The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1906-12-02
GOAL MEN SEIZE
TREMENDOUS
PROFITS
Arbitrarily Raise the Price
So a Ton, Which Will.
Net 100000 a Month
COST OF LABOR
IS ONE EXCUSE
Analysis of Figures Fails
to Justify Act, but Peo-
pie Must Pay Tribute

Three hundred thousand dollars DUR
ing the next thirty days, and in all
probability a like, If not 4 Ereater- sum
during the following month. is the trib-
ute the people OF san Francisco must
ray the Wholesale coal dealers of
this city over and above their normal
profit. itself as large as most con-
sciences wouId permit. Taking advant-
age of situation they themselves
brought about, the wholesalers have adj
Nanced the price from 50 10 sI2 a ton Mt
q Jump. and this in a season when thou
sands are poorly housed as a result of
The disaster and in financial condition
poorly adapted 10 meet the eKactions of
a monopoly.
In an effort to justify their attitude
the wholesalers advance specious argu-
meuts of increased cost of handling,
bat in the same breath confess lack of
foresight as TO what would be the city's
needs for the winter. with the result
that a shortage in reserves has given
them the excuse they sought TO Justify
the advance Of more than 80 per cent
Ingenious explanations of the reasons
for the shortage and consequent adj
vance in price are made by the dealers,
but after they have done talking, an
analysis of the situation discloses an
apparent scheme in which mine opera
tors. shippers and wholesalers, and
railroads as we'll are parties to a com
pact to make money while the sun
doesn't shine and the populace shivers.
The dealers assert positively that there
viii be no actual coal famine, and that
they viii be able 10 deliver 100000 tons
month. or Just the amount the city
viii require for consumption.
SHORT on EXPLANATION
They offer no explanation as to why
lust the amount the city will require.
and not more. permitting the. accumula-
ton Of reserves, viii be brought in, and
are able TO bring in just what the city
will require that the price should be
increased. except to harp that the cost
Of labor has increased as well as the
cost Of transportation throughout the
city. The reference by the wholesalers
10 the increased cost of transportation
throughout the city is for them an IN
happy one. for their fat increase of 50
= ton is: for coal at the wharf They
have nothing to do with the transpor-
tatiorls this is left to the retailer, or,
at least, Is added to the cost of coal to
him in event delivery is made by the
wholesaler
When an explanation from the whole
saIers was sought yesterday they had
various reasons to, offer for the fail
ure to accumulate reserves that bore
the ring of plausability, but their ef-
fort to Justify the increase of 50 a
ton utterly failed. AS reasons for the
failure TO accumulate reserves here
they asserted that the mines of the
Middle West heretofore shippers to
san Francisco. had diverted their out
put TO the East; that the Roslyn mines
were Withholding their output for the
use Of the Great Northern Railway;
that tramp steamships were lined up
at the northern coIlieries taking aboard
bunker coal to the great delay of the
Pacific feet of golfers; that fear of
loss had prevented the placing of or
ders in Australia in time. and that the
general belief that San Francisco would
not require the usual amount of coal
had caused general apathy along the
line. still, in the face of this, they
admit that San Francisco will get just
. the amount Of coal she requires, but
not a pound more. II looks like close
figuring was done by some one.
ADVANCE NOT JUSTIFIED
These explanations can be accepted
without any great strain of the imagi-
nation. but in the light of the figures
they give themselves 1t is impossible
IA Justify the advance of SO a ton,
though there probably would have been
no objection had they advanced the
nrice 80 cents a ton, which would have
compensated them amply for the al
legged increased cost of labor and delay
of golfers at the mines.
prior TO the disaster, the whole
salers point out, they were paying their
COIL beavers s. a day, the union scale.
since the disaster they complain that
che beavers have demanded and they
have been compelled to pay IS a day
Tbev also assert that steamers under
charter at 5000 a day have often been
,.ompelled to wait ten or twelve days
al The mines, owing to the presence
of tramp steamships filling their bunk
ors. when normally they can be loaded
ana put to sea in four days. Ad
emitting these facts to be true there
can be no explanation offered for the
advance of So a ton except on the
theory that it is straight gouge.