The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-04-22
INDUSTRIAL TOPICS.

President Roberts, of the Pennsylvania
railroad, denies the rumor that the COM
pany has decided to discontinue the use of
Pullman parlor coaches.
The Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre officials
are said to be in serious meditation these
days as to whether they will sink another
slope a few hundred feet south of the old
No. slope, at Tresckow.
The feeling in the iron and steel trade
is of hope rather than of satisfaction.
Actual conditions improve slowly. While
there is abundant ground for the expec-
tation that large orders for material must
be placed in the near future, the fact Is
business Is coming in slowly and 1t has
not been possible to establish any i'm
portant advance in prices. Raw mate
rials are, of course, higher, and probably
600 tons of lake ore have been con-
tracted for, and the coke output continues
large, but the finished product has not
advanced much.
Unless the Reading management shifts
its position in respect of the anthracite
coal trade, there does not seem, according
to members of the trade, to be any way to
escape a financial crash in the trade, and
the Stakeholder wisely thinks that the
scope of It's effect may be greater than is
conceivable at this time. The Readings
demand for an increase to q per cent of
the tonnage is regarded as the chief men,
ace to the situation. That demand is
claimed to have prevented the whole sub
ject in controversy being referred to i'm
partial arbitrators. 1t may be well to note
in this connection that if the Reading Is
entitled to the increase in tonnage there
is no reason to doubt that the arbtrators
would make such award If it is not en-
titled to it, the claim is not, of course, a
just one. AT any rate, 1t is question that
could be settled readily by arbitration.
How long will the court allow its repre-
sentatives-the Reading receivers-to con-
tinue such policy, especially, as stated,
when the matter at issue involves (out-
side of the principle contended for) less
than 100000 tons of anthracite coal per an
num- and more especially as it is in the
power Of the receivers to change losses
into gains without much effort? Coal is
now selling at New York tidewater at SO
per ton-lesS than cost; indeed, all relia-
Die estimates agree that to make q profit
in the business, and at the same time not
charge an exorbitant sum, the price of
coal at tidewater should be 81 per ton At
the present rate the company loses on
every ton of coal 1t sends to New York.
What would be the result IL 1t received "a
per ton from this time to the end of its
fiscal year? On 100000 tons, which Is
| about the tonnage for the period, on last
years basis, the income would be about
81, 900 600 from sales of coal, while the nat
ural increase in freight rates at the sell
ing price named would be 40 cents for
every ton of coal sent to tidewater. This
would probably make another $l,000,000 in
crease in revenue, or about $5,000,000 all
told. This might be the result If the Read
ing should temporarily abandon it's fight
for principle and accept last years basis
of allotment: and, II the disputed ques-
| tions involved were submitted to arbitra-
| ton, the benefit might be still greater, for.
If the claim of q per cent. is a just one,
| the arbitrators would grant 1t.