Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-05-26
Esten on the Coal Monopoly.


great coal combination attained its pres
ent power. The article is an interesting
and valuable one, as it is remarkably
accurate and abounds with excellent
descriptions of the conditions existing in
the coal region, especially the Lehigh
section, with which Mr.. Estell is well
acquainted. The writer, who is known
throughout the country as leading ad-
vocate of the Henry George theory of
taxation, offers the following as the only
remedy by which the increasing powers
of monopoly can be curtailed. He says:
1 am firmly convinced that the one
remedy for the coal pool that exists to-
day is to prevent by law the ownership
OF land by corporations beyond certain
limited amounts, or at all, except such
as they can and shall actually use. The
forestalling of natural resources, the
monopolizing of the control of the
supply of such product as coal, which
is so universally public necessity, are
certainly among the things which should
be forbidden as a condition of per-
mitting to live, the corporations which
depend upon legislation for their right
to exist at all.
If the great corporations, now securely
lntrenched, were compelled to pay into
the treasury of the state annually the
full rental value of their undeyeloped
lands, they would be compelled either
to develop them or dispose of them to
men who would develop them. That
would mean the construction of two
collieries for every one in existence to-
day, giving employment to thousands of
iron workers and carpenters and labor
ing men generally. The increase of col
lleries would mean, of course, increased
demand for men to mine coal, thus re-
heving largely the labor market in that
section of the state. 1t would bring
about the conditions that existed prior
to 1870, and the mine workers would be
able to obtain for their services fair
share of the wealth they produce. 1t
would increase the production of coal
and, by increasing the production,
cheaper that product to the consumer.
The cheapening of the product would
mean an enormous increase in the
number of consumers, and consequently
a ready market for all the coal that
could possibly be mined.
A letter which / received from the
coal-fields of Pennsylvania only three
days ago tells me that the mines are
working in some places two days pei
week and in no place more than foul
days. If the monopoly of land in the
coal-tields were destroyed, the stories
which are now read every day of the
poverty that exists in the coal-felds
would be changed into descriptions of
happy homes and prosperous working
men.
The promoters of the present comblna-
ton claim that their action will result in
giving the American consumers of coal a
cheaper product, because of the econo.
mics made possible by the concentration
of management under one great head
This has always been the plea of the
trust and the combine; but pleasant as
the promises may sound, they have never
yet been realized Coal is mined in the
anthracite region to-day cheaper than
ever before in the history of mining.
The cost of mining coal has been reduced
during the past fifteen years, The iron
and all the material which goes into the
construction of collieries can be purchas-
ed for about one-half of the cost twenty
years ago. The wages of the men have
been greatly reduced, new grades of coal
have been invented and all conditions
have tended to cheaper the production
of coal to the coal-mine owners, and the
freight charged by the great railroad
corporations for carrying coal from tn,
mines to tide water and then paid int
their own pockets through the coal com
panies which they control, can be great
ly reduced and still leave a great prof
to the coal carriers.
The application of the single tax il
destroying the monopoly of land ant
compelling the great railroad corpora
tions to sell out the vast tracks of lant
they now possess, would mean the re
establishment of the individual colierie
that insured prosperity to the miner anC
fair prices to the consumers years ago
and the establishment of these indi
Yidual mine-owners would compel tn,
great railways once more to depend
solely upon their carrying trade fo
their profits, and the competition be
tween them for freight would once NOR
ensue, and in that way the price of toll
would be considerably reduced.
But by reason of the fact that the Goa
carrier is practically the coal min,
owner as well, the consumer has nevel
reaped any benefit from the reduction
in the cost and never will so long as si1
great corporations, now practically made
one by gigantic combination, are en-
abled to possess in one single state OF
the union nearly 500 square miles OF
coal land.
And after all that can be said and
that is said against these great extor-
tioners, their powers have been legally
acquired, There is not an evil TO-DAY
which they are enabled to visit upor
their employees or upon the public bu
has been given them through the ig
norance, the prejudice or the careless
ness of the people themselves. These
corporations thoroughly understand the
weakness OF human nature, and their
constant aim is to prevent concerted ac-
tion on the part of the masses by appeal
ing to the prejudices, both religious and
political, Of the men who enjoy the right
of suffrage. And, as long as it is posi-
BILE for people to be divided by appeals
to their prejudice, so long will it be pos
sible for the Philadelphia and Reading
Railroad Company and the combination
which it represents to-day and all other
great trusts and combinations of the land
to enjoy privileges and exercise powers
never before granted to any class of men.