Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-01
KEPT UP COAL PRICES
Alleged Combination of the
Railroads.
THIS CITY THE SUFFERER
Reported Agreement Not to Deliver
for Less Than $500 a Ton.
CHARGE MADE BY J. A. COLLINS
Resumption Of Inquiries by the Inter
state Commerce Commission Under
TillmanGillespie Resolution.
HIS CITY THE SUFFERER
CHARGE MADE BY J. A. COLLINS

The most interesting development OF this
mornings session of the interstate COM
merce commission, which Is inquiring into
the relations of railroads with oil and coal
companies, under the TIllman- Gillespie res
olution, was the charge that the various
railroads had agreed not to deliver coal in
this city for less than $3.50 ton.
j. A. Collins of this city told of his en-
deavors to get large shipments of coal from
a West Virginia mine into Washington,
which. however, he was prevented from do
Ing because of an alleged general under
standing among the various railroads not
to deliver coal in this city for less than
$3.50 per ton. He said he believed the rate
was discriminatory, because he had under
stood that rate of 81. 10 had been made to
favored parties The $3.50 rate, he said.
compelled him to abandon his scheme TO
supply coal to a dealer in this city. In re-
ply to questions by Mr.. Glasgow the Wit
ness stated that the dealer in question had
been receiving his coal from the Allegheny
Coal Company, which. he said, was the
Washington end of the keystone Coal and
Coke Company.
Mr. Collins said that he had never been in
the coal business, but made an unsuccess-
full effort to break in two years ago. He
said at that time his son was working in
the Pocahontas region and was offered a
contract by one miner for run of mine
coal at 80 cents ton at the mine. II
was the general understanding then that
though coal was being shipped to the sea-
board for SLIGO ton, published tariff. that
1t was really going for $1.10 over some If
the roads. Anyhow Mr.. Collins thought if
he could get reasonable railway rateSe into
Washington he would be able to clean up a
fair profit on the 90-cent coal a the mine
He made contracts TO deliver 10000 tons
of the coal in Washington at s. ton, con-
ttngent on getting satisfactory railroad
rates, but when he went at that end of the
problem he found that no matter how he
tried to get the coal into Washington 1t
would cost him s.: 20 ton. He said that he
tried four or five different roads and routes,
even tried having the coal shipped up by
the river from Norfolk and down the canal
from the nearest railroad point But the
combination rate always worked out $500
ton, and he had to abandon the scheme
altogether.
William NJ. Collins. his son, corroborated
the testimony of his father.
Mr.. Postlethwaite's Holdings.
The first witness of the morning was E.
T. Postlethwaite, assistant to President
Cassatt of the Pennsylvania. He said he
had been in his present employ since 1897.
About the only attempt to get anything out
of him was concerning his relations with the
coal companies and the land companies
along the line of the Pennsylvania. He was
rather gruff in his replies, but said in sub
stance that he had held some comparatively
small interests of this character, about $50
shares in the keystone Coal and Coke Com
pany and some 500 in the Altoona COM
pany, but that he had got rid of all of these
holdings two years ago and now owned
about how he came to get hold of the
shares. and replied that he had bought
them in the usual course Of investment and
had paid for them partly in cash and partly
through dividends.
Repairs Of the Frick Cars.
]. E. Mulfeld. general superintendent of
motive power of the Baltimore and Ohio
was the next witness Attorney w. A. Glas-
gov, who was examining for the commits
sion, tried to get out of him some facts re-
lating to a contract between the II. C.
F'rick Coal and Coke Company and the Bal
timore and Ohio and Pennsylvania rail-
roads. He said that there was no prefer
ence shown to his company in the distri-
button of cars. and at first denied the ex-
istence of a contract with the Frick COM
pany on the subject of repairs. Then he ad-
mitted that he had heard of the existence
of such a contract. but had never seen 1t.
There was an objection from the attorney
of the Baltimore and Ohio. who said IL there
was such a contract 1t was proper to have
it called for and produced in court
Mr. Glasgow replied with some heat that
he had been trying for weeks to get on the
track Of this contract. but that though
there seemed to be general understa nding
as to its existence. no one he had questioned
had ever seen it.
Preference Admitted.
There was a long wrangle and the wit
ness, owing to defective memory or igno-
rance of details, was unable to answer
numerous questions. But finally he ad-
mitted in substance that the Frick com
pany was given some preference in the re-
pairs to its cars. He saiG that when a
car was brought in for repairs the light
repairs as he termed them. were not
charged up to the Frick company, but were
done by the railroads as matter of cour-
tesy and good WILL Heavy repairs, such
as were necessary to keep the cars on the
rails, were done and charged for, but he
knew nothing of the details of the bills
how much was charged or whether the
bills were ever paid.
Mr.. Glasgow tried to tie him down to
a statement of how much the gratuitous
work amounted to in the course OF a year.
but beyond the fact that 1t cost from $45
to $50 year to repair each of the Balti-
more and Ohio cars he was unable TO saw
anything about the repair bill. He was
instructed to appear before the commis-
sion in Philadelphia and to bring with him
all the data and clerks necessary to show
how the bills in question were made out
and how much was charged for and how
much was not.