The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-30

South Amboy: the Lehigh Valley to Perth Amboy: the Pennsylvania and Reading to Fort Reading; the Jersey Central 10 Ehzabethport: the Ere and the New York Susquehanna and Western to wee, hawken; lne Delaware to Hoboken ana the Ontario and Western to Guttenberg. The one individual producer and dlstrlb- tutor is the firm of Coxe Brothers & Co., with yards at Perth Amboy.
 All this 55.000.000 tons is sold through general sales agents. The output of the Pennsylvania Railway is sold by Stick ney & Co.,. Broadway; the Lehigh val ley. by the Lehigh Valley Coal Company; 26 Cortlandt Street; the Pennsylvania and Reading, by the Pennsylvania and Read ing Company. 14S Liberty Street; the Jersey Central, by the Lehigh and Street: the Erie and the New York, sus- quehanna and Western. by Williams & Potts, l Broadway; the Delaware, Lack awanna and Western Coal Company. 26 Western. by Dixon & Eddy, % Broadway.
 Know Neews in Adva-cc.
 This group of sales agents form the second great wheel in the machine. They deal with the retail consumers. all the world over, They are in touch with the demand, and the operators of the mines fill their orders. The sales agents know in advance that New York will need from F 900. 600 to 15. coo tons of anthra- cite a year. and they also know by ex-
  portion of this total amount will be re- quired for each of the twelve months of the year. The coal for New York Is, therefore, ordered in advance. and time . little allowance for possible delays dur ing bad weather. But not too much al lowance is made. During the winter months there is always coal enough in these great receiving wards to supply New York with several days of surplus; But if for any reason, the roads could not bring Tn fresh supplies, the city would be without coal a week after the yards of the retailers and the bins of private consumers were exhausted. It might be thought that the mine owners send their coal out over the country in search TOT a market, but this Is not so. very nttle is mined in excess of what has been or dered by the sales agents, and the sales agents order only what they have soid or know will be sold by the time 1t gets here.
 The large consumers who buy direct of l the sales agents know, almost to ton, what they will need for each month Tn | the year, and have. in most cases, stand ing orders for these amounts. The large retail and wholesale dealers can also count on a very small margin of uncer- I tainty. In most cases. their trade IS eS- abolished and remains about so, or, If 1t | grows, the increase has been foreseen, | springing as it does from the growth | of the city. The smafl dealer may not | always figure so closely. He knows ms
 neighborhood. it is true. and there Is disposition on the part of the big con- | cerns and the sales agents to protect him | from the encroachment of others for the | sake of this very order and regularity
 of the machine; still people change their | of a neighborhood may be so swiftly | transformed that the element ot change | creeps in here more or less. But the uu- l certainty is small when the volume or
 buslness is considered. and the large dealers, by long experience. can lessen | it's actual effect by observation, watch | fulness and good calculation.
 By Buckets and Tons.
 So, in ordinary times. the system works | with marvellous smoothness The tene- | ment dwellers send their small buckets | to the grocers. The grocers order rom
 the small dealers near by: The buyers or | a few tons. the merchants in apartment | houses, the hotels and theaters, and the | great maojrity of the office buildings or l der from the retail and wholesale deal | CTS Some of the largest buildings those
 that consume 1000 or more tons a year year | and all the retail and wholesale dealers,
 order from the sales agents, and the
 sales agents instruct the operators now | much to send.
 | The operators deliver no coal to New | York City. They bring what is ordered | to the eight yards at tidewater. along
 the New Jersey coast and deliver It into | the hands of the sales agents The sales
 agents sell it here at so much ton,
 and the purchaser must transport 1t to
 New York at his own expense. All the
 coal brought to the city in barges is coal
 already bought from the sales agents.
 It is on the way to retailers yard or to a furnace designated.
 This is the way the twelve or fifteen
 million tons for New York are handled
 every year. It IS a splendid system when
 all goes well. So smoothly does 1t op-
 crate at most times that the general pub
 lie is not even interested. A telephone
 call will be followed in few hours by
 the sound of coal running into the bin, | This is all they wish to know. It is only | at such times as these that we realize
 how closely the fate Of the individual
 is bound up in the great operations of
 industry Let some power pull this sim
 gle thread unduly and the McMahons. | the Madisons, the Macaronis feel instant | ly the same violent tug, the whole fabric | Is wrinkled and askew