Connecticut western news., 1908-09-24
RAILROADS CONTROL
 COAL SITUATION
THEY LIMIT THE AMOUNT HAULED

Much Shall be Brought to Market
 Scores of Independent Mine Owners
 Ruined.
 Last weeks installment of the article by Alfred Henry Lewis on railroads and their methods closed with the statement that if railways and coal miners con- peted in their mining and their hauling on their merits instead of maintaining a combine to limit or throttle the coal out put, the price of coal would be cheap. ened to the consumer at least one dollar per ton.
 This would mean warmth to frozen poor folk. Likewise, it would mean a deal to the manufacturer. And don't forget, O reader living anywhere be- tween the oceans, that 1t is you, when you buy his products, who pay the coal bills of the manufacturer, Those frost bitten poor are local ill their shiyerings; but with the last word it is your pocket that is searched for the manufacturer's extra dollar ton-that illicit fruit of Pennsylvania Railway rapacity. And I'll tell you why: The Pennsylvania Railroad owns not alone itself, but a controlling interest ill the Baltimore and Ohio, the Chesapeake and Ohio, and the Norfolk and Western. Through these, and by itself, it owns control ling interest in the bitumlnous-c coal min- ing that goes on in the regions served by the four lines.
 Dominating, In this manner, the bi- tuminous-coal production of the East, ordaiDs various things
 Toput up the price of coal, it strickly limits the output. That its own mines may not suffer, its method in limiting the output is to kill off mines wherein neither it nor its officers have an in terest
 In killing competition, the four rail roads-all under the dingy thumb of the ennsYlvania-resort to every kind of tactics. They refuse side tracks, or, where side tracks exist, they fail to fur nish cars, or furnish too few. What few they furnish are, by one duplicity or another, delayed in hauling. These yillaninies are open to the eye, and com mon. Meanwhile, those mines which are owned by the railroads; or by men who control the railroads, are given what care they need, and their product s sent racing off to market without hindrance or delay.
 What is the result-the inevitable re- suit? Bankruptcy for coal operators in whose mines the railway men are not part owners. This last is the biackmail reason why mine owners-as sworn evi- dence has shown-have given blocks of their stock to railway people, running from high officials in the main offices to gentlemen in overalls working about the yards. Likewise, these things are all in defiance of law. Also, they are known to Congress and the Interstate Commerce Commission. You can help in forcing action by these bodies.
 Having limited the gross output, the railways-always under the callous knuckle of the Pennsylvania-settle how much shall come from each of the four great coal regions, served by the railway quartet named. To make this coal apportionment, which arbitrarily determines how much each region shall produce, how mach each railroad shall haul, and what shall be its charges for such hauling, the railroads have in- vented certain secret associations. These are called variously the "All Rail, " the Tide Water" and so on. It is the province of these associations, working secretly and in the face of law, to settle week by week what amount of coal each f the four railways shall bring to market. And is not the coal output, sticking to the practical, measured not by what is mined, but by what is hauled?
 Scores of coal-mine owners have been made bankrupt by the machinations of the railways, and by their refusal to furnish cars. Beyond this, by the illegal system described, the railways not only plunder the public with higher prices for coal, but rob their own shareholders by limiting the quantity hauled.
 In addition to the above, there is the rebate villainY. The Pennsylvania not only owns control of the three other roads, but majority interest in the mines. It is it's own carrier, it's own shipper. It holds soft-coal destines in the hollow of its hand. It can give you much or little or none-at what figures it sees fit. Is it necessary to say that this is also in the teeth of lava merest scandal on good government
 was recently in converse with Judge Gaynor concerning railroads and rebates