The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-12-26
INDUSTRIAL TOPICS.

INDUSTRIAL TOPICS.
President Cleveland Is said TO have
given u personal friend assurance within
a few days that as soon as the treasury
gold reserve falls below Il point where 1t
causes special uneasiness among busl-
ness men another issue of bonds will be
made.
The Lehigh and Wilkes-B Barre Coal COM
pany has posted notices informing their
800 stripping miners that all work of
this kind would be suspended for the win
ter. The miners have worked but two
good months during the past season, and
the suspension at this time will greatly
distress the men.
Excitement continues in Monroe county
over the find of coal. The place where
the coal was discovered is on the farm of
Daniel Kindt, in Ross township, about a
mile and a half from Saylorsburg. The
shaft has been sunk to depth of over
twenty feet and fine specimens Of beach
diamond coal have been found.
Shenandoah advices are to the effect
that the effort of the United Mine Work.
ers to gain n foothold in the anthracite
region is not regarded hopefully in that
portion of Schuyllllll county. When the
national convention Of United Mine
Workers meets in February the delegates
are likely to discover it Is said, that
District No. l, comprising the anthracite
counties Of Pennsylvania, has but a
shadow of existence outside the imagina-
ton of the organizers The membership
of the organization now does not COM
prise 1000 of $4,000 men employed in the
anthracite coal mines.
A Chicago dispatch says: 1t rests solely
with the interstate commerce commission
whether or not all-rail lines will compete
with lake lines on through grain and flour
traffic. If the commission allows the
roads to make competing rates on eXclu
sively through business while holding
up rates to intermediate points, there
will be an active competition next year as
soon as navigation opens. The rail rate
will not be higher than y cents, and poss-
bly, not higher than 10 cents per hundred,
against the present rate of % cents. Such
reduction will be based solely on the
fact that the business taken on the re-
duced rate will be extra, and therefore
can be taken at a rate, which, If applied
to all commodities, would bankrupt the
roads. -
In the Philadelphia Stockholder yester-
day appeared an elaborate review of the
present fight upon the officers of the Lee
high Valley Railroad company-a fight
generally conceded, however to be utterly
without hope of success. After citing the
conditions--way back in Asa Packers
time-which made necessary the Lehlgh
Valleys extension to Buffalo, an eXten
sion naturally involving great expense,
| the Stakeholder article continues: ''The
main factor instrumental in necesstating
the suspension of dividends was the con-
dtion of the anthracite trade While the
tonnage in the last six years increased
| 2, 2,S26, ,S0i tons, the loss in revenue amounted
to $l,235, 4S9. The explanation of this Is
! simple. In 1888 the company received .9Sl
of cent per net ton per mile, while in 1873
it received only .S26 of cent, a decrease
of 1856 of a cent, In other words, while
| the tons carried one mile increased be-
tween and per cent, the resultant rcvc-
nue decreased nearly u per cent. This
was not the fault of the management (;
it was due to existing conditions, over
which they had little, If any, control
| Competition had to be met. both at 20
price of coal and rates of freight. There
| is no question that the situation at the
| time was the greatest factor that induced
the Lehigh Valley management to agioe
10 the lease of the property to the Read
ing Who can tell what the consequences
would have been but for that lease? The
outlook was very promising one; we'll
informed persons regarded the deal with
favor; and the Lehigh Valley stockhold.
ers at their following annual meeting ap.
proved of the action of their board of di-
rectors in arranging the lease. That the
hopes OF all were not realized was no
| fault of President Wilbur and his asso-
clates; they had nothing whatever to dc
with the crash which came with start
ling suddenness. The dissolution was
made at very unfortunate time; the
business Of the country was in a par.
alyZed condition; we were passina
through panic such as had never beer
before experienced in the United States
All classes of trade were affected; and tC
make matters worse, the anthracite Goa
market was extremely dull. In fact nj
no time since the appointment of recelv.
ers for the Reading companies has the
anthracite coal trade been in even 9
temporarily healthy condition. The dam
are done by this Decentralization Is meal
culable. IT is estlmted that II has cos
the various companies the past year al
least $35, 900 900, and this, ii Is believed, |,
! q conservative estimate. This fact a'onC
should explain the failure of the Le
high Valley to resume dividends since
their suspension in 1899. But In addition
to the losses sustained from this-th(
principal source of the connpany's in
COMETS the general business depression
which began early in 1893, and which ha,
continued ever since, though now showinl
signs of Improvement. OF almost equa
Importance is the passenger and freiGh
rate situation. In 1888 the Lehlgh Val
ley received .SGi of n cent per net mil,
per ton on its miscellaneous freight trnf
llc in 1893 the average was GAS of cen
the lowest ever known, and decreas,
compared with that received in 1883 of 91
of cent. on the surface, and to the un
informed, the loss Is not great, but hn,
the 1888 rate baen received in 1893 tn,
company could have paid dividends ant
had surplus in addition notwlthstandin,
the unfavorable elements referred I,
above. 1t must be admitted, In justice
that the Lehlgh Valley management coul,
not control the general rate situation, an,
II was, therefore, powerlesS to preyen
the loss which the company sustainel
through the steady decline in rates
There were also other factors which com
bned against the company's finances, In
Guiding the strike on its own line in No
vember, 1893. which cost the compan,
nearly 81 900, 900; the floods and bltumlnou
coal and coke strike in the spring of las
year, and, finally, the great railroa,
strike In the west last summer Bu
these were only minor Incidents"