Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-18
BAYONNE' s COAL
RING REVEALED
School Secretary Tells Assem-.
bly, Probers How Dealers
Combined on Prices.

JERSEY CITY, Sept. 1s.@Testi-
nony showing that the coal dealers
OF Bayonne had united and refused
TO bid for the contract to furnish the
PUBIC schools with fuel was given
oy W. ]. Tomlin. secretary of the
bayonne Board of Education at the
meetlhg OF the Assembly Coal Com
Dine Investigating Commission at the
court House here today. THE re-
Iusal of the dealers to bid came after
the board had rejected the first set
OF proposals and had readvertised for
new ones with the added stipulation
that the figures be for long tong
instead of the usual 1000 pounds.
Preceding Mr. Tonnlin on the stand
Alexls J. Bennoist, secretary of the
West Hoboken Board of Education,
testified to conditions in his section.
he said that the past two years, or
while he has occupied his present
position, the bidding has been very
slight. He gave some of the prices
the board paid for its coal during
that period.
The figures given by Mr.. Tomlin
showed that In 1910 stove coal sold
from $500 to $500 a ton. The next
year 1t remained practically the same,
but in 1912 the prices jumped as high
as T.222 In that time pea coal went
from $3.50 and $425 to $3.50. When
the board obtained bids this year Mr..
Iomlin said the prices were exor-
bitant and every proposal was re-
Jected.
Mr.. BELTS testified that all the
anthracite in the world came from
the Wyoming, Lehigh and Schuylkill
sections of Pennsylvania comprising
some 484 square miles. He said that
in 1895, according to government re-
Lehigh Valley: Central of New Jer-
sey; New York, Ontario and Western;
New York, Susquehanna and West
ern; Erie; Lackawanna; Delaware
and Hudson; and Pennsylvania Rail-
roads owned or controlled 81 per cent.
of the entire GOAL acreage of the
anthracite district. Since then the
railroads owned or controlled q larger
percentage There were then 5000
boo. 900 tons of coal. unrnined, 1t was
estimated, and of this more than
f72, 900, 900 tons have since been mined
by the railroads or the companies
whose stocks and bonds they own. The
Philadelphia and Reading, and Gen.
trail Railroad of New Jersey In 1901
owned or controlled 1000, 10000 tons,
with the Lehigh Valley, Layckawanna,
ETle, anu + tiiuSytVdduh COIklluS next
in the amount of coal owned or con-
trolled by them. The total produc-
ton of the anthracite mines ranged
in round numbers In the period from
1907 TO 1911 inclusive. from 72,000,000
tons (1909) to nearly $1,000 tons in
1911, the largest annual production on
record.
The witness also said that the rail-
roads issued circulars of prices
which were uniform in the main.
These prices to the wholesaler at the
mines in 1909-1910 ranged from $3.50
per ton for buckwheat to $4.15 for
chestnut size. A Laclxawanna circu-
lar in 1912 gave prices ranging from
$3.50 for buckwheat to $5.75 for egg
size The cost of production at the
mines ranged at different mines in
different years from s1.76 to $3.50 a
ton, while the railroads bought
coal from their subsidiary companies
for their locomotives for pipes rang
Ing from s135 to $2.11 ton. In 1912
the Pennsylvania Railroad shipped
soc, 900 tons to South Jersey, while all
the roads shipped 100000 tons to
the New Jersey tidewater and New
York harbor ports. The profit made
on coal by the mining companies
ranged from Csc. to $1.95 ton, &C.
cording to size.