New Britain herald., 1924-06-19
COAL DEALER HAS HIS OWN PROBLEMS
Take It From Gardner (. Weld,
 They're Knotty Ones

l The problems of retail coal man
 were described in an interesting man ner by Gardner C. Weld Of the Citi- aens' Coal Co, at The regular meeting
 of the New Britain Rotary club to- 1 day, Two state officials were present among a number of other out of town visitors. They were state Health ! Commission Stanley 1T, Osborne. NJ. , IT,, and State Compensation Commits sioner George R. Chandler.
 Reports were made by the commit tee on transportation 10 the Fresh Air camp which opens next Tuesday and
 nv l., w, Young. treasurer of the
 camp. II was voted to purchase flow CTS for Ben Parker pianist, who waa reported ill. Sturman Dyson played the piano and solos were rendered by Carl Lindelof, known as Buttons" T" page boy at the Burritt hotel where the meeting was hold
 Mr, Weld. in opening his address, defined retail coal man as one who, l "according to the public, funny papers and wits, is everything that they are glad they are not"
 He told how the retail coal dealer must of necessity own or have access to a valuable piece of land of suffi- cient size to take carc Of any fuel stringenCE and adjacent 10 railroad q.
 He must maintain siding. have OK ponsiNe machinery to handle his coal and have trucks and horses 10 deliver u
 Iio told of tho carly history nf an- thracite coal and of tho driving Of the first anthracite dealers out of phia- delphis as impostors He pointed out that tho anthracite mining region comprises a district AS0 miles square. produces 20 million tons Of coal per year and employs about i6a,On0 men and boys of which only 45.nOO are ac- tually engaged in mining. This 90
 million tons, he said. included rice, huckwheat and barley with which New England is not so familiar, He pointed out that only seven million tons come 10 Now England and that tho New Enelander is inclined to be canny about prices while tho western. northwestern and Canadian buyer pays tho price. without quibbling and gets coal when he wants it.
 lIe told how inc anthracite miners union is tho strongest in the world and how tho miners have S7 holidays each year, not counting strikes. He said thnre arc from ii 10 % tons of va. fer pumped out of tho mines every time a ton Of coal comes out aud two tons of air pumped in. l'p to May 8t he said the anthracite mines were 10 per cent below normal in quantity of production and an average of 5000 men were on strike all tho time,
 He spoke of tho supposed profit on coal and said some dealers are doing busiGcss for as low as 6 per cont. He referred 10 the buying by the dealer of coal in gross ton lots and selling in net ton lots. in which the public thinks hc is gaining 2ia pounds to inc ton. Due to dirt. rock. slate and other losses this gain he said is SO little that il dealer is happy fl it amounts 10 pcr cent
 Mr. Weld spoke nf the cost of carry ing accounts and said f cost the firm more than dollar ion to carry the account for year Of thc man who buys 10 tons at SIT ton and waits a year 10 pay the bill
 He told of the trials and difficulties of delivery. \ careless or thoughiIess driver may make mistai,", give a sharp answer tn the '1ady Of the house" put the coal in the wrong bin or drive on inc lawn. The dealer im-