Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-09-14
COAL IS GOING UP
PROSPECTIVE COAL FAMINE IN
NEW YORK.
DEALERS WILL REAP HARVEST.
Only 80 Days Supply on Hand-Long
Strike Will Be Dis
astrous.

n sept. If.--lne herald says.
New York City is face to face with a
coal famine. the period Of distress which
may recall to the old Inhabitants the coal
strike of 1878. when the anthracite cost
the consumer s12 and $1i a ton. ]
This city, of all others, will bear the
brunt of any coal famine which the la
Dor trouble may develop. The amount
of coal now in the hands of New York
dealers. on the way to the city and in
the hands of the coal companies. above
ground, is estimated at only forty-ive
days supply. which means about !. 1885,
600 tons. The representative of a mining
and commission house which mines 3d.
900, 900 to 1000. 900 tons a year. besides
handling coal for the railroad companies
says coal will advance in four days.
"On Monday" sal he. 1--WE shall raise
our prices 81 a ton and l presume that
there will be a general rise of at least
hat amount"
Dealers are busy in completing ar
engagements for getting in stocks of coal.
but the big railroad companies are prov
ing how thoroughly they appreciate the
situation by shutting down on the deal
ers. All but the Philadelphia & Reading
have refused to lake further orders for
coal and the Philadelphia & Reading are
taking orders only against stocks on
hand. and with the understanding these
orders are to be cancelled in the event of
a strike.
The dealers have only been awake to
the threatening situation for about a
week. but in that time they a " been
S~crambling furiouSly for land and water
freight rates, and wholesale rates for
coal have already risen sharply. This
simply presages a much larger
one.
THE Dealers" said Mr.. Wells, of Stick
ney, C~onyngham & CO., have filled ev-
cry BOAT in the harbor with their coal
~, no o COG Mot or1xy iS II tho "a 90 thai
practically all available boats have been
taken for coal carriers. but hundreds OF
them have been tied up to coal docks and
used for storage purposes because OF lack
of room on shore. Coal yards are SO
crowded that big dealers are paying -
to S. a day for the use of each of these
boats, one man alone having sixty of
them at hand That dealers are willing
to pay these heavy charges shows that
they think of the prospective market
Rates have risen to circular prices"
that is to say. a week ago the prices nam
ed in the circulars were being shaded 10
to 25 cents a ton, and since then they
have stiffened up to the full nominal
rates. Good anthracite coal, egg stove
or chestnut, costs the jobbers S4.O5 free
on board at South Amboy, or S4.l0 free
on board at Weehawken or Hoboken. the
water freight rate from South Amboy Is
nominally 20 cents and from WeehaWken
Is cents a ton. so that the price Of the
staple to the jobbers is s4.25 alongside a
dock in this harbor. Ten avs g coal
was being sold 25 cents cheaper at south
Amboy than is now the case and freight
rates had been shaded several cents a
ton. In some cases freight rates. have
since risen to as high as 25 cents a, ton
in view of the extraordinary demand fol
coal boats. And all this four days in ad'
vance of the day set for tn formal insti'
tuition of the strike.
A fair estimate Of the coal now in the
hands of New York dealers and af1oa1
n consigned to them is thirty days sup.
ply. This would mean seven hundred
and fifty thousand tons. New York takes
according to the estimate of d. Sewar
a total of about twelve million tons g
year. Coa men agree that 1T Is SAFE
to say that we consume at least MIN
million tons of anthracite here. Som
bituminous coal is used in spite of the
health board.
Big railroad companies, the Delaware
Lackawanna & Western. Pennsylvania
New Jersey Central, represented by the
Lehigh & Wilkesbarre Coal company; the
Leihigh Valley, Delaware & Hudson, Erie
& Pennsylvania and Reading and othe1
operating concerns are estimated to have
in their yards in the neighborhood of thu
colleries an amount equivalent to abou
fifteen days supply for this city. g :,
81 cannot speak for other compantestS
said John Edmonds, sales agent of thu
Philadelphia & Reading, but our stock
at present are light. The Dealers, I be
lieve are fairly we'll supplied. I Should
think they must have at least thirty day
supply on hand. AS to how long hes trik
is likely to last, or what the price is like
ly to climb to, is all conjecture. No on
can tell anything about it,