Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-09-05
POWDERLY ON THE DEAL.
ANOTHER SCATHING LETTER FROM
THE MASTER WORKMAN.
Through the SIX. of L. journal" He
shows How the Bankrupt Reading Is
Being neutrality-suspicious. Derelict
Ohicials-McLeOd Asked for Law.

ell last winter, the argument was put
forward that the price of coal would not
be advanced. The announcement was
made by the promoters of the scheme
that the movement was in the interest of
economy, and that the cost of production
would be cheapened. 1t would strike
the average mortal that when the cost of
production is lowered the price of the
article produced should also decrease.
If the price should not be lowered, it
should not be advanced. Soon after the
articles of consolidation were signed by
the parties to the combination the price
of coal was advanced 25 cents ton.
Every eye was turned toward the retail
dealers of the large cities to see what
action they would take, and the COM
Diners pointed triumphantly to the in
activity of the retailers, and with a
"didn't-I-tell-you-so" sort of look, they
went right on with the combine.
Happening in New York soon after
the price of coal was advanced last spring,
| inquired how the thing was working.
| discovered that, notwithstanding the
been made by the retail dealers, the
vanced, and that the poor people who
are obliged to purchase coal by the pail
were being fined for the crime of those
who effected the combination.
Outside of the coal regions consumers
of coal do not burn the article of fuel as
literally as we do here among the Mines
In the large cities where rents are high,
every way, people are obliged to live on
the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and
seventh stories of tenement-houses. 1t
is impossible to enjoy the use of cellar,
and coal cannot be stored away in guam
tiles. Those who burn it must buy every
morning from the retailer or the corner
groceryman. Coal sells at from 10 to ~
cents pail. 1t takes ninety pals of coal
to make ton.
When the price of coal advances it is
not possible to divide a cent, and as a
consequence, each time the consumer
purchases a pail of coal he must pay at
least ! cent of an increase. When the
combination advances coal % cents a ton,
the consumer who buys by the pail must
pay at the rate of 80 cents ton more
than before the price of the article was
raised. Last week, on the morning of
the Goth, the sales agents of the anthra-
cite coal companies made another ad-
vance OF 20 cents ton on the price of
coal.
Some may ask why the retail dealers
did not advance the price of coal last
spring when the combination was form
ed. The warm weather was approach
ing, the necessity for coal was not SO
great, the sales were falling off, as they
always do at that time of the year, and
to run up the price of an article which
the people could, just at that time, use
sparingly, would not be regarded as a
hue t., e.
days the weather will begin to cool off
and the consumption of coal will in
crease, the necessities of the people will
through that necessity they will have to
pay higher price for what they use.
Twice since the combination was form
ed has coal advanced, each time 25 cents.
1t is now half dollar higher in price
than it was on the day the Infamous
Reading deal was consumated. Many
people in New York will carry coal
home, by the pail, at an increase of 9
cents per pail above last years prices.
At the rate of ninety pals to the ton,
the New York consumer will pay just
81 80 more for every ton of coal consum-
ed during the coming winter.
That is one side of it; the other, as we
see it here in the coal regions, is not a
bit better. With three coal-breakers
standing where one can do the work,
the miner and laborer around the mine
will work short time as before. Coal
has advanced 50 cents ton, but the
coal producer has received none of the
benefits of that advance. 1t has gone
into the pockets of those who own the
coal mines, and they alone are the
gamers.
Did the Reading combine economize?
1t did. All the way from Scranton, the
northern terminus of the Central Rail
road of New Jersey, to tidwater, in New
Jersey, workmen have been discharged,
put on short time and reduced in wages.
Where some twenty eight painters were
required at the Ashley shops. but three
are now engaged. The cars of the Cen
tral Railroad, and other property of that
company which requires paint, are al
lowed to 60 unpainted. The engines and
rolling-stock of the Central are run.
double as well as single turn, with little
or no repair. The road-bed is allowed
TO 60 without the repairs which regard
for the safety of the travelling public
should suggest. Material is ordered in
the name of the Central Railroad of New
Jersey and the Lehigh Valley Railroad
and is taken to the Reading Railroad
proper and used in the service of that
company.
Everything that dishonest thought can
suggest is being done to squeeze the last
cent out of these two railroads in order
to bolster up the tottering Reading, to
pay up a part of its enormous indebted
ness and to keep it from going to pieces
Should the Reading company dissolve, as
it would have to do without outside aid,
it would have to reorganize. Should it
reorganize, it might become a subject
for the srutiny of state officials, and they
might discover that its reorganization
would place it under and not above the
the constitution.
The business men who predicted pros.
perity under the rule of the Reading
combine are now complaining of the fal.
ling off in trade. Where large numbers
of men are discharged here and there
they do not buy as plentifully as they
formerly did, their trade is withdrawn
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