The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-01-30

thracite coal combination. the New
York Herald yesterday said:
Comprehensive plans for the read
Justment Of the entire anthracite coal
trade have been drawn up and are
about to be put into operation. The
Herald is in a position to give the facts.
which have thus far been carefully con-
cealed.
AS heretofore mentioned. the anthra-
cite railroads are now controlled by
small group of men. who do not need
to hold formal meetings, but who dis
cuss matters quietly and then give or
dcrs to their subordinates to put their
plans into execution.
These men for some time have been
at work on a scheme that would have
none of the objectionable features of a
trust and which could not be attacked
by legislation, but which would pro-
duce as effective results as were pos
sible under McLeod's famous Reading
combination.
The new project will be far reaching
in it's effects, and the public will sec
the first fruits of it about Feb. /, or
soon after when an advance of twen-
ty-fve cents a ton in all varieties viii
he made. This is probably the only
advance that will be made this season,
and 1t will bring the price of stove coal
only up to about S4.1O Of $425 a ton,
compared with s4.75 to So a ton, which
| Mr.. Mcleod aimed to make it by a
! series Of advances that aroused public
| condemnation.
Before Mr.. Mcleod took hold, anthra-
| cite coal was selling at about 81 a ton
| Tor the stove variety, so that the pro-
| posed advance will make the price very
| little higher than ii was before the
| famous combination was formed. And
| yet by the new methods that are to be
| introduced ii is calculated that the
| trade will be put in as good condition
| as 1t ever was, and ii is believed by
| coal men that the railroads and min
| ing companies will have a flourishing
| year before them
CONTROLLED BY A FEW MEN.
| After the old pool went TO pieces as
| an Illegal organization the business
| went from bad to worse, and it was
| decided by powerful bankers and rail-
| road men that the only solution of the
| problem was to get control of the re-
calcitrant roads and lodge the man.
agement of all of them in a few hands.
During the last three years this has
! been done, and now three or four
groups of men, including j. p. Morgan.
! the Nanderbilts and the First National
bank interests, control the situation.
Here is their plan for the great COM
bination which shall he more palatable
to the public than the Reading Coal
Trust:
Having agreed among themselves as
to the percentages that each of the an
| thracite railroads should mine, they set
! about to make peace with the indi-
| Nidual operators who represent about
| twenty-five per cent OF the output, and
| who in the past have proved a source
of decentralization by marketing their
coal at a considerably less rate than
the schedule published by the railroads.
The individual operators for some
time stood out for a percentage OF
siXty-fve per cent. of the tidewater
| price of anthracite coal as their pro-
portion Of the selling price. the rail-
| roads being asked to accept forty per
cent. for the freight as their share of
the profits. The arrangement under
which the coal of the operators has
been carried by most of the companies
during the last few years is sixty per
cent to the operators Before that the
division used to be equal.
The railroads refused to give sixty
five per cent, but as an offset to maxi
ing the basis sixty per cent to the in
diVidual producers they have reached
an understanding with seVenty-fiVe ner
cent. of all the operators to allow them
a larger part Of the tonnage than they
have been getting, on the understand
ing that prices are to be maintained.
By this arrangement the opera tors
will benefit as greatly as the railroads
and will be able to keep their mines
running every day, where they used Il
run full time only perhaps two or three
days q week.
LARGER PROFITS ALL AROUND.
While the mining companies con-
trolled by the railroads may not turn
out quite so much coal themselves,
still it is calculated that they will get
more money than heretofore for their
output and the railroads will be doubly
benefited. They will get just as much
tonnage as before, and they will re-
ceive better tolls, since there has been
q great deal of rate cutting by reason
of competition, which will now be done
away with.
The settlement with the individual
Operators solves the hardest problem in
connection with the trade, since the
accumulation of the control of the an
thracite railroads in a few hands has
put an end To reckless competition, and
there is no longer any trouble about
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