The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-10-18

lily lVs ulLnOSL TO cOerce Ine couoAhou
coal roads and companies to reduce
the price of this prime necessary Of
life to the consumers.
The fact of the matter is, the Demo-
cratic party has been most hostile to
the Reading combination through
out. First, it made the reduction OF
the price of coal a condition of legal
izing the lease or agreement into
which the companies had entered.
When the combination refused to
give the guarantees, the Democratic
party, speaking through it's leader,
Governor Leon Albeit, formally re-
fused to sanction or tolerate the con
solidation of the railroads in this
State. That was what Governor Abb
belts famous veto meant, and no
| other construction can be placed on
it. Was this hostility to the ~so-called
coal combine, or was it not2 We
leave the answer to any rational man.
Was, this protecting the interests OF
the people IS coal consumers or was
it not9 Again we leave the answer to
the readers own common ense.
But the Democracy went further. A
Democratic Attorney General, backed
by the same Democratic Governor
pursued the combination into the
courts, and a Democratic Chancellor,
on the express ground that the com-
bination was against public policy be-
cause it 81, created a p~rice-raising
monopoly in coal, ordered that that
combination be dissolved.
Now comes a final step in the Demo
| cratic hostility to the combination.
| Yesterday the Attorney General S ked
OF the Chancellor the appointments a
| receiver to take charge OF the roads
| with a view to the dissolution of the
monopoly. The Chancellor received
the proposition in a way which sets
up a probability that he will grant it.
1t is not necessary, at this time, to
go into the economic questions in
voIved in the present Democratic
policy. We confess we have great
doubts of its soundness on general
principles. An effort on the part OF
the State to control prices of COM
modities. whether through the Legis-
lature or the courts is a form OF
paternalism, which we would be very
slow to fully endorse. We have al
kways looked for the solution of the coal
price question through competition.
Either coal is too dear or it is not. Ii
it is not, The companies cannot be
blamed for charging the present rates.
If it is, all reason. all experience prove
that in a very little while competition
will bring it down to a just standard.
The Reading companies have no real
monopoly of the coal supply. The
tPennsylvania. Railroad and other in
dependent parties control coal enough,
if the mines were fully dew eloped anc
worked, to compete with the Readins
and keep the price at a fair living
figure for the next hundred years Al
least.
But without entering into the rlght
or wrong of the d IN ,eratic policy, it
is impossible to ignore the fact:-The
party is most absolutely hostile t.
the Reading Company. 1t is most
determinedly bent on forcing dowr
the price of coal, or disrupting the
combination in the attempt. 1t il
prepared to strain every power of the
State, Legislative, Judicial. Executive
for this purpose. This is certain.
Then what do the Republican at
tacks mean9 To what element o.
opaqueness or unreason in the popu
lar mind do they appeal in their daily
reiterated cry that the Democracy il
responsible for the high price of coal
OF course, the Republican orators
and editors have nothing else to tall
about. Take this ~atrocious falsehoot
away, and there is not the ghost of {
State issue left them. They are
thrown back upon the icy comfort O
McKinleyism, Lodgism, Reidism and
all the other Nightmares that make VI
their national record.
But badly off as they are for ar
issue, they had done better TO refrain
from the absolute falsehood involved
in their coal campaign. They will, II
appears, be contradicted by the logic
of events at every turn OF the
campaign. The people are moi
fools. They read the history
of the day in the papers of all parties
and when in one column they see tn
active attacks OF Democratic official
upon the coal roads described in full
detail, they will hardly be foolisl
enough to swallow the lie in the mex
column that the Democracy has aide'
these same roads to increase the pric
of coal.
WEST BERGEN DOINGS.
This afternoon the corner stone of til
new South Bergen Reformed Church, a
Rova and RarQeu avenues. VIII be lat