Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1903-01-17
Coal famines. Trusts
and Common Sense.
BY ". A. Taylor.

There sh ould be no surprise on
the part of the public that coal
should be scarce and Iuinously
high in p,ice. Fol. what else was
the coal combination or trust
formed, covering the coal fields OF
Ohio,
For what other purpose are
trusts of any kind formed and put
Into operation? For the benefit OF
consumers? The man who serious
~ believes that Is 20 be Pitied
Their sole mission Is to piey on
human necessities.
The coal combination and the
railroad combination; are Siamese
twins In Ohio, In open and daily
violation of the laws of the State
made possible by a sort OF govern
mental policy composed OF sub
stantially equal parts OF CONNER
cial greed and partisanism. which
policy Is annually endorsed BY Its
victims at the polls and will con-
tinue as long as the party that
threatens 1t with meaningless plati-
tudes and feeds 1t with a limltless
nursing bottle, continues IN con-
troll.
Fuel, like food and clothing, Is
OF the necessities of lie. This IS
the season Of the year when the de-
mard for 1t Is universal and insis.
tent In all the upper ATTITUDES
Coal and gas constitute the avail.
able fuels of Columbus and Ohio.
The last named Is but small fac.
tor In the supply. The coal COM
bine and the railroad combine, act
Ing together, absolutely control the
coal supply to two thirds Of the
population. :,
They know their business" and
when zero and the blizzard strike
the land the ':stand pat" They
know that people will decline to
freeze as long as they have money,
no matter If two thirds of the price
of a ton of coal Is fiat burglary.
They also know that the municipal
author; will be compelled In the
end to L rpropriate money to keep
the moneyless from freezing.
Thus the railway corporations
and the coal operators In afiliation
with them. have 1t all their own
way and lay the blame on Provi
dence, who sent the blizzard, and
the retail dealers who are compelled
TO rob the consumer TO make rs
cents profit on ton of coal; or go
out of business and let the agents
of the combine do 1t all.
Then they have other exteuua-
tions. The railroad companies,
which In their official reports per-
vade their splendid and ample
transportation equipments and IA
cilities, discover that their locomo.
tives, cars and gondolas are lost,
strayed or stolen, and 1t Is impossi-
bic to ship enough coal to blunt the
keen appetite and ruthless fancy of
famine, And they never will come
back "till the robins nest again."
and not then If 1t Is not necessary
to produce a shortage In the food
supply.
But with the statute on the
books, all these things would come
to an end If we had a few Chief
Justice Ramneys and Thurmaus
and a few Attorney General Stan
berrys and Pughes.
But the people do not seem to
want them and they will not get
them till they put their shoulders to
the wheel. The existing coal fam
Inc In Ohio will continue up to the
limit, and will show up handsomely
In the misery-wrung profits of the
coal and railroad combine, and to
the common benefit of trusts gen.
orally. Then some other trust will
be allowed the center of the stage
for Its appointed season.
In November a majority of the
people, deluded by the high
sounding threats against bad trusts,
will doubtless go TO the polls and
vote 10 "let we'll enough alone"
Later on when an other winter
comes, they will buckle on their
armor to fight another coal famine,
and wonder why It cana at the
worst seIsou of the year.
Human nature considered In con-
nection with political common sense
Is IS 'mething which no teller kin
find out"