Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-03-31
40 MEN CONTROL
PRICES Of COAL
IN NEW JERSEY
They Represent Eleven Rail-
roads, Assembly Probing
Committee Finds.
Determinations AND
REBATES ON HUGE SCALE
Operate Through ''Sales Com
panies" and Choke Off In
dependent Dealers.
Especial to the Evening star.I


suIners EXCESSIVE and discriminatory
rates, is the burden of the report
Of the special Assembly committee
appointed last year to investigate the
subject by Speaker Leon r. Taylor. !
The consumer is the victim of n !
triple eombination-firs at the mines, |
then at the points of delivery by
freight charges. and finally by COM
bination of dealers, the committee
declares The report also calls atten-
ton to the fact that the laws are
being openly violated by the railroad
companies, and calls for action by the
attorney general.
The report. which went to Governor
Fielder today, is the most complete
Indictment of the coal companies and
the railroads that has ever been pro-
duced by a legislative committee of
this State. Beginning with the eX-
Aplanation that the anthracite coal
fields of the Wyoming, Lehigh and !
Schuykill regions of the State of
Pennsylvania supply practically all
the hard coal of the world, the re-
port shows that eighty-seVen per cent. /
Of these coal fields are controlled by
the railroads transporting the coal,
eleven in number. The Philadelphia
and Reading Railroad alone controls
eixty-three per cent
The railroads do not mine directly,
but through operating companies, the
Philadelphia and Reading Coal and
Iron Company. the Lehigh and
Will1esbarre Coal Company, the Della
ware Lackawanna and Western Coal
Company, the New York and Wilkes |
barre Coal Company, the Susquehan- /
ma Coal Company and the like.
Forty Men Control All.
Concerning these companies the re-
port says: ''These and other coal +!
companies We're organized by the
several railroads for the purpose of
operating said mines and they are
owned and controlled by the differ
ent railroad companies tapping these
coal fields, and In turn, these rail-
roads, together with their holdings, I
are owned and controlled by about /
forty Inen, through q series Of inter-
1GekHag directerates So thh' il ~. E
S'f1- operated and absolutely con- /
Erolled with the exception Of about I
- per cent, thereof, by a combina- |
tion OF forty men.
"1n addition thereto, since 1911 !
vasious companies have organized |
what is known as sales companies" p" !
largely owned and entirely controlled (
by the railroad companies. directly T
or indirectly. for the purpose of SELL I
ing and marketing the coal so pro-
Coal Sales Company and the Lehigh /
aud Wilkesbarre Coal Company, and +
the like: that the object and purpose
of the sales companies, as originally
organized. was to market the prod
uct, and that until 1913 they sold coal
only at Wholesale. The Lehigh Val /
ley Coal Sales Company subsequent I
~.5-that time and some time in 1913 I
began also the sale of coal by re-
tail
"All of these railroads directly and /
indirectly carry coal through and I
into the State of New Jersey.
Referring TO the fact that anthracite |
coal is sold in various sizes. the pre- /
rared grades being mainly for private /
consumers and the smaller grades for |
steam production in competition with /
bituminous coal the report draws at ,
tention to the fact that from sixty
eight to seventy per cent. of the coal t
shipped is of the former type. OF the /
total of 75.322 800 tons of hard coal /
produced in 1912, about 3,500,000 tons /
was used as fuel for locomotives, n !
similar amount for expectation and !
about the same for consumption in !
New Jersey.
1t is ON the prices charged for coal /
70 consumers that the report becomes /
specific and shows the operation Of /
the various combinations On this .
head 1t says
Prices Rise Uniformly.
THE prices charged for coal as it is /
produced is established in two ways:
The price at the mines and the price
at the place of delivery.
"Ou or about the first of April of {
every year the railroad companies, /
which practically own the output of !
coal through their chief officers. es-
tahlsh price for coal of the various /
grades, and issue circulars indicating
these prices. This has been their
method of procedure for number of ,
years.
'These prices are uniform for all /
companies The circulars of these
rates are distributed among the deal I
erst under the names of the various /
; Goal sales companies.
Some difficulty has been expert .
enced in determining where these |
rates are made, but Mr. Reynold. the /
attorney OF the Lehgh and Wilkes
barre Coal Co., and of the Central 7
Railroad, indicates that these circu-
lars come from the Reading terminal,
and that Mr.. Baer authorizes the
prices. There is q general combina-
tion between all these companies to :
H. the price of coal and the prices
Of one are the prices of all.
"Recently. within the past year the
state Of Pennsylvania has levied a
,SstSte tax of 215 per cent per ton on j
I the T1arket value Oh lne COIL SOlu at &
thsk es. This on chestnut coal /
sof the mines at S4.25 makes an
~ charge of over ten cents ton
n de price charged the consumer
t3/fhe prepared sizes of coal.
"The Philadelphia and Reading
Coal Company in fixing their price
for coal fix price of about 100 per
cent. upon the cost of production,
when the independent dealers and the /
other companies. instead of compet
ing with their prices by a system of
interlocking directorates and mutual
control among one another, fix or
follow the same price. and the extra
80 per cent. to 100 per cent. charges
by them go to swell the revenues of
these companies and by system of
stock and bond-holdings among i
them is divided among all the com
panies.
This underlying evil is not beyond
the reach OF remedy in this State,
>snd while the crime is initiated in q
foreign State 1t is consummate in
the state of New Jersey in permit
ting or sanctioning the carriers Of
"a