Republican farmer., 1919-03-07

1 He added, however, that he had 1 gathered certain facts,' which he ] trusted would be of help to the next
 congress in dealing with the anthra-
 cite coal question.
 l Testimony before the committee. he
 asserted, had disclosed that there Is
 no commodity in common use that is
 so absolutely monopolized as the an-
 thracite coal production" l Shortage of anthracite during the
 war and the existing high prices for i the omTodity, he said, were due al
 most entirely to this nlonopohstic con-
 troI.
 | Transportation corporations control
 ling production in the Pennsylvania
 fie4d---the only source of marketable
 anthracite in North America---were
 named in Senator Vardaman's state
 ment as follows:
 The Reading (the holding company
 of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal
 and Iron company, and the Jersey i Central which in turn owns all of the stock of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre cOmpany); the Lehigh Valley, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western; LlIe Delt3"dFe ana 1uQSOny the 1E9 high Coal and Navigation company (which owns and controls the Lehigh
 ard New England); the Erie, and he
 New York. Ontario and Western" Although controlling but 72 per 1 cent. of the actual production of an
 thracite, the statement asserted, the . eight companies had made it impos-
 sible for independent operators to
 compete with them on any fair ba-
 sis.
 Notwithstanding the fact" said 1 the statement. that the constitution | of Pennsylvania prohibits a transpor- 1 tation company from engaging in l mining, these transportation compan- ies are in this business of not only l transporting this coal, but of mining 1 it.
 Expressing the hope that Congress
 might see the necessity of legislation 1 to protect the people of the United States from what he described as 1 the greed, cupidity and avarice of l these souuess corporations" the Mis- | sissippi senator recommended that If 1 the constitution of Pennsylvania l which forbids the transportation com | panies to mine coal is a dead letter
 in that state" the federal goverPment 1 under the Interstate Commerce clause 1 of nations constitution compel the 1 divorcement of transportati ton com l panies rom mining corporations. i The abatement made the additiona! recommendation that the price Of 1 coal be fixed by the government at rate which would guarantee a fair return to the mining companies and 1 which would ''vouchsafe to the peo- 1 pie of America an ample supply of fhr-ao nj Ia n Ia ! price,
 i While payment of excessive royal i ties-said to amount in the case of i the Locust Mountain Coal Go. to the | great Gtrard Estate to S1.04 a ton in | 191S-constituted the first cause of l the high price of coal, the statement said that was not the full story" The 1 other causes given were the means 1 alleged to have been used by the | eight large companies to eliminate the | competition of the independent opera ] tor The statement said the com | panies were able to do this in the 1 following ways:
 High demurrage charges or cars 1 at tidewater awaiting accumulation | of a cargo lot.
 | Inability of the independent oper- | ator to accumulate temporary sur
 plusses in bins and storage yards. the | railroad-producing companies having 1 denied the independent operators i the use of their facilities and, The dog in the manager" attitude l of the eight corporations which, it was charged continually reach out and obtain all available unmined coal nd preavent the independent operator 1 from securing new land. Such of this ] land, the statement said. is retained | in an undeveloped state by the cor porations.
 l The statement also said millions of 1 tons of coal could have been obtained i to relieve the recent shortage had the i fuel administration compelled trans 1 portation companies to develop culm l banks or turn over this accumulation of small sized coal to many independ- i enc concerns willing to reclaim It.
 The large corporations also were charged by Senator Vardaman with
 maintaining the sale price of coal through publication of circular prices. These prices, the statement said. were put out by the Reading Com pany and were the Flaw of the busi- ness"