The age-herald., 1900-01-27
ALABAMA COAL
 AT NEW ORLEANS
Will Enter Into Active Competi
 ton With PittSburg Trust.
AN ORDER FOR 10000 TONS
Shipments to be Made Via. Greenville, Miss, and Barge Line-Southern Railway Go. Behind Deal
 Great Possibilities

1 Alabama has entered into active com | petition with Pennsylvania for the coal
 trade of the lower Mississippi river, and
 there is every reason to believe that the
 Pennsylvania product will eventually be l driven from the market.
 The Pittsburg trust which has heretofore
 almost monopclized the trade and held 1 consumers at its mercy is now brought in- | to competition with the coal fields of Ala l bama.
 For many years B. D. Wood & Sons, of | New Orleans, were among the heaviest | handlers of Pittsburg coal in that district, but when the Monongahela River Consoi-
 dated Coal and Coke company was organ ized their business was almost broken up,
 and the trust, which virtually controlled
 the river supply, demanded and received | its own price for fuel.
 Several days ago. however Wood & Sons contracted with a number of Alabama
 operators, backed by the Southern Railway | company. for an almost unlimited supply of
 
 lines via Greenvdlle Mss, the western | terminal of the Southern. The mines from which the coal will be
 taken are located on the ine of the South | ern and are within comparatively short distance of the Mississippi river, requiring
 only short rail haul.
 The Southern railway owns fits own barge line, and its terminal facilities are such 1 that it is prepared to haul immense quanti-
 ties of the product, and will at once begin | the delivery of 15O GOO tons, the amount con-
 tracted for by Wood & Sons in their first order.
 The Details The New Orleans Times-Democrat of l Thursday gives the following detailed &C., count of the deal:
 | "Yesterday the final formalities between | B. D. Wood & Sons, of the first part, and | the Southern railway, the Virginia and | Alabama Coal company, the Sloss-S Sheffield
 Steel and Iron company, the Southern Coal
 company, parties of the second part, were | brought to a successful close.
 
 the Southern railway and gives to Wood 1 & Sons a practically unlimited supply of Alabama coal The fuel will be transport | ed to New Orleans via Greenville, Miss. | The rail haul from the mines is a short | one, and the Southern railways terminal | facilities and barge line down the river
 places it in position to handle with dis
 patch all the coal B. D. Wood & Sons can
 sell in this part of the country.
 "As an opening order the Woods asked
 for 10000 tons. Colonel Elmer E. Wood
 says this is only for starter and will be
 followed up by other large orders in rapid | succession.
 Interviewed by a reponter for the Times l Democrat, Colonel Wood, of B. D.. Wood l & Sons, said:
 | "'We have been working on the deal with | Ehe Southern railway and the Alabama | miners for several months, and have been 1 lin conference with Assistant General Super
 intendent J. S. B. Thompson, of the South l ern road, and W. E. Leak, vice-president of l the Virginia and Alabama Coal company, | frequently. Of course it wouldn't have done
 for the trust to get on to what we were do-
 ing, so we kept the matter quiet, and the | visits of these gentlemen to New Orleans | were given out as being due to other causes. | When it came to signing up the contracts l went to Richmond for the purpose. Most
 of the papers were signed up a week and | a half ago. Through this arrangement we
 are made absolutely independent of the | trusts and can get all the coal we can dis | pose of. The coal will come by river from l Greenville, and the contract stipulates that | the Southern road is to furnish us with l ample facilities at all times. l "'While the direct result of this arrange | ment may not completely break up the I trust it will soon take away from the trust | the power of imposing arbitrary prices on | the consumer. The local dealer now pays l tine Pitts'burg people just what the Pitts 1 burg people call for; consequently the con- | sumers suffer. With the new arrangement l We have just completed we will make such | inroads on the business now controlled by | the trust that prices must be considerably l lowered. We do no city business, but the city business wiH be affected nevertheless, l for every toh of coal we bring here for the l railroads sugar houses and boats and ships from Alabama means that much business taken away from the trust Heretofore they have been unable to get anything other than Pittsburg coal sold by the trust ]"