The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1894-01-25
AGAINST FREE COAL
Letter Showing the Fallacy
of the Theory.
MANUFACTURERS WORK
by Putting Coal on the Free List the
Wages of American Miners and Coal
Handlers Must Necessarily be Reducsd.
strong Argum mt Agains the Measure.
speeial HERALD oorres onoepee.

Special HERALD cores ondence
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24.-An open letterIon
free coal has just been received here and is
given wide circulation. While it is written
in the interes. of the coal fields Of Virginia,
it embraces many points which are appli-
cable to the arguments Of the Pennsylvania
coal miners
Although originally free trader says the
I writer, my association with the Pennsyl-
vanis capital lists, who have dug out Of the
hills of Virginia and West Virginia the coal
which had remained buried there for cen
turtles, and Of which our Jefferson wrote in
his notes more than a hundred years ago,
and bringing it down to Virginia's great
seaport, distributed it along the Atlantic
! coast-the larger portion to that section from
which we had 80 long drawn many of our
domestic supplies-made me a protectionist.
My contact with hese gentlemen taught
me that protection by the Fedora government
of the coal industry was necessary to inspire
that confidence in capitalists necessary to OBJ
tain the construction of the roads to the mines
and the means TO market the coal, and wish
ing to see Virginia have those diversified in
dustries which she had so long needed to keep
her children at home, l have done all in my
power to make her people feel that we still
needed the protection for coal which the
fathers of the Constitution put in the first
tariff bill, signed by Washington himself
while President, TO protect the coal pits of
| Virginia from foreign competition.
l remember reading in an old publication
livered in Pittsburg in the summer OF that
year. He said, among other things that
''Soon after the peace of 'S3 there came a
| period of distress over the whole Atlantic
| coast, far exceeding anything that has been
| felt during the war. importation in British
ships free; American ships-tbere were
none. The cheaper labor of England supplied
| the inhabitants of the Atlantic coast with
| every thing, from the crown of the head to
| the sole of the foot, The merchants of
| Boston appointed a committee, at the head of
| which was the name, ever venerable to the
mind of all true Americans, John hancock,
! by whom strong resolutions were reported,
! declaring that the inhabitants would not use
| any articles imported in British ships. The
| mechanics of Boston met and recommended
| the inhabitants not TO use British articles at
| all. For said they, with regard to you,
Mr.. Hancock, what odds does it max Q
whether our shoes, boots, hats handkerchief,
or shirts come in British ships or American
| ships2 They take away our bread, come in
what ships they may"
Mr.. Galloway c. Morris, of Philadelphia
says that the mills of Fall River produced in
| 1891 6O2, $50 600 yards of finished material on
consumption of l77,3OO tons of coal.
Allowing the full duty of rs cents per ton to
be the increase of the cost of this coal to the
mills by reason of the duty, then, the addi
tional cost of producing this amount of
goods by reason of the tariff is twenty two
one.thousandts Of cent per yard This is
certainly very small cost to those mills in
| Fall River as compared with the benefit
derived by them from the prosperity of the
miners and laborers in the coal regions and
| to the railroad hands and the sailors engaged
in the transportation Of it to their mills.
! There is no way Of ascertaiuing precisely
what the number of yards of material such
as these Fall River mills produce is con-
sumed by the various classes of workers in
| the production and transportation Of Ameri-
can coal to the mills of the Eastern states
| but unquCstionably it is large, as the work is
rough and the consequent wear and tear is
great. just in proportion TO the reduction Of
their wages by reason Of the abolition of the
/ duty so will their ability to purchase the
| American goods of the Eastern mills or The
produce of the Western farm be curtailed
! Free coal, then. promises to give the thou
sands employed directly and Indirectly in the
coal trade, cotton goods at twenty two one
thousandths Of a cent per yard cheaper. 1t
takes about three yards to make a man a
shirt and another two and one half yards for
his drawers. Think of the liberaity Of the
Democracy in giving these people a shirt and
1 a pair of drawers at one hundred and twenty.
one one thousandths Of cent cheaper than
they are getting them now but at the same
| time taking away the only means they have
of buying shirt and pair Of drawers. This
is a sort of Sans Culottes" Democracy. 1t
might do for the tropics but not for the United
| States
Free coal means free ships as far as foreign
coal is concerned, and the British tramp,
which has driven the American flag from
| foreign seas would doubtless hold its own in
the transportation Of foreign especially
/ Canadian coal, as American vessels cannot
carry this coal without paying to the Domin-
ion government q license fee tor the privilege,
/ And it is safe to assert that New England
would lose the first year as much in freight
paid her ship owners and sailors as her manu-
/ factureTs and other consumers of coal would
| gain from free coal.