The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1902-10-16
COAL AND OIL RISE.
Horrors Threaten the Thousands Of New
Y0rk's Poor.

What do you think of soft coal sell
ing at nine dollars a ton2 That's the
price of it IN New York today. Such
a state of affairs has never been
known in the great metropolis.
Anthracite has no prce; it is all
matter of how badly it is wanted.
Ons lot of five tons was sold for $G2s
by a dealer and IS cents bushel is
now being asked IN some cellars along
Twelfth avenue. The WorM says:
$50 make the hardship and suffer
ing more acute because of the famine
in hard coal the presidents OF the
great coal carrying railroads have
banded together and now refuse to
haul soft coal to New York in sufi-
cient quantities to give partial relief.
With thousands and thousands of
empty coal cars lying idle in yards
and banked upon sidings, the presl-
dents of these railroads refuse to per
NIT the soft coal miners and operators
to ship their product. The railroad
presidents insist that their freight
business is now so great that they can
not afford to haul coal and that it
must wait until more propitous
time.
$50 completely have they tied up
the coal cars that the soft coal opera
tors here have made joint appeal to
President Cassatt, of the Pennsylvania,
to treat them fairly and handle the
usual quantity of soft coal which they
ship to tidewater. New York has
never been a soft-coal market until
this fall. All soft coal coming to the
Atlantic seaboard has been for export
purposes until the famine in hard coal
made 1t necessary TO use btumlnous
coal.
"Btuminous coal operators hold
the railroad officials responsible for
this condition They say they can
mine sufficient coal to supply the en-
tire market il the railroads will only
deliver it. While the coal famine is
on the Board of Health will not en-
force the laws against the use Of soft
coal"
The price OF oil has also advanced.
The AmerIcaH and Journal says:
"The oil trust, owing to the in
creased demand on account of the
coal famine, has increased prices one
half cent a gallon. The trust sells
45,5oo, 900 barrels of refined oil a
year: This is I,4Io,5oo,o gallons.
The increase in price adds $7,o52,5oo
to the trusts annual profits Most
of this will be paid by the poor, al
ready victims of the meat and coal
trusts.
'Another increase IN oil is prom
ised.n
There is nothing more pathetic in
the life OF the tenements of New York
than the appearance Of their inhabit-
ants in these times of present hard
ship and threatening famine. There
is the grim realization everywhere
that coal as an article to b. purchas-
ed no longer exists for them, and SO
with a stoiClsm almost marvellous the
children and the fathers and mothers,
yes, and even the grandmothers, gath
er in every material that will burn.
From the rafters OF dismantled hous-
es, from old planking, from boxes
that sell at S cents and 10 cents each,
from every imaginable source have
the dwellers of the tenements collect
ed the fuel that is to keep the kitchen
fires going and protect them from the
winters blasts.
In a way the tenement house in
habtant is farsighted. If there be
the means of warding off disaster, the
means are embraced; but it is, not
wishstanding, relentless fact that
the wood which has been gathered
and will be gathered for weeks and
months can no more supply the nee,
essary heat for the thousands of poor
IN New York than its sale could Offset
the impossible prices asked by the
coal dealers.