The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-04-01
'GERSONS,
Al LackaWanna Ave
INDUSTRIAL.

The coal tonnage Of the Huntingdon
and Broad Top for the week ending
March %. 1896. was 55,327 tons, against
4S,128 tons for the corresponding week Of
1895, an increase of 1888 tons; for the
F., year to date, 4S9952 tons, against 43S,283
| tons for the corresponding period Of
1896, an increase of 5l,66S tons.
The agreement, or verbal understand
ing among the anthracite coal roads is
being as strongly held as ever and
there is no sign, says the Philadelphia
Times, of any disagreement or change
Of the original plans of the companies
perfected at the meeting in January.
The presidents Of all the roads pledged
their corporations to the strict main
tenance Of the agreed prices and to the
restriction of tonnage production to the
agreed percentage Of the total output
decided upon for each month. 1t would
be dicult for any legislative body to Sc
cure evidence that any combination of
the coal companies exists, and this Is
just what the presidents intended when
they decided to have no formally signed
agreement made which could at any
time be introduced as evidence against
the members of the combination indi-
vidually or collectively. The combina-
what 1t set out to do. Prices are firmly
held at the official circular figure, or ON
the basis Of $3.50 to 1915 per ton for
stove coal, I. o. b. in New York harbor
In addition to the maintenance Of prices
the pool has agreed to make the output
OF anthracite in April about 100000
tons, which. 1t Is believed, the market
will absorb without difficulty, though
the demand Is still much slower than
Il MN n lad L.
March output will probably turn out to
have been about 1900, 900 tons. 1t is be-
lieved in the trade that the conditions
which are likely to rule in the next six
weeks will warrant an advance in stove
coal at the end Of that period to about
$3.50 per ton, New York terms. The de-
mand for the steam sizes continued fair
last week, owing to the hardening ten
dency of prices in the bituminous coal
market.
A Pittsburg dispatch announces the
formation of a billet pool 1t says that
1t has already been completely formed
and has already raised the price of steel
billets to $50 a ton. Every steel plant in
the United States making billets Is in
the new pool. which comprises about
twenty-five concerns, whose total capt.
talization runs into hundreds of millions
of dollars. The Carnegie Steel COM
pany is at the head of the pool. No Of
fetal statement Of the pools member
ship could be obtained, but the follow
ing list was compiled as some of its
members: The Carnegie, Hainesworth
& Schoenberger Steel companies, Jones
4 Laughlins and Park Brothers, all of
Pittsburg; Illinois Steel company, Chi
'cago; Pennsylvania Steel company,
Harrisburg; Ohio Steel company,
Youngstown; Troy Steel company,
Troy, N. Y; Midvale Steel company,
Philadelphia; Bethlehem Iron company,
Wellman Steel company, Thurlow, Pa, |;
Lackawanna Iron and Steel company,
Scranton; Lickdale Iron company, I.e-
banon. Pa; North Branch Steel COM
pany. Danville. Pa; Cambria Iron
company, Johnstown; Shenango Valley
Steel company, New Castle, Pa; Mary
land Steel company, Sparrows Point,
Nd; Johnson company, Lorain, Ohio;
Cleveland Rolling Mill company, juno
tion Iron and Steel company, Mingo
Junction, Ohio. 1t Is said that the plan
OF pooling on billets Is only strater,
At the coming meeting, It is said plans
( Will be discussed to form general
Z Steel pool.