Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-02-27
A WHIPSAW COMBINE.
IT FREEZES THE POOR IN THE CITIES
AND STARVeS TIE MINERS.

Coal in the Slums of New York ut Sixteen
Dollars n Ton-How the Little Children
of the Poor Strive to Keep Warm-The
Victims of Cruel and Greedy Plutocracy.
Where coal wagons with their sturdy
horses and smutty faced drivers stand
backed up to the curbstones i'll front OF
rich mems homes watch out. You'll see
boys passing by there gathering up into
basket the remnants of coal which the
careless driver has dropped and the lazy
| house porter has not removed. Again,
as you journey through city streets,
watch out for lofty wagon loads of kind
ling wood. You'll see grimy little urchins
| grabbing bundles of wood from the rear,
out of the reach of the drivers whip, and
then scampering home with them.
Go into the tenement districts any
where-perhaps as good places as any,
throwing the eternally poverty stricken
east side out Of the question, are in the
cross streets between Ninth avenue and
North River above Fortieth street, then
down the older, darker districts ON the
west side toward the foot Of the island
you'll see i'll clad, i'll fed children, boys
and girls, crouching ON the leeward side
of bontires built from whatever material
they can beg or steal. They stretch out
red, chapped and in most instances dirty
hands to the blaze, and don't seem to
mind the smoke in their eyes.
You may think they are doing that for
fun, but they're not. They're doing it
to keep warm, and are glad of the luck
that brings them relief from the cold
that reigns at home. When the boys
can find coal sufficient and an old tin
pail big enough, they build portable
fire and carry it around with them,
swinging the pail round and round by
long wire and letting the less fortunate
| youngsters warm themselves over the
! buckets.
And still the great and constantly
growing prices Of coal keep the rooms of
the tenements iireless, and men and
women who can't afford to take the
bucket to the corner grocery TO bring
home ten cents worth of coal at the rate
of from ten TO sixteen dollars a ton go
hunting for warm places to pass an hour
or so. 1t doesn't make much difference
to them where they go so long as they
may toast their shins, get the dreadful
chill out of their marrow, get the stiff
ness out of their joints and forget for
| little while that it is the dead of winter,
and that the mercury keeps going down,
and that their clothing is thin, and that
the wind whistles through the cracks
| into the cheerlcss tenement pens which
they call "home'
They never so back of the returns,
most of these people, and they never
think to ask what the cause of their
rheumatism is. They know simply that
last winter, in January, coal was quoted
at $3.50 ton, with some additional
charge for fancy grades, while now it is
marked on the coal sellers boards at
! $3.50, and the coal dealer wears long
face in anticipation of another raise.
These poor folks don't know much
indeed they don't know anything, most
of them-about that mastery morsel of
financial diplomacy and greed and cruel,
ty recognized in Wall street and the
| trade by the title of the Reading coal
combine. They read of it in The Herald
months ago when The Herald was tell
ing with prophetic tongue, it now ap-
| pears, what that combine would do for
the poor man as soon as another winter
! rolled around.
But it was only Il bugGboo then. The
combine had not begun then to show its
fine italian hand in the manipulation of
the price lists. II was only the name of
something that belonged in Wall street.
That it is what The Herald then said
it was they know now. They know that
their dwellings, are cold, besides being
wretchedly humble. They know that
they arc helpless; that week after week,
as tho bitter, stinging cold grows, the
price Of cold grows too. Every day puts
comfort farther from them and dollars
into the pockets of the monopoly.
They understand now the motive and
the operation Of a full fedged and whole
sale combine" They have heard from
Pennsylvania. They have learned that
a combine" to use gamblers phrases,
means "whipsaw," a playing of the
mighty middle against the feeble ends,
and with magnificent and sinful success.
They have learned that, while the price
of coal is constantly being increased by
the combine in the city where poor men
must suffer, the people at the mines are
being ground by the salno combine to
starvation and despair.
1t seems from the Geographic reports
as if there was handwriting ON the wall
for Reading to read. The miners are
more than murmuling. The poor of this
city will not be silent forever.
A coal dealer said to me yesterday:
"The middlemen through whom deal
warned me before the combine first be-
gan to put up prices that it would be
done, and that rapidly, and to a noun
famous extent, and that had better put
in big order and that right early. l
thought there was more OF less scare
about it, and didn't pay much. attention
to his advice. Even after the first ad-
vance l was little bit dumb to it. Then
when the second came woke up. Then
l went to my biggest customers and
/ gave them the same warning. They IN
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