Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-08-16
Coal Supplies and Coal Prices,
From the Christian se;.nc. Monitor.

Inc fact seems to have been clearly established, at the recent
conference between members of the coal production committee of the
evuhcl OIL hatlonal defense and the bituminous coal operators, that
mere M been, for some time at least. absolutely no relation of coal
prices to coal supplies in the United States. Brought face to face
WIN what appeared to be the undesirable alternative of reducing
prices or submitting to virtual government control of the mines and
nelr output, the operators, controlling practically all the mines east
o MISSISSIPPI river. agreed to accept a maximum price for Goa,
on both government and private orders, subject to a still further
reduction III ease it should be determined, upon federal investigation,
nat helr product, after the payment of q reasonable profit, could be
delivered to the railroads at a lower price.
At the time the agreement referred to was reached. a federal
Judge and jury in New York city were engaged in the trial of Al
number OF coal mine operators charged with having conspired to
maintain, for coal to be delivered in New York, the identical price
agreed upon at the conference. Perhaps because of the possible eff
feet OF the agreement upon the outcome of this trial, the secretary of
war promptly repudiated it, in s. far as the government might have
been bound by its terms. The coal operators, however. claim to be
ready to carry out the provisions of the agreements and state that they
have received notice that there has been no reputation of the agree
ment IN s far a IS it applies to private contracts.
There re abundant indications that the coal operators do not
feel greatly aggrleved, although the tentative price agreement under
which they are bound is considerably lower than the prices recently
prevailing in all sections of their territory. The alleged illegal agree
ment which was made the basis of the prosecution in the case in
which the secretary of war apparently wished to avoid prejudicing the
government S contentious, is declared to have established identically
the selling price at which the operators are now required to supply
coal to private purchasers. 1t does not seem probable, therefore, that
the operators will suffer greatly because of the present arrangement.
The chief advantage which the public should gain Is a result of
the agreement on the part of the operators would seem to be the eff
fective elimination of the coal spectators. AS a matter of fact, the
price OF coal on board cars at the mines has in no sense controlled
the price of coal to retail dealers, or to any but the larger among the
consumers. The output of the mines has been bought up by the spec
ulators, at prices not disclosed to retailers and consumers, and held
indefinitely, frequently under the pretext that cars for it's transport
tation could not be obtained. 1t should be possible now, with the
maximum price of coal at the mines established, for the ultimate con-
sumner to buy at that price, plus the cost of carriage and a reasonable
profit to the retailer. The fact that there is an abundance of coal to
be mined, sufficient men to take it from the ground, and cars enough
to carry it to it's destination, should be, under the conditions estab-
lished, a guaranty of release from the imposition which has been en-
dured.