The Lamar register., 1900-09-26
EASTERN COAL TRADE
RAILROADS IN ABSOLUTE CON-
TROL.
They Charge Forty Per Cent. of Value of
Coal for Hauling 1t to Market-Prices
FIuctuhte.

Hazleton, Pa, Sept 19.-There has
been practically no change in the scale
of wages or in the methods of manage
ment in the anthracite coal regions for
nearly thirty years. Everybody ad-
inits that the whole system is awk-
ward and autiqunted, and hopes that
the present disturbance may result in
such changes and reforms as will
bring il up 10 date. To this fact can
he traced most of the friction between
lhe operators and their employees, and
the relations between the operators are
by no means harmonious. There is an
operators association, although the
members usually consider it necessary
10 deny its existence, probably because
they fear their operatives will use the
fact as Il justification for Joining the
United Mine Workers or some other or
snniZation of their own. Nevertheless
II has its headquarters ut 26 Cortlandt
street, New York. where the name of
he association is painted upon the
door. 1t was originally organized, as
II is now maintained, to fight the rail
way companies. The latter do not
belong to the association. The officials
pretend to know very little about it.
and speak OF ii in contemptuous
manner.
The railway companies absolutely
control the coal trade. They regulate
prices and production, and are rapidly
securing ownership of the mines and
undevelOped territory. They are eight
in number, as follows: The Reading,
Coal Company, Delaware Il Hudson,
Erie, Ontario " Western, Pennsylvania
Lackawannn X Western, Lehigh Val
ley and Jersey Central. Although the
railroads claim that they have no pool,
or trust, or agreement, or combination
OF any kind, they appear to have an
understanding and work together with
perfect harmony. They share the traf-
tic in proper proportions and charge
the same rates. which are forty per
cent. of the selling price of their car
goes at the place of destination. The
maximum haul is 100 miles or therea-
bouts. That is, when coal is selling
Tor 80 ton the railway company that
hauls it 15O miles gets 50 and the pro-
ducer gets So. The producer claims
that this is an unfair and excessive
charge, but is compelled to pay it or
he cannot get his coal to market.
Therefore, nearly all the producers sell
lhelr coal to the railway companies at
the mouths of the mines and take no
further trouble about it. There are
some exceptions, however.
The price of anthracite coal Is fixed
by the railroad companies and the
fluctuations are frequent and irregu-
tar, for which there seems to be no ra-
tional excuse. 1t costs just the same
to mine coal one day as 1t does another
and the transportation charges have
not varied for a quarter of century
they are always forty per cent. of its
value-and the production and con-
sumption have increased steadily at
the rate of one per cent. year for the
Inst ten years, so that one would think
that the value of coal would be as uni
form rs the value of gold, but during
the last five years the price at the
mines has f,uctuatcd between S1.51
per ton, the minimum. and S2.04, the
maximum.
The average wholesale price of all
the different grades of anthracite coal
at New York during the last nine
years has been as follows: 1891, S3.4S:
1892, 1857; 1893, S3.79; 1891. $3.32:
1896, $297; 1896. S3.32: 1897, $3.43:
1893, 1874; 1899, $3.32.
These prices were arbitrary and Were
liked by agreement among the railway
companies, and there Is no rational ex
planation for the extraordinary varia-
lions.