Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-01
P0WDERLY PREPARED
To Go Before the Attorney General,
Thursday, and Tell Him What
HE THINKS OF THE READING DEAL.
IL the General Master WorkmaEs naShes
.- Are Anarchistic,
HE SAYS lONOPOLISTS ARE MORE so
HE THINKS OF THE READING DEAL.
HE SAYS EON0POLISTS ARE MORE so

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DrsPArcu.I
SCRANTON, Feb. 29-General Master
Workman Powderly declared to a DIS
PATCH reporter this afternoon that he
would go TO Harrisburg on Thursday to at
tend the hearing to be given the Reading
matter by Attorney General Hensel Mr..
Powderly expresses surprise that the deal
should meet the approval of business men
in this region, as ne declares it to be the
most disastrous blow ever struck at this Sec
tion of country.
Mr.. Powderly's idea is that the Reading,
as soon as it assumes control of the new
lines will pursue high-handed policy and
will dictate to the individual operators the
terms upon which it will handle their coal
and the amount which they will be allowed
to mine. .... -..-.. -..
When asked what he had to say regarding
the claim of the Reading management to
the effect that the Reading, Lehigh Valley
and Jersey Central roads were not compe-
ting lines in a legal sense. inasmuch as the
terminals of heir lines we're located at
different points, Mr.. Powderly replied:
Parallel Roads for Miles.
"That question is readily answered by the
turning of a switch" He then continued:
''Two lines of railroad run parallel with
each other from Easton to Wilkesbarre, q
distance of 100 miles. Every bend and turn
of the Lehigh river, from Easton to White
Haven, a distance of 20 miles, is in view of
the glistening rails of each of these two
railroads as they turn and bend with the
river. These certainly are parallel and
competing lines, within the full intent and
meaning of the Constitution. No other two
railroads in Pennsylvania can possibly ap-
proach nearer to each other in construction
and similarity than the Lehigh Valley and
the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the
two roads in question.
Under the recent combination effected
to freeze out competition and consumers of
coal as we'll, the Philadelphia and Reading
Railroad Company has absorbed the Lehigh
Valley and the Central Railroad of New
Jersey, and so far as these corporations are
concerned they are no longer competing
lines.
Where the Law Is Violated.
every letter and line of section of Sec
tion XIV of the Constitution of Pennsylva-
mia has been violated in the deal by which
the Reading gained control of these two
roads, and from now until the interests of
the law-protected robbers shall require that
the combination be broken, the people will
pay such tribute as may be delivered to
those who control the whole anthracite coal
supply of Pennsylvania.
MIR. Powderly's attention was called to |
newspaper comments upon recently pub |
lished utterance which ends abruptly with |
dash, the sentence reading: "Let us ascer-
tain whether we can legally redress our |
wrongs before resorting to" "What do |
you mean by the dash, Mr. Powderly?" was |
asked |
'Let them find out if they can. 1 see |
fal-
dash is anarchistic, what do you think of |
placing the sale of every pound of coal in |
the hands of two or three men? But let me |
say 1 detest anarchism, and 1 also detest |
the methods of men who make the working |
people Anarchists.