Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-02-13
THE GREAT COMBINE
\ Possibility that the Coal
 Deal May bo Upset.
THE LEASE SAID TO BE ILLEGAL
But Reading Official Says There is Not .
 Single Point Against IL.

@Ano nest Aegst 1olenG EmpIOyeO anu tne Points Carefully Considered Before the Negotiations Were Begun. A. J. Cassatt, of the Pennsylvania, Says the Reading Lease is Clear Violation of the Consti- tuition of the State.
 PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Feb. 13.-The con summation of the great anthracite coal combination continues to be the absorb ing topic of conversation in financial cir cles in connection with the rumor that Attorney General Hensel intends to go into court and attempt to prevent the combination. The opinion is generally expressed that no legal obstacles can be placed in the way of the combination. President Mcleod of the Reading railroad is not in the city. Another official of the Reading said:
 ''You can rest assured that all the legal points were carefully considered before negotiations were begun. We had the best legal advice obtainable, and there is not single point that can be brought against the combination
 A. J. Cassatt, one of the directors of the Pennsylvania railroad company, de- clared the Reading leases to be 8 clear violation of the Constitution of the State.
 q think" he said, 'that this is the most audaeious and most impudent de- fiance of the law and the Constitution of the State that has ever been attempted in Pennsylvania, It is not possible that the people who have made this gigantic combination can have forgotten the re- suit of the litigation growing out of the proposed purchase by the Pennsylvania railroad company of the South Penn road and the Beech Cree road several years ago.
 ''In this case the Bedford & Bridgeport Railroad, corporation controlled by the Pennsylvania road, was used as medium for the purchase; but as soon as the in tention became known the atEorney-gen- eral of the State, under the direction of the Governor, interposed and applied to the courts for an injunction restraining the Bedford & Bridgeport Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad from consum- mating the purchase, setting up that provisisn of the Constitution of the State which prohibits any railroad corporation from leasing, purchasing, or in any way acquiring the control of a competing | line.
 "A lot of litigation ensued, with the result that the State won at every point, and the Bedford & Bridgeport and the | Pennsylvania Railroad were enjoined directly or indirectly, or in any way, carrying out the intended purchase or control.
 ''In the reports of the Readings trans | actions we are informed, first, that the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, a com | pany that competes at hundred differ ent points and in thousand different ways with the Reading, is leased to that company; second, that the Central Rail- road of New Jersey, whose lines run parallel and in sight of the Lehigh Valley from Phillipsburg to Wilkesbarre, is leased to a little New Jersey corporation created by the Reading Railroad Com pany and now owned and controlled by that company, unless the control has been constructively parted with for the purpose of giving some color of legality to the lease.
 'tHere is an attempt to create a monop- oly of almost the entire anthracite output of the State, which amounts to 4O, 900, ,OOO tons per annum, and puts it in the power of one man to fix the price of fuel used by every household in the State"
 When asked whether the Pennsylvania railroad company would institute legal proceedings to prevent the deal from being carried out, MT. Cassatt said he knew nothing about that, but he then added:
 Ut happens, fortunately that the Gov ernor of the State is the same Governor who so promptly took action against the Pennsylvania railroad in the case re- ferred to.''
 To suppose the Governor would not now act would be to suspect that Gov. Pattison would fail in his plain duty, and he (Cassatt) was not willing to sup pose anything of the kind.