Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-09-21
1T is. HURTING THE Trust.

increase In the IrpportatIOn of Coal
since It Was Admitted Free.
Tie New York Times of Aug. 81 con-
Rained an Interview with MIR. George
| +. Baer, president of the Reading rail-
way. in which he said that coal mines
might have to be closed soon and min
ers thrown out of work because OF the
difficulty of getting rid of coal, espe-
claBy OF the steam size. The Times
report says:
"He said that the plan he bad inau-
gurated when he became president of
the Reading OF making n reduction of
| 90 cents a ton in April and then adj
vancing the price 10 cents month I'M
til the figure again reached normal by
Sept. / had worked very satisfactorily.
Yes, Mr.. Divine Rights Baer. it does
seem to have worked beautifully
the coal trust 1t is, however, little
hard on a few millions OF us coal con-
sumers. who now have to pay higher
prices for coal than ever before. except
during and after the strike of last year.
The retail price of anthracite at Wash
ington is now 1925 and at Chicago
81 80 ton.
Immediately following the Baer in
terview the Times contained a dis
patch from Pennsylvania saying:
1.-The Philadelphia and Reading Coal
and Iron company has issued n sweep
| ing order closing every one Of its wash
cries that produce small sizes. and
other corporations and individual OPP
orators have followed suit 1t Is esti-
mated that there are 100000 tons OF
small sizes now in stock, for which
there is little demand"
The inadequate demand for anthra-
Yite coal is said to be partly due to
riosed mills and TO the increased use
| OF soft coal for steam purposes. But
the statistics of foreign commerce for
the year ended June 80, 1908, offer
some additional explanation as to this
Oversupply of hard coal They show
that we imported last year 1919, $50
tons of coal, or nearly 100000 tons
more than were imported I'm any pre-
vious year, and that of this amount
207 .664 tons were anthracite This Is
more than 100 times as much anthra-
cite as was imported in any year since
the Dingley bill taxing anthracite be-
came law.
It appears, then. that free coal, while
it has not compelled the hard coal trust
to lower it's prices for ordinary sizes OF
coal (and this is not strange when 1t is
considered that there is nowhere else
anthracite like ours-that is. Baer's-
TO take its place., especially at interior
points. has compelled IT to reduce
prices of its smaller sizes used for
making steam and which. therefore,
compete with bituminOus coal. Nearly
all of this imported coal is consumed In
New England and on the Pacific coast
1t does IL great deal to free manufac-
turers in those sections from the exac-
tions of the hard and soft coal trusts,
now charging us two or three times
fair price for this bounty of nature.
Possibly some mistake was made when
the Almighty consigned this most
valuable heritage to Mr.. Baer to parcel
out to the rest of ms earth jewellers at
so much per ton.
1t will be observed that the excess of
imports over former years 100000
tons) just about measures the surplus
stock of steam coal for which no mar
ket can be found, although prices have
been reduced from 10 to 30 cents ton
for these sizes. How Mr. Baer must
hate free coali But he is lying low
and saying nothing, for he knows that
his Republican friends in congress put
coal on the free list only for one year
and that bituIninous coal will be duti-
able again next january. He will not
agitate this coal tariff again. But will
the manufacturers and the people keep
quiet ?-B. w. II.