The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-03-09

Another hearing on the application
of the Delaware Valley and Kingston
Railroad company for u charter will be
given by the New York Railway com.
mission at the Fifth Avenue hotel In
New York city next Tuesday. The ex-
tremity to which the opposition to this
application is being carried and the
desperate eXredients to which .hc
combination of coal-catrying roads is
resorting In its erdeavcr to avert this
threatened competition will be better
understood after perusal of the facts
set forth in the appended affidavit.
The suit brought in the United
States Circuit court in Philadelphia by
the Erie Railroad company against the
Erie and Wyoming Valley company
and the Pennsylvania Coal company
to restrain the building; of that portion
of the proposed new road which is to
be constructed from Hawley to Laclsa-
waxen is an instance In point:
Edward L. Fuller, being duly sworn,
says:
First--I reside at Scranton, Pennsyl-
Vania, and am one Of the incorporatOrs
of the Delaware Valley and Kingston
Railway company. l have been engaged
,
for about twenty years, and operate
several breakers. | am chairman of the
executive committee of the Anthracite
Coal Operators association, composed
| of individual operators. who mined
| about thirty per cent. of the total an
thracite coal mined in the year 1899.
Second-The Erie and Wyoming VAL
ley railroad runs through the Wyoming
coal district. and there are many COL
lieries of individual owners situated ad-
jacent to its railroad and within prac-
ticable switch connection with it.
ABOUT HALF TIME.
Third--In the year 1S99 the individual
collieries were operated about 10 to
| lis days, or a little more than half
time. They could not be operated any
more than this, because their owners
| were unable to get facilities for ship
ping their coal from the existing rail.
road companies. The individual oper-
ators have, for a long time, been en-
! deavoring to get a new outlet for their
coal. and went so far as to Incorporate
the New York, Wyoming and Western
| Railroad company, under the laws of
Pennsylvania, for that purpose, IA year
| or two ago. That railroad was not
built. practically because the proposed
| route was an expensive one, and for
other reasons. Subsequently. when il
was ascertained that the Delaware and
Hudson canal could be acquired for the
purpose of a railroad, the construction
of the New York Wyoming and West
| ern was suspended, as the new route
over the canal is not only more direct
but is unique in having scarcely any
adverse grades, in following natural
waterways, in forming a very direct
line to the Hudson river, and in the
fact that it can be acquired at a small
| percentage of what it cost the Canal
company.
Fourth-If the Delaware Valley and
| Kingston railroad Is constructed, and
If branch line is constructed on the
Erie and Wyoming Valley from Haw.
ley to a connection with 1t in the Della.
ware river, at LackawaXen. l am quit
certain that the owners of individual
collieries along the line of the Erie and
! Wyoming Valley railroad could shir
over the new route at least two mill
ion (2.O00,000) tons of coal a year; and
from the collieries in which I am per-
sonally interested, l am confident thai
at least five hundred thousand (500 0O0)
tons of coal can be shipped annually.
AFFORD GREAT RELIEF.
Fifth--If the proposed route is con.
structed and operated. it will not only
afford great relief to the owners of in.
dividual collicries. who are resident.
and citizens of Pennsylvania, but il
will place them on an equality with
such companies as the Erie Railroad
company, which owns the stock of Goa
mining companies. organized under tn,
laws Of Pennsylvania, and by reason