Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-01-09
Testimony Before the Senate
Committee Shows Indepen-
dent Operators to Blame
.ExoRBlTANT PRICES AT MINES
From So to s11 Charged Which To-
eether With the Freight Charges
Makes the Price Almost Prohibitive
Railroads in the Deal With the In
dependent Operators.

Washington, Jan. 8. - Independent
are responsible almost entirely for the
Outrageous prices the consumer is re-
quired to pay for anthracite, if the tes-
| timony of the Washington retail dealers
before the senate committee on the Dis
trict of Columbia yesterday is reliable.
Practically every dealer who took the
stand admitted that he had charged s12
a ton for coal, but that the independent
operators had exacted from Sc to $11.25
for coal delivered in Washington.
It was also the unanimous testimony
| that the Reading and the Pennsylvania
railroad companies We're selling coal to
| the retailers in this city at $575 a ton,
and under an agreement with the Read
! ing company the dealers had pledged
| themselves to furnish it to the consum-
ers at S725. 1t was significant, how
ever, that the two railroad companies,
according to the testimony of the coal
dealers, furnished less than one third of
the amount required to keep fires in the
CRATES of the homes of Washington, but
that the independent operators, who
have heretofore been at the complete
mercy of the Reading company, were
able to supply this city with great
deal more coal than the railroad COM
lpanieS.
| 1t was boldly stated by some Of the
dealers who were not members Of the
! local coal merchants association that
! the Pennsylvania and Reading compa-
MES were holding up the shipment of
/! their own coal and were furnishing
transportation facilities to the indie
pendent operators. They nominally
were in the position of having agreed
to sell coal at low figure, but had
furnished little and had entered into an
agreement with the Independent opera
tors to secure "rake-off' from the
outrageous prices charged by the inde-
pendent operators.
1t developed that the railroad compa-
MES are living up to their agreement to
furnish coal at $5.75 ton, but that the
operators are not bound
| by this agreement and sell their prod
ucts at the market price, which at the
present time is more than double that
existing under normal conditions, not
withstanding the fact that the wages of
the miners and the cost of Transports
tion are practically the same.
Senator Stewart, the chairman of the
committee, was particularly interested
| in the evidence presented, and he
seemed delighted to characterize the
methods of the Independent operators
as "a holdup" similar tc that which ex-
| listed in 1S49, when the senator was en-
gagged in mining gold in California. He
did not spare the independent opera
tors, and used some plain and vigorous
Language in denouncing the outrageous
manner in which prices have been in
creased.
1t also developed that the Reading
Railroad Company had declined to sell
coal to a number of dealers here be-
cause some of them were not regular
customers, and that others would not
sign the agreement to dispose of the
coal to the consumers at S7.25 a ton.
The Reading company, which maintains
retail establishments in Washington,
has not only declined to sell to the re-
tail coal dealers, but when an individual
customer attempted to buy coal at the
Reading retail offices he was directed to
return to the dealers who had declined
to enter into an agreement with the
Reading or had not been its own GUS
toners. Thus many Of the poor people
were punished because they happened
to be patrons of business house which
did not conduct its operations thru
the Reading