Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-03-13
mORE ABOUT COAL

were convincing alQ CouClu1if ADA
they contained nothing but the plain
statements Of the operators whom our
representative interviewed.
To-day We publish an article from
Mr.. M. ERsK1NE MLLER, who is inter
ested in several mines on New river.
Mr.. MILLER devotesmuch Of bis article
to q general argument against the VIII
son bill and appeals 20 the prejudice Of
his readers. Mr.. MILLER attempts to
discredit the statements Of Capt PAGE,
because he sells his coal to the @. & 0.
Railway Co. and has 10 fear Of compe-
tition.
Now, Mr.. MLLER is old enough to
know that the Chesapeake and Ohio is
not an eleemosynarv corporation, and is
not In business for purely philantbropic
purposes. Tt buys its coal where it can
get it the cheapest. Capt PAGE is not
in Nova Scotia. He is right here in
West Virginia, paying American wages.
III there is anything at all in Mr..
MuLER's argument, and If other opera
tors have to be protected why not
shout for protection against PAGE and
POWELL?
Because PAGE and POWELL have free
trade ideas, is no reason their argu-
ments, based on figures and experience,
should have no weight Their state
ments, as well as the REGISTERS, are
backed by figures and statistics, and the
whole question now resolves itselfinto
one. whether Mr.. MILLER's figures or
the REeIsrERs are correct. and on that
ground there is no room for argument,
for every coal operator and probably
every miner in the Kanawha and New
River regions have read the REGIsTER'S
interviews with the coal men Of that
section, and there has not been a single
question as Co the truth of any state
ment made. on the contrary, hundreds
OF extra copies Of the article have
been ordered throughout that locality.
Mr.. MILLER saws that Nova Scotia coal
can be sold now in Boston Ctarif paid)
for go &c a ton less than West Virginia
coal
Then why is it not sold there now, to
the exclusion Of the West Virginia
coal? If Mr.. MILLER is right how can
the removal Of the tariff hurt West Vir-
ginia2
His figures are obtained from re-
ports made for the Dominion Coal
Co., a corporation trying TO sell stock.
On the back % one Of their reports,
which he quotes 10 his article, we find
the Company's offer TO sell $500 bonds,
$500 preferred stock and $500 common
stock for Sl,O5O. To sell this stock,
even az this low figure, enormous profits
must be shown in the balance sheet.
Probably finding sales Of stock slow, the
company must even go further and
estimate that the cost Of production can
be- even furtbur reduced until it reaches
the dollar mark.
Tn comparing cost OF Nova Scotia and
United States Goals I'm Boston Mr. Mil
rER uses average ocean freight rate for
the United States for the lastfour years.
The average ocean freight rate for
Nova Scotia coal for the last five years
is sl90, but Mr. MILLER chooses to
estimate that it can be reduced TO the
United States rate-S.9SS.
Upon such juggled figures he bases
his arguments. If rates from Nova
Scotia TO Boston could be reduced by
enlarged business those from Newport
News could De, also
Mr. MILLER iseven afraid Of coal from
Scotland. IL the transportation charges
across the Atlantic can be paid and
Scotch coal sold below American prices,
somebody on this side must be making
lots Of money in coal For II Scotch
coal cost nothing at all for mining, the
transportation charges across the Allan
tic would make it cost more here than
American coal at the seaboard.
"Prssent legislation has already de-
creased the value Of coal lands in West
Virginia" SAYS Mr.. MILLER
This is amusing in view Of the recent
publication from Morgantown in the
REGISTER which stated that land own
ers in Monongalia county are actually
besieged by Pennsylvania capitalists
who are trying TO buy coal lands al
the highest figures ever known.
His pauper wages talk is pure political
rot and II Mr. MILLER is the Democrat
he claims to be. he knows there is moth
ing in such talk. II he doesn't NJ
Henry C.. DAVIS does. Although Mr..
DAVIS favors tariff on coal he has
frankly acknowledged that the wages Of
the Nova Scotia miners are as high as
the wages Of the West Virginia miners.
The government statistics show that
they average higher
The reasons given by the REGISTER
why coal and iron ore should be free
have not been touched BY Mr.. MILLER.
He has, in fact entirely avoided the
main issue TO indulge Ia an invective
sgainstkh Wilson bin and to quote
figures fAom a corporation with stock
wbi.b II Mems anxious to get rid OF.