The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1920-10-19
RING IN BIG COAL
PLOT IS IN A PANIC
EMPLOYEES HIGHER UP WILL
NOT BE SCAPEGoATS, AND
PROSECUTIONS LIKELY.
METHOD TO BOOST PRICE
Pyramiding Sales Crushed Consul
mers. Spectators Held Coal in
Yards Until Famine Insured Big
Profits. Make 1912, ZOO, 900.

mers. Spectators Held Coal in
Yards Until Famine Insured Big
Profits. Make $4,000, 900.
WASHINGTON, D. C.-Evidence
in the hands of the department. Of
| justice, it was earned today, includes
specific details of how the coal mark
ct was manipulated all during the
year by group of SPECTATORS in
the east so they were able not only
to tie up the available car supply.
but create a shortage wherever they
pleased at almost a moments notice.
That phase of the investigation,
which may eventually be the most
important the government forces will
tackle, deals with the policy of re-
consignment.
Trail of Graft Unearthed.
1t was soon found that repeated
sales and resales, or pyramiding, by
wholesale soft coal dealers and spec
ulators constituted an important fac
tor in boosting prices. 1t was not
long, also, before the government in
vestigators uncovered the trail of
wholesale graft and bribery all the
way from the mines of Pennsylvania
Indiana and West Virginia to tide
water at New York harbor.
Purchased fav6fitism in car dis
tribution at the mines, fraudulent
use of priority shipment orders
through collision between profIteer
spectators and dishonest employees
or officers of public service corpora
tions for the expediting of coal ship
ments- those and many other abus-
es were revealed. AS an inevitable
consequence there have been indict-
ments under the Lever act. There are
likely to be more of them in this and
in other federal districts. But they
are incidental to the main purpose
aimed at the reduction of the cost
of coal by Topping off the crushing
burden of graft, bribery and profit
eering, all of which in the end fell
upon the bruised shoulders of the ul-
innate consumer.
It has been common practice in
the last year for coal dealers to have
coal consigned to them merely at a
specified town without making any
arrangements or agreements for UNI
loading.
When the coal arrived, if the
market at the time was too shaky
to permit of what the coal dealers
considered sufficient profit, they al
lowed the coal to stay in the yards
and when they were notified by the
railroads the cars would have to be
unloaded they recOnsigned the coal
to themselves at some nearby point
where it again went into yard stor-
age. At the propitious moment the
dealer brought the car back to his
market.
There were many occasions during
the coal shortage in New York and
other cities when yards were almost
choked with coal, so that the move
ment of freight was greatly retard-
ed. From reports which have reach
ed the government it is estimated at
one time more than one-half of the
normal barge equipment Of the rail-
roads entering New York was tied
up by spectators and the free float
of the necessities of life was retard-
ed by just that amount.
Further PRICE Drop Expected.
There was time when the price
of soft coal at tidewater, with all
these illicit and extortionate addi-
tional costs piled upon it, rose to
$2225 a ton. 1t can be bought now
at from $12 to SIC, and officials of
the department of justice express
the hope that ere long it will drop to
SO or $40 a ton.
A coal trade expert testifying
not long ago before Senator Viii
liam Calder's committee on con-
struction and production, placed
the figures at no less than $312,000,-
600, and he apologized for being so
conservative.