Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-11-26

of sales agents Add to this the tariff of
from % to 35 cents per ton royalty that
the land owners are paid for every ton
that is mined. In many cases the rail
road companies are the land owners and
mine owners, but all the same they
pocket the royalty to swell the general
dividends earned over and above oper-
ating expenses.
Now, in all fairness is it right that
miners must risk life and limb and
starve themselves and families while
working half time to produce coal for
~ cents ton, while at the same
time the railroad companies who own
and operate the mines are permitted to
eXtort Sl.25 or $2.l0 to haul that same
ton of coal to market less than 200 miles
from the mines? Let our great metro
politan newspapers try to answer this
question when they discuss causes that
tend to demoralize the coal business.
1t cannot be maintained that the
present decentralization is in any particu-
lar due to tariff laws enacted by con-
gress. The effort to place btum lus coal
on the free list failed, hence the anthra-
cite trust need fear no danger from COM
petition with Nova Scotia coal. Rather
it is the absence Of competition that en-
abes them to maintain high prices to
consumers in eastern markets, as they
have absolute control of prices and pow
er to regulate the supply at all shipping
points within reach of the railroads.
The national government imposes no
tariff duties on anthracite. Everybody
knows that hard coal needs no protective
taiif to prevent foreign competition,
and it is true that while there is an ever
increasing demand for coal in every
section Of the country, yet millions of
people cannot afford to purchase it,
because OF high prices exacted by the
INSCRIPTIONS trust that controls produc-
ton in the entire anthracite coal fields,
which are almost exclusively confined to
Pennsylvania.
iiO iOllphu GlDuIbAtu HRuIpS Will
enable our readers to understand, how
under the railroad combine rates, the
percentages Of profits in the trade are
divided between the various interests
involved.
When coal sells at $3.50 per ton in
New York city the total may be appor-
toned as follows:
The railroad gets s...........,...,.. 90 per cent
The operator gets. 15 per cent
The landowner gets. ................. 10 per cent
The sales agent gets................ 10 per cent
Ihe miner getS....'''....,,......... per ce
Total l...,,..."...,............,. 100 per cent
From the above showing it is easy to
see that the managers of the great rail-
road and mining corporations are simply
pursuing a selfish policy of monopolistic
greed in limiting the production. 1t can
be sold at lower rates than herein quoted
to millions of consumers who cannot,
under present conditions, pay from 81 to
IS a ton which is the retail price in New
York, Boston, Chicago and other great
centres of population. The tariff charged
by the railroads for coal transportation
should be reduced to % cents per ton to
all tidewater markets. Royalties and
commissions to greedy land owners and
sales agents should be reduced one-half.
Princely salaries of $4,000 per year to
railroad presidents and from Sl5, 900 to
S25, 900 to the army of vice presidents
and general managers should be cut on
the same proportion as the wages of rail-
road and mine employees.
Then, if we had free competition
between the railroads at fair rates of
transportation, coal could be produced
and sold in far greater quantities, and
sold at much lower prices than it is at
present.
If such conditions prevailed the big
corporations could not afford to pay
millions of dollars interest on mortgages
on coal lands which are lying idle and
undeveloped simply to strengthen the
monopoly of the coal trade. A careful
study of this problem by every fair
minded citizen will result in stirring up
widespread public censure and condem-
nation of that dangerous giant monopoly
known as the anthracite coal mining
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