Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-08-29
THE COAL KINGS.
BRIEF SKETCHES OF rHErApcp
ANTHRACITE PROPERTIES.
E. B. Coke, Jay Gould, Henry G.
Flick, 'sam" Thomas, W. L.
Scott and Captain Browne.

oSOte anu OdpIdln Browne
In none of its branches and ramifca-
tons is the influence of American Mn
tocracy less appreciated and understood
than IN the Coal-ocracy. The business
or trade or profession of being a coal
king IS in the very nature of the case
more nearly hereditary than almost any
other, involving millions and brains
The root of the matter. the
source OF the fortune and the
power is in the ground, in the coal
mine, where it will remain for genera
lions and in which the past and con-
stantly accruing accumulations of the
owners will enable them to maintain
their own possession and proprietary
rights. When the aristocracy of oil and
OF lard and Of pork and of railroads and
OF iron shall have wilted away, the aris-
tocracy of coal may still be with us.
81 only cleared 81, 900 last year." said
Eckley b. Coke, the second greatest
owner of coal lands on the continent.
not long since, in judicial investiga-
ton in Pennsylvania Mr.. Coke has
some ten millions of dollars, and prob
ably more, invested in coal mines, which
he works himself and from which he
makes enormous shipments. Heis con
sidered an honorable and a truthful
man. The very remarkable statement
that he only cleared 81, 600 last year was
brought out by line of inquiry that
tended to show how small, after all,
were the profits made by the coal kings
on the "black diamonds" they retail,
through middlemen and railroad corpo-
rations, to the freezing and starving
poor Mr.. Coke arrived at the conclu-
sion that his profits as monarch Of the
coal mines, Sc ;ond in extent of holdings to
Jay Gould only, We're to be measured by
this ridiculously snail sum, by pecu-
liar, but from his standpoint a
fair process. From the net income
from the great Drifton coal
fields had been taken an enormous sum
OF money as royalties to the owners of
the mines" say Is cents on every ton
mined, royalty which Eckley b. Coke
as miner and Operator" had to pay to
Eckey b. Coke as "owner." That ex-
planned it all at once.
Eckley b. Coke is about feet inches
high, and is of medium size. He has a
big, brainy- looking head and smooth
shaven face that is full of energy and
determination. He is an active man, d
student, and mining engineer of no
mean abilities. As the employer of
thousands of miners, he has difficulties,
naturally, at times with his men. But
he was brought up among the mines to
the business Of mine management, and
he knows Just as much about the kind
of work required and what it is worth in
the labor market as do the miners them
selves. It is the competition between
men looking for work that fixes wages.
Time and again difficulties have arisen
between Mr.. Coke and his employees,
but they have never been as savage as
some OF the coal strikes, and the men
recognize always that Mr.. Coke has done
and is doing a great deal for them. He
had big fight ON hand last year with
his men, because he wanted TO reduce
their wages. He won the fight and the
reduction took place.
Everybody knows of jay Gould as q
railroad and a telegraph and stock
king. But how many know or have
even suspected that the Little Wizard
of Wall street is also the Coal King par
excellence of the American continent
Such, however, is the cold fact. What
ever corporations he owns stock IN are
apt to be controlled by Jay Gould. No
,xception to the rule will readily occur
to the thoughtful reader. 1t is not sur
prising. therefore, for such a reader to
learn that it is not in his own name, but
in the names OF railroad and coal mining
corporations which he dominates and
directs that Mr.. Gould stands before
the fuel-burning world as its big chief:
In this way JAY Gould owns more coal
lands than any other American citizen
by virtue of the holdings of the Missouri
Pacific Railroad Company, the Missouri,
Kansas and Texas Railroad Company,
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa re
Railroad Company, the Rich Hill Coal
Company Of Missouri, the Consolidated
Coal Company OF Illinois, the Delaware
and Lackawanna Railway Company ana
the Union Paci6c Coal Company.
The holdings Of the Missouri Pacihc,
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa re ana
tbe Missouri. Kansas and Texas Rail
,,,a1 ,ornranies are in the Indian Terri
torv By what process and whether II
was sdne process" of law these hold
ines were acquired it is not now time TO
INQUIRE. 1t seems little strangs to the
average citizen that the privileges and
powers of the prince OF plutoscrats IA .lis
rav Of acquiring Government lands ana
Of taking possession of Indian lands
should 81 be so much greater than his-the
private. oool land
in Bates County. Mo-, at Rich HILL III: rs
owned and operated by the hicn mn ~
Coal Company. The coal holdings oil
AIS HI' cornoration, whose name is 50 I'M
FAMILIAR fam G to newspaper readers, are very
extensive indeed. A rough and made de
a ares, at a value of 500 an acre. TINS
Is Jaw Gould's. For the matter Of that,
II is hard to find anything that lsn ! gay
Gonld's in the southwestern and western
LIZ 80 Of Missouri. Coal crops out here
P Pei tl,are IN MANY spurs and ranges OF