The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-12-28
Tie Glimmer OF the Dawn.

1t Is a pleasant omen for the anthra-
cite region that upon the very day fol-
lowing the belated appearance of WIN
ter, presidents and representatives of
the leading coal carrier railroads, meet
ing in Philadelphia, should favorably
consider such readiustment of ton
mage allotments as Is calculated, If
finally ratified, to bring renewed pros
perity to the anthracite industry. The
report in another column, of this i'm
portant conference is somewhat
meagre; but the mere fact that such a
conference has been rendered possible
is an agreeable symptom of returning
common sense among elements in the
coal trade which were wont to prove
disturbing.
We are aware that there yet exists,
in some quarters, a notion that it will
somehow prove a benefit to the workers
in our mines and to the industries of
this section which are intimately de-
pendent upon the prosperity of the coal
trade to have the fuel resources of
>anthracite district squandered in
a fierce and profitless internecine busi-
ness warfare. How ordinarily careful
reasoners can reach such an absurd
conclusion by any tenable process of
logic Is TO us profound mystery.
Scarcely less rational is the allied no.
tion that the best interests of the mass
of fuel consumers are likely to be sub
served by a competitive struggle In
which an honest dollars worth of coal
is forced upon a panicky market at 30
or SO cents. If the 10 or 20 cents dis
count, in such an emergency, should
actually go into the pockets of the
poorer classes of consumers, it would
be at least partial consolation for the
losses necessarily inflicted by such q
struggle upon the miners, the mine
owners and, through them, upon the
merchants, the professional men and
the working classes of the anthracite
region. AS a matter Of demOnstrable
fact, however. this loss to the coal pro-
ducers does not become corresponding
profit to the coal consumers. The bulk
of 1t Is absorbed by already well-to-dC
middle-men, who make quite as much
ut of the coal trade at its best as is
heirs by any reasonable apportion-
ment of the profits of that trade.
One of the happy lessons Of a period
of general depression such as that from
which we are just beginning to emerge
Is that no section and no branch OF
legitimate business can suffer without
diffusing something of its pain among
all the other sections and trades. Con.
versely, to depress one section and one
business is to strike direct blow at the
general welfare. In the marked recent
shrlnkage of railway freight revenues
the transportation companies have
witnessed one of the direct results oil
their earlier determinations against
anthracite coal. Other causes, even In
this section, have no doubt contributed
to that shrinkage; yet If the hard Goa
trade had in the past uniformly beer
treated with the consideration which
its magnitude as a trafllc-feeder war
ranted. many railroads which today art
cutting or passing their dividend.
would instead, be in the receipt, de
spite the general depression, of agree
ably larger revenues.
We are glad to see that the presi
dents of the large railroads whlcl
traverse this section are beginning t,
perceive the significance Of these facts
Such perception augurs well, not onl,
for the future of the railroads and O
the coal trade, but also Of the larg
public whose prosperity rises or fall
with the rise or fall of the prosperit!
of coal and its carriers.