The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1916-12-07
DELIBERATELY CREATING
COAL FAMINE.

tnn one OF the railroad yards IN Chi
cago for the purpose of artificially
Ienhancing the prices of coal.
In explanation, the Tribune pub
fishes the following, which ought
to be carefully read by every man
who buys coal:
Goal brokers are to a considerable
hexlent responsible for the high prices
of coal in Chicago. Coal mine oper-
|,ators must share the blame with
them.
There are hundreds and almost
lcertainly thousands of coal cars load
ed with coal standing in the freight
yards of Chicago which are practical
lily being used as storage warehouses
THE coal they carry being kept off
4 the market in order to further in
tcrease the coal shortage and raise the
iprice to the consumer.
"In the photograph-taken by di-
ERECTION of Chairman O'Connell of the
Estate public utilities commission
us shown view of the Wildwood
freight yard of the Illinois Central,
taken on Wednesday, of this week.
On that date there were more than
500 cars in the yard. OF this number
5i215 loaded coal cars had been stand
ing on the tracks for periods ranging
from four or five days to three weeks.
They are held by the railroad COM
>pany under what is known as the ire
consignment privilege" waiting for
the men to whom they are consign-
ed to order them sent to some other
address.
similar conditions are being
found in practically all the freight
yards of railroads which handle a
large coal tonnage. On Wednesday,
also, for instance, the Glenn yards of
THE Chicago & Alton Railroad COM
pany- contained some 400 cars, of
which 10S were loaded coal cars,
some of which had been standing on
the tracks since Nov. 8.
yesterday Chairman O'Connell
sent photographers and Investigators
to make record of conditions in the
Dalton yards of the Chicago and East
ern Illinois and the Faithorne yard
of the Chicago Terre Haute and
Southeastern. AS rapidly as possible
all the freight yards in this vicinity
will be covered.
'It should be understood that the
railroads are not responsible for this
condition. When loaded car has
been held up for forty-eight hours at
, ter its arrival the railroad company
gets S a day for demurrage for re-
consignment fee from the consignee
With the present demand for coal cars
each car, if not in active service
would earn perhaps SIS day. The
only railroad fault is that in their
anxiety not to offend large shippers
ilthey are not as prompt as they nigh,
,, ,be in reporting unreasonable delays
:. yin unloading coal cars TO the inter
stale commerce commission. 1t is al
so true that there has been and to
some extent still is an actual shortage
,of coal cars, of which condition coal
spectators have taken advantage by
keeping hundreds Of other cars out
of service.
4 "The result of this combined natur-
al and artificial shortage of cars is
that Illinois slack soft COAL which
usually sells at the mine for 90 cents
i ton, is now selling at 1926 a ton
4 "Since the normal load of coal
car is fifty tons, if an advance of 81
a ton can be obtained by holding the
coalEin the car for week-at total
cost of $5-the net profit to he coal
Spectator will be $45.
"CoaI nine operators usual con-
tract to sell most Of their normal pro-
duction to coal brokers and whole
sale dealers at fixed price, agreeing
to deliver certain number of cars
day. These brokers and dealers, in
two ot 10 10 To-
consumers and others at an agreed
price. In most cases it is provided
that contracts for the delivery of coal
shall be void in case of strikes, car
/ shortages, antfother conditions be
yond the control of the coal mine
operator.
"When there is, as at present, ca
shortage, from whatever cause and
| to whatever extent, the coal mine OPP
| orator has at least an excuse to avoid
delivery of coal on his contracts. The
temptation is great when the price he
has contracted to sell at is 80 cents
a ton for example, and he can get
1925 ton for it on the open market.
1.-THE suspicion that some operat-
ors have yielded to the temptation to
overstate the car shortage has become
almost certainty.
"For instance: One coal merchant
| in Chicago has contract with an IL
linois mine to furnish him with GER
| tain number of cars of slack coal per
day, for which he contracts to pay
80 cents ton. For weeks he has not
/ been able to get more than small
percentage of the contraced cars.
When he complains he is told that
there is shortage of cars. But he
finds he can buy from an adjoining
mine-where the car shortage should
be just as greatly paying 1925 a
ton.
Furthermore, some of the cars
which are delivered by the mine oper-
ator he has the contract with are
only half loaded, they contain TWEEN
ty>five or thirty tons of coal instead
of fifty, the normal load. And when.
his suspicious being aroused, he sent
an investigator down to the mine. he
found that no effort is being made
to load all the cars which are furnish
ed by the railroad company, a num-
Der Of empties being left over day af-
ter day"
Now the above is rather long ex-