Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1894-11-10
One Sided Business.

published communication signed
Goal"
1t was so stuffed with egregious ard
damaging misstatements that the
JOURNAL ventured reply to it.
But the Sun, for some unexplained
reason, declined to allow our side of
the case hearing.
The gist of Goals performance
may be CLEANED from the unwelcome
letter given below:
FRosTBURG, MD, Oct. %, 1894.
TO the SIN.
Your correspondent, Goal, last Saturday.
imagining the railroad companies get the ben
eft of the tariff on coal, makes use of errone-
Gus figures.
He errs-immaterially however, O in
stating the late tariff rate as 40 cents per tom
1t was IS cents (2) A coal train does not con-
slst of 40 cars, but of 80, carrying 600, not
1000 tons. (3) Hence, according to Goals
freight rate of $l.95 per ton, which is much
too high, the income of the railroad company
from that tralnload would be Sl,170, uot
81 $50. (4) The cost of running coal train
through is nearer $500 than $780, and then it
has to be brought all the way back empty for
nothing' "Coal' ignores all expenses occa-
stoned by loss of time shifting, loading I'M
loading, etc He evidently presumes also
that the wear and tear of equipment repairs,
ETC., and even the road itself as having origi-
nally cost nothing.
Let us tabulate the costs of coal at the mine
per ton:
Mining .................... AZ cents.
hoading. .................. 20
Royalty .............. 20 -
Add Goals $l.95 for freight and we have
$2.s0-cost in Baltimore yet that coal sells
there from 81 to $2.15!
Goals" errors are now manifest.
When the sales and other Baltimore ex-
penses are paid it is found that the railroad
company has carried the coal over 200 miles
for but small fraction over one-half a cent
per ton per mile. which is surely cheap
enough. The company charges us six times
as much on merchandise bought in Balti-
more, and express rates run from $50 to $50
a ton, but nobody here demands that it shall
be carried practically for nothing.
But if carrying coal be the immense specu-
ulation "Coal' states, why do railroad COM
panies carry it only when it suits their con-
venience" And why do they sometimes
pass dividends, and at other times go to Lon
don and borrow money by the millions for
extension purposes? Do they do this to get
still more carrying trade that pays less than
coal?
'Where does the protection come in ?' asks
Coal in conclusion. We will answer that
the miner and his co-laborers the drivers,
bumpers, etc, get it and % cents per ton
besides
"CoaP' thinks there is nothing in protection
for the miner, but we can show him that
there is no advantage in free coal for the Bal
timore consumer.
The JOURNAL has not the exact
figures at hand, but it is presumed the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad company
carried quite half the coal to market
that was mined here last year. If so,
it earned four millions Of dollars, net,
from that item alone-a sum which,
compared with its total earnings, is
incredible.
But the main object of this article is
to show that the Suns partiality for
erroneous statements concerning coal
makes that paper exceedingly poor
authority on at least one important
subject.
Concerning coal, it may be said
therefore-if you see it in the Sun
it's not so.