The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-04-27
THE READINGS BIG Demand
Officials Arc. Still Hopeful That 1t
Will Be Conceded to Them,
POSITION OF LEHIGH VALLEY
1t Is Mining and Selling All the Coal That
1t Can-What viii the Jersey Cen.
tral DO-May Withdraw from
tho Agreement.

While the coal sales agents at their
meeting in New York on Thursday
failed to take action on the prices and
tonnage for May, or to accede to the
demands of the Reading for q per cent.
OF the total output there are many who
| predict an early settlement of the diff
Guilty. The fact that the agents de-
cided to meet again next Tuesday Is
pointed to as an evidence that there
will be some temporary adjustment Of
| the situation. If 1t was not hoped that
settlement would be reached, the
meeting would probably have broken
up in confusion and no time would have
been fixed for another conference.
One Of the receivers of the Reading
srailroad said yesterday. In an interview
with The Tribune's Philadelphia rep
| resentative, that the outlook for the
Reading ultimately being awarded p
per cent OF the coal output was better
than it had been, as some of the other
great coal carrying companies had
now come to recognize the justice of
the claim
Declined to Affirm or Deny.
When asked in regard to the reported
fears of the officials of the Delaware
and Hudson company that to accede to
the Readings demand would be but a
temporary settlement OF the difficulty,
and would but pave the way to q
greater demand by the Philadelphia
corporation in 1896, he declined to either
affirm or deny that this was the posi-
ton of his company, but remarked that
the adherence to any terms of settle
ment agreed upon, If such a settlement
should be reached, depended entirely
upon the faith of each company and
might be broken at any time If any
company felt itself aggrieved.
In speaking of the report that the
Jersey Central intended withdrawing
from the restrictive agreement and or
dering its collieries to work full time
the Reading officer said he looked upon
this as only a temporary move upon the
part of the Jersey Central to secure its
full quota for the month. He admitted
that the allotment for April to the Jer-
sey Central, based upon the output of
last June, was unfair from the fact
that many of the Jersey Centrars col
lieres We're flooded during that month
and its output was necessarily re-
stricted.
Mining All They Can.
An official of the Lehigh Valley ad-
mitted yesterday that since the de-
mand of the Reading for 81 per cent.
and its refusal to arbitrate, the Lehigh
company had been going ahead, min
ing and selling all the coal they could.
In speaking of the probable effect upon
the tonnage of the road in the event of
individual operators being compelled
to close down, the Lehigh official said
that the company could maintain its
tonnage by working its own mines to
their full caacity although this would
probably be an unfortunate thing to be
compelled to do.
There is no doubt that the rumors as
to the local companies working full
time are not wholly devoid of founda-
tion. If such be the case, it Is proba BILE
that the coal trade Of Scranton will
witness boom greater than has been
seen during the past two years.