The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-13

! Commercial club. the citV council and
the citizens of that place, and who a few
weeks ago went over the coal ground in
| the intermountain country in an effort to
discover the real causes of the present
coal famine.
Make Serious Charges.
The committee men declare in their let
ter that Mr.. Bancroft is responsible
through his shortcomings as general man
ager of the Oregon Short Line for the
scarcity of coal along his line
In another paragraph they charge him
with taking crews of men from construc-
| ton work on spur tracks to the new KEN
! meFer mines, Nos. and ), and putting
them on the extension the Oregon Short
Line is building to Yellowstone park
They declare that had Mr. Bancroft
used any foresight he would now have
his tracks completed to mines and and
500 tons day could be taken from these
mines. where not one pound will be taken
this winter, because. say the committee
men, the tracks cannot be completed IN
time.
a portion of the letter follows:
| To Mr.. ". II. Bancroft. general manager
oregon Short Line, Salt Lake City,
Dear Sir-Your letter TO the MAYOR ann
Teommon council of Boise CITY. Idaho. ap-
pearing in the Idaho Daily Statesman OF
August 80. 1907. has been read by us and
no doubt by thousands of readers, some of
whom suffered last winter for lack of
coal. Although we take exception both
as to facts and deductions in your let
ter, We Will pass it over on many points
The very fact that you for once have
stepped into the limeIight of the n1IbIie
arena and made a public announcement
\ upon public question makes us feel that
! better days are coming. Why Mr. Ban
croft, we. the coal committee from Boise.
dIter our examination into conditions he
lore making our report went to Salt Lake
and asked for an audience with Won.
1 Wnicn We were promised in a half-hearted
way Dy your suDordinates at i:30 o'clock
p. m August s, 1907. At the appointed
| time we, the committee. arrived at your
! companys headquarters, were taken rp-
stairs and were told that Mr. Bancroft
was 100 busy with other men to see us;
| besides, he was going away the next
morning, and our interview was had with
three other gentlemen whose treatment
we appreciate and left on our minds an
impression or being perfect gentlemen.
"czarIke Environment.
Now, Mr.. Bancroft, at that meeting.
which you quote at length. no notes were
We're not present You left the next morn
ing before daylight. You must have oh
tanned the substance of your report about
this meeting either from the gentlemen
Tor you, and YOU cannot be blamed for
Ine errors in the same Therefore Mr.
bancroft, again our Injunction Stem ont
OF your environment that is czar-like and
=
In your letter you say: Every railroad
IN an tne intermountain country is doing all
II possibly can to foster and encourage
o me uek,e,IopInent of new coal properties,
ana, Win higher prices as an incentive
some material progress in that direction is
now apparent. The new mines which will
shortly be opened at Kemmerer, of which
nOuce has already been taken herein II
IS estimated will produce at no distant
cate from ZOO to 1,5O0 tons of coal daily
You no doubt have reference to the
heInmerer and Quealy mines Nos and
D From the Frontier mine at Kemmerer
TO mine No. it is three and one-haIf
miles You are attempting to build a
road there. The three and one-haIf miles
of road could be built by ordinary talent
IN sixty DAYS, and if you had commenced
about April you could have your tracks
to mine No. 4 long before July / and
could have hauled 300 tons Of coal a day.
or about 1000 tons a mOnth-and relieved
some of the anxiety throughout the seq
ton in which your road runs. On August
g. during our visit at mine No ( the road
was not all graded, there was not half
enough men to finish it in the next sixty
days, there wasn't q tie, a rail or a
piece Of bridge timber in sight The same
IS true of mine No. s. which is about
four and One-half miles further north
than No. and about eight miles. ac-
cOrdfng TO our best information from the
Frontier mine at Kemmerer. Part of
the grade between No. and No 5 has
been graded. but the same conditions ex-
list as heretofore mentioned.
Criticizes Delay.
eve do not believe that either mine No.
or mine No. will produce one pound
of coal this year. and the only reason why
they will not produce coal is because the
Oregon Short Line, of which you are
the head and the moving spirit, has neg
lected to perform its duty and push this
eight miles of road to completion sixty
days ago. and which could not have cost
to exceed $4,000.
I'VE are informed that it was hard to
procure labor for the building of this
road, but our investigation has led us
to believe that part of the crew that
worked on this very road were taken to
the Yellowstone park division of the Ore
gon Short Line for the purpose of rushing
the completion of this branch to run
palace cars over this line, to accommo-
date tourists rather than to haul coal
for suffering humanity.
"It is your shortcomings that create
these conditions, and your talk about low
rates on hard coal and on other coal.
from the Missouri river is simply dust
thrown into the eyes of the people to
blind them.
'1f you refer to u. P. tariff c. F. o.
1895, you will find that you quote a rate
to Spokane on anthracite coal of So per
ton from Chicago. while the rate from
r,fo 70 D0sS =