The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1912-12-12
OFFICIAL COUNTY PAPER
BUY THE HARD COAL TRUST.

A suggestion a day or two ago by
public man that the government
hould own and operate the coal
hines, is entitled to careful consider
ton. There is no more complete
Monopoly than that of the railroad
Operations which own and operate
he hard coal mines of the country.
10 far as the soft coal mines are con
erned, they are not in so
n ownership as the anthracite field.
Government ownership should be
voided when possible. but when, as
n the case of the hard coal trust, the
government appears to confess its
ver a powerful natural monopoly,
hen it is time to begin considering
|ublic ownership.
1t is impossible for any independ-
mt to compete with the coal rail-
Dads. The railroad and the coal mine
3 each a natural monopoly in itself.
That is TO say, each in the
lass of industries which political
economy recognizes as monopolies by
heir very nature. There is only a
certain amount Of coal deposits and
therefore, these coal deposits form a
natural monopoly of the coal bust
hess. The railroad requires a plant
lutte as inseparable from the soil as
iral monopoly. So, when we find a
combination of natural .~monopolies
BY the merging of railroads and coal
mines, there is of course no way
With which competition can be estab-
Wished. In fact there is no such thing
Eas competition with a natural mono
poly.
So it is that the price of hard coal
has steadily advanced under it's trust
pwnesship. Similarly the market
quotations of the coal railroads and
heir earnings have steadily advanc-
ed. Reading and Lehigh are selling
now at about 175. In addition the
insiders" pull down big profits on
their stock in the coal companies,
which, Of course are carried under
Beparate corporations from the rail-
roads.
The mere fact that the coal trust
8 absolutely impregnable is in itself
The best evidence that it's profits are
unreasonable. Does any man seri-
ously believe that the owners of this
monopoly are content with a mod
crate profit, when, to obtain more
they need only to help themselves?
Congress attempted to split up the
combine by passing a law forbidding
railroad companies to engage in the
coal business, but the supreme court
y the United States, carrying out
The ridiculous fiction of the PERSONAL
lty of a corporation, held that the
owners of railroads could engage in
the coal mining business simply by
operating the coal mines through a
separate corporation.
Thus it is that a ten-cent advance
In the labor cost OF a ton of hard coal
becomes IS cents by the time it reach
es the customer. This is a multiplied
tion Of an increase in a cost item by
$50 per cent.
There is no way-apparently-by |
which the public can be assured of a
reasonable price for anthracite coal
except by government ownership and
operation of the anthracite mines.
Why should We go on for centuries
paying immense sums of money to
such men al Divine Right Baer,
simply because the laws have enabled
him to obtain possession of immense
deposits of coal which he had no
share in creating and which he did
hot even discover.
Mee<@
FARMERS! RAISE CATTLE.
Says G. A. Ryther, vice president
|of the Live Stock Exchange bank of