Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-04-17
Investigation to Determine
Whether They Are Operat-
ing Under an Agreement
LEGAL PROCEEDINGS EXPECTED
Success in Northern Securities Case
Has Convinced the People That
President is Sincere in His Efforts
to Control the Combinations for Pur.
poses of Monopoly.

Il
result of the action of President Roose-
/ welt in forcing a settlement of the grea
lanthracite coal strike an investigation
| will be conducted by the interstate COM
merce commission to determine wheth-
| er the coal carrying railroads are oper-
ating under an agreement to fix rates
! in restraint of trade and in violation of
the antitrust law.
If the investigation develops that an
agreement exists Attorney General
Knox will be instructe by the presi-
dent to prosecute the roads which are
parties to it. The interstate commerce
commission will meet in New York on
Tuesday and will summon before 1t
Presidents Baer, Oliphant and other Of
ffcers of the coal roads, and will put
them thru course of vigorous ques-
t:oning which is expected to develop all
the facts.
This investigat ton will be brief, thor
ough and decisive, am. will be con-
cluded within two weeks, and If there
is justification for prosecutions Attor-
ney General Knox will be prepared to
inaugurate legal proceedings within
thirty days. From the evidence already
iI hand the government officials here
believe it will be a simple matter to
prove the existence of an agreement
which not only fixes rates, but which
limits the production of coal.
The success of the government in
breaking up the Northern Securities
Company merger has convinced every
one of the sincerity Of the president
and there is extreme unsasiness on the
part of officials of other unlawful COM
bina tons.
Each of the coal carrying roads con-
trolls one or more coal producing COM.
panies. In each case the coal compa-
MES are virtually identical with the
railroads. being organized separately
because of the legal restrictions which
prevent the railroads operating coal
mines. These companies produce 721a
per cent of the total hard coal output
of the United States. The accounts of
the railroad coal companies are kept
entirely distinct from these of the rail-
roads. and they pay regular freight
rates TO the railroads.
Since the coal strike the affairs of
these companies were brought promi-
nently before the country, and there is
strong suspicion that an iron clad
agreement existed between the roads
and that the coal output was limited.
Charges of this character were made
and denied, but the testimony before
the anthracite coal strike commission
and the senate committee on the Dis
trict of Columbia, of which Senator
Stewart is chairman. and the indus
trial committee all tended to show that
combination did exist
1t is a matter of record that all these
roads made exactly the same charge
for transporting coal. There is also
abundant evidence that all these roads
were party to an agreement by which
the independent coal operators We're
given ample transportation facilities
and permitted to send their product to
market and dispose of it at extortionate
prices, while the railroads which con-
trolled the carrying facilities trans
ported comparatively little coal to the
market.
This was done after the railroad coal
companies had eXacted agreements
of the retail coal dealers to sell coal at
a reasonable rate fixed by the railroads
and then failed to furnish those dealers
with coal. These facts are a matter of
record in the files &c the senate, Dis
trict of Columbia committee. and other
branches of the government, particular
ly the industrial commission.
This evidence not only goes long
way to prove that a combination in
restraint of trade exists, but other min
or agreements We're entered into which
operated to the distinct disadvantage
of the people.