Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-22
Main Cause in Present Coal
Famine.
DELAY IN UNLOADING
SPECTATORS SEEM TO HAVE
THE PREFERENCE.
Output Of Big Companies Seems to Get
Lost in the General
Shuttle.


SCRANTON, Pa, January q. 1908.
A scarcity of coal cars is the cause of the
inability Of the coal companies to get more
coal into the large cities so that the pres
ent. coal famine may be relieved. After
making a three days investigation of the
conditions in the anthracite field, The Star
correspondent became convinced that this
was the source Of the trouble.
The coal companies, however, can hardly
be said to be immune from criticism. 1t
! would naturally be expected that this con-
dition would arise where the railroads failed
to unload the cars at tidewater or the mar
kets. For a month 100000 tons Of coal in
cars were sidetracked near New York, and
at the present time there is almost an
equal amount Of coal sidetracked between
this city and Forest City. This means that
| more than 1900 cars have been tied up for
a month when there was no need for 1t.
A further Investigation today revealed
the tact that many of the large roads in
the southern part Of the anthracite field
are using freight cars to carry coal. AS
regards the roads in the northern belt, 1t
can be said that majority of them have
decided to bring the freight car into use as
a vehicle for carrying coal. The roads still
have the f1at-bottom car available which
might be pressed into servica, but this
might be Impractical because 1t would ne
up these cars so that coal could be loaded
on them.
Miners Not to Blame.
The Star correspondent, Furthermore.
failed to see how the miners could be
blamed for the present limited production
Of coal. The great curse to the welfare Of
labor conditions in the anthracite regions
Is that there Is an overabundance Of help.
There are really twice as many miners en-
N hn orth 0ff f1~iA
needed. There are SO many miners here in
fact, that each miner, unless he enjoys
some marked favoritism from the company
he works for, is unable to make the wages
of factory girl. How the miners could
be accused of preventing the COMPANIES
from increasing the output, when each
miner cannot obtain more than three and
four cars, and in some cases not more than
one car a day. Is hard to tell.
The Delaware, aLckawanna and Western
and the Philadelphia and Reading roads are
giving their miners from five to six cars a
day. Six cars Is considered fair DAYS
work, although in two collieries of the
Lackawanna, where the men can get all
the cars they want, they are mining ten
and twelve cars for the same period, and
this would be the condition in other COL
l1ertes II the men were given the cars
A journey today through the southern
part OF the anthracite district, where the
Philadelphia & Reading, the Lehigh Valley,
the Central Railroad Of New Jersey and
pany operate, show that the conditions are
| almost the same as obtain in the northern
and middle districts. The Philadelphia and
Reading can be given mark second to the
Lackawanna as the company doing the
most to relieve the present coal famine
Although the officials of both of these roads
will not admit that they suffer from a
scarcity Of cars. it is true nevertheless.
The Star correspondent went into the
mines of the Lackawanna road and found
miners waiting in their chambers for the
mine cars. which were to carry the coal
to the surface. To anyone acquainted with
anthrac cite mining conditions this delay will
show that there was an equal need Of rail-
road coal cars at the surface
| The only feature which mystified The
Star correspondent was the fact that al
though the need of cars was apparently
preventing heavier shipment, all of them
but two-the Lackawanna and the Philadel-
phia and Reading-were giving cars to coal
spectators. who are able to get them into
Washington and Boston and sell the coal
at fabulous prices. At the same time the
big output OF the companies invariably is
lost when it reaches these two markets.
Spectators Can Get Cars.
If 1t is true however, that there is
scarcity Of cars 1t seems rather remarkable
that the dishonest speculator could obtain
all the cars he wants. This is true Of many.
Of the large roads and an explanation from
the coal road officials might make clear
what seems now to be a very suspicious ar
gument against them.
The coal roads will not admit that there
is a scarcity Of cars under any circum-
stances and any attempt to put this Ques-
ton to the superintendent Of the coal COM
panies and railroads meets with disap-
prevail. Probably these officials think the
poor miner has become so accustomed to
carrying burdens that he might as well
carry this one.
The output of anthracite for the month
of December was 5,O99, 431 tons, as against
1928. 453 tons for the same month last year.
The output for January will probably be
6,OO0, 900 tons, but with proper railroad IA
cilities this could be doubled. There are
enough miners to mine this coal and the
unsolved part of this difficult problem is
for the coal companies to have sufficient
cars.
This little investigation, however, does
not reveal what the public would like to
know-the distribution Of the coal which is
mined. If 1t were possible to follow each
coal train and find out just where the coal
was distributed the revelations might be
more interesting.
For instance. the Philadelphia and Read
ing produced 953, 797 tons in December, the
Lehigh Valley 844,67O, and the Central
railroad of New Jersey 633. $780, The big
gest part Of this coal should have been
shipped to Washington. Baltimore and
other southern cities. yet for the same pc
riod the little spculator who sent his four
controlled the selling price of coal and at
the same time had the most coal to sell.
ARIZONA AGAINST UNION.