Year: 1871

The Coal Conspiracy and the Press.


The facts of the coal conspiracy have been
plainly stated in the HERALD, and the reme-
dies therefor have been succinctly outlined
and urged upon our Representatives in Con-
gress. We are gratided to see that the attack
which we made has frightened off the opera
tors, and the demands we made upon our
congressman have been readily responded to.
The famine prices to which coal was being 80
rapidly pushed by the soulless corporations
mas not been reached and now may not be,
since the fusilade from the HERALD has
shown these corporations what they may
expect If they persist in their merciless grind
ing of the poor. The numerous letters which
we have received from poor families in this
city and from men of philanthropy every


where show how timely was our onslaught,
and the sudden cessation of the rise in prices
and the patching up of hasty offer of CON-
promise on the part of the operators with The
miners show us how effective it has been.
There is only one power in the land
apparently capable of defeating the vii
lany of these corporations, and that
power is the press. The courts and the legs-
latures may be and have been overridden by
such powerful combinations as these railroad
ing and coal mining companies, and the poor
have been oppressed and justice has been
thwarted by them, but they have never yet
combated successfully against the Herculean
power of free, Independent, honest and in
huential press. The present instance is most
telling example of how such newspaper as
the HERALD can and does protect the poorer
and weaker classes. Congress has been un-
able to do anything as yet in this matter. Our
Representatives from this city presented their
motion to repeal the import duties on Nova
Scotia coal, but the single objection of one
Pennsylvania monopolist in the House stayed
all legislation. Not so with the HERALD. Its
blows came at once, as soon as the dragon had
reared its head, and they have fallen sharply
and heavily upon that head until it is stunned,
If not killed. The very morning upon which
we received the news that the companies had
raised the carrying price from two dollars ani
seventy-fiye cents to seven dollars and twenty
cents per ton we exposed the wicked combina-
tion and demanded the immediate repeal of
the duties on Nova Scotia coal The people
can thus see that in the HERALD, as in any
independent and honest journal, they have a
protector more powerful than the courts, more
Judicious than the legislatures and more vigi-
liant than the uniformed guardians of the peace


We do not intend to cease our blows at this
coal swindle. The monopolsts may back
down now, patch up peace and rush coal
into the city by millions of tons, but we shall
insist upon the repeal motion in Congress until
1t becomes law. We cannot be forever at the
mercy of these monopolsts. They have sowed
the wind and they must reap the whirlwnd.
The duty on foreign coal must be repealed


even though the Pennsylvanans reduce their
prices to two dollars per ton from fifteen.
They are not to be trusted in the future. But
one thing can keep them continually on their
good behavior, and that is competition. The
honest press can bring them to terms when
they kick out of the traces, but wholesome
competition will take the poor classes clean
from under the iron heel which the monopo-
lists have pressed upon them once too often.