Tele-
graph Lines Only From the
Sheriff.
The week in Wal IStree.
Special 10 the Glope.

special 10 the GIODe-
New YORK, Feb. THE Sun will cav
tomorrow: The grand scheme of combina-
tiOn of the trunk and coal lines under the
care of the Drexel-MOrgan syndicate did
not make much headway during the week.
In fact the syndicate lost ground. for it is
every day becoming more evident that the
roads west of Chicago find their interests in
many ways opposed TO those east or Chicago,
and are for cutting loose from all alliances.
In the first place it is now clear that the
Chesapeake IL Ohio has been cutting tre-
mendOuSly into east-bOuud freight rates
from ST. Louis, so much, indeed, that the
local committee there has been obliged to
ask Commissioner Fink to help them out of
their troubles. This, however, is not easy
to do, for Mr.. Garrett of the Baltimore "
Ohio shows no anxiety to meet the views
or the other trunk roads, and al
though anthracite coal cannot be produced
along the Southern and Western roads. the
bttuminous varieties are in great plenty and
can be easily and cheaply mined. Besides
the fine tide-water outlets of the Chesapeake
" Ohio, and the Baltimore q Ohio there are
many other still further south. and it would
be nothing surprising to see large blocks of
freight shifting to New Orleans and other
Southern ports.
THE SITUATION
at present is simply this; Ii there is a rate
war freight will be shipped by the road
charging the lowest rates, and if there ia
peace, then the road which can do the busi-
ness the cheapest will dictate its own
terms. Either contingency can scarcely
benefit the great trunk lines, and
this makes the prospects of
the DreXel-MOrgan syndicate somewhat
gloomy. The cutting of passenger rates by
the st. Paul road. which broke the stock
market on Saturday, is exactly case in
point and shows how little st. Paul cares
for the roads east of Chicago.
By establishing a second-class rate
of 81 to Council Bluffs the st. Paul
road cuts immigrant rates to San Francisco
to S47, and to Denver to S26. This was
done without any consultation with the
association which is supposed to regulate
rates and may be taken as clear token
of what the roads east of Chicago
may expect in the future. The story
that Mr.. GasTett was a large buyer of Western
union stock with view to making a deal
for the Baltimore IL Ohio Telegraph COM
pany found SO much credence that even
persons interested in the rival telegraph
schemes, like Ed Stokes and his following,
bought the Western Union stock. The
rumOr of the purchase seems to be correct,
but the cause of it is misunderstood.
THE DREXEL-MoRGAN SYNDICATE,
with which Mr.. Garrett is supposed to
have been in constant consultation last
week, is loaded up with Lake Shore, New
York Central, West Shore and other So
called Vanderbilt stocks, and therefore it
| is much easier for it to attempt to establish
bull market by putting up some stock
like Western Union or Delaware IL Lacka-
wanna. But, even suppOsing that Mr..
Garrett were ready to sell out his telegraph
lines to the Western Union, it is certain
that the corporation would not be willing
purchaser Jay Gould is still undoubtedly
the largest owner of the stock,
and he does not seem to care much
whether he sells it at 100 or par. When
the Mutual Union was bought up Messrs.
Eckert and Green both declared themselves
opposed to such policy, and the opinion of
the triumvirate was happily expressed by
one of them, who said, I'VE will buy no more
telegraph lines except from the sheriff. 1t
is extremely probable that the next divi-
dend of the Western Union will be only
or 81 of l per cent, and that still further
reductions will be made in the near future.