St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-04-14


national coal combine are Issued. Thasa
facts were freely conceded by the prinJ
clple managers OF these companies to
your committee.
Starting from this home,or seat, of tile
great owners OF coal properties, the ser.
pentine coils Of this colossal and
Hydra-Headed Combination
embrace the entire coal-consuming nor.
tion of these United States, and the
black cloud of disaster and extortioh
spreads over the entire country by the
vast ramifications of this conspiracy.
bringing distress to every manufacture
Ing industry and every fireside in our
land. and is, indeed, one Of the graVest:
dangers that now threatens the institu-
tlonS of our country.
Prior to the year 1887, as far as your
committee has been able to learn, no
eftectual combination existed between
the shippers or wholesalers in this
Northwestern country, and the trade
was fairly divided between them and
none controlled an excessive share of
the business; but each year since said
last-named date the companies that
then did business in this section, and
the few that have since come into this
territory, have combined, not only to fix
the price at which anthracite coal should
be sold within this state at wholesale,
but at retail as well; and to more effect
ually prevent competition. have limited
and arbitrarily fixed the amount Of coal
that should be brought to the head of
the lakes: and so thoroughly and COM
pletely has this work been accomplished
that On the last days of March and April
of each year there scarcely remains a
ton of coal upon the docks of Duluth of
the amount brought there during the
past season.
The uniform price at wholesale for
anthracite coal (and our inquiry has
been almost entirely confined to this
quality during the past season has
been s6.10 per ton on board the cars at
Duluth and West Superior. This price
is fixed by common agreement: the
local wholesalers before named insist
that 1T Is thus determined and fixed by
the owners of the property in the East;
but your committee doubts this. But
be this as it may, in any
event it is much too high, and
from the evidence at hand we have con-
cluded that the price of this coal on
board the cars at Duluth or West Su-
periOr should never exceed S5 per ton;
especially in view of the fact that the
cost of transportation from Buffalo or
Cleveland to West Superior or Duluth
via the lakes avera ged less than so cents
per ton during the past season. thus
demonstrating that there should be very
little difference between the price in
Buffalo and that in Duluth.
Company That Is RespOnsi bic.
The Northwestern Fuel company, the
largest and strongest of our local cor
porations, is, in the opinion of your
committee, in large measure respon-
sible for bringing about the combina-
tion that now exists, and SO perfect and
close has this Northwestern branch of
this great interstate conspiracy become
that there would be no substantial
difficulty in the way of its advancing
the price of coal to any point short OF
the limit to which the consumer might 90
before being forced to substitute other
kinds of fuel. The baletul results of
the combination among the shippers or
wholesalers is felt among the retailers,
and works fully as great hardship on
them as 1t does upon the people. as all
the wholesalers have retail Offices,
either i'll Duluth or West Superior, and
in st. Paul and Minneapolis, and have
evinced a disposition, which they do
not attempt to conceal, to deal directly
with the consumer, and therefore en-
tirely eliminate the retailers, or middle
men, and save to themselves the small
profits that now go to maintain the re-
tallerS in their business, and the un-
fortunate and helpless retailer. being
conscious of this disposition on the part
of the lordly autocratS to control the
supply of the commodity in which he
deals. is therefore easily coerced into
the most humiliating submissions to the
ror of hka WI
at whose mercy not only he is, but the
people as we'll.
The retail price of coal in the three
large cities of the state and their sub
urban districts is determined monthly
at conference held between the mana
gers of the shippers or wholesalers
at the city Of st. Paul at the Office Of the
Minnesota Bureau of Coal Statistics, a
spying institution, maintained by an
arbitrary assessment of S25 on each re-
taller, and the remainder of the price of
which, with its parapher-
MALTA of detectives aud bull-dozers, is
borne equally by the shippers and whole
salers. John j. Rhodes, who is now
under arrest for perjury in connection
with this investigation, is the manager
of this bureau, and is paid a salary Of
$1,000 year.
This present bureau of statistics ap-
pears to have been organized on the 1st
Of May, 1892. end is the successor of the
Anthracite Coal association,
and the business of the so-called bureau
is to take care that the price agreed
upon by the wholesalers at their month
ly conferences are rigidlv maintained
by the retailers, and to see that a PEN
atty is visited upon any retailer who is
found to have departed from the sched-
ule or fixed price, said penalty being to
cut off the supply of coal until the Of
Tense is condoned or Manager Rhodes
issues his pardon.
'sshut His supply of Coal OFF,
AS evidence of the mandatory char
acter of the orders issued by Mr..
Rhodes, we incorporate a letter adj
dressed to the Lehigh Coal and Iron
Minneapolis, on the 18th Of
October, 1892, as follows:
"Gentlemen: Some time ago | ascer-
aimed that one l.. w. Petran, No. 243
Third avenue north, your city. was get
ing coal of certain company in Min
leapolis. 1 gave them notice that he
was not subscriber to this bureau. and
hey shut him off. Within few days l
nave been informed that he has been
getting more or less coal from your
natter, and get him to become sub
;crber to this bureau, or shut his sup
ply of coal off. Yours respectfully,
"J0HN j. RHODES, Manager"
The committee found that Mr.. Petran
promptly became subscriber. From
he facts given you, you will observe
hat the retailer has no voice whatever
II making the monthly schedule of
prices in these cities, but is held TO the
trictest accountability for even the
slightest departure therefrom; to illus
rate, one John Norton, respectable
etailer, located in the city of Minneap-
Ills. made a proposal to furnish the
,oard of correction and charities in the
ity of Minneapolis. with coal at SS.84
,er ton, and the schedule price
vas Ss.s5, and he was awarded
he contract, but the company or
from whom he had
previously purchased his supply abso-
utely refused to furnish HIM with coal
O fill the order, or. in fact, any coal
on the preteXt that its sup
'ly was so limited that it could not