SHOULD THE NATION OWN THE RAILWAYS? 55 



Company," were two cnal companies, whose plants were of about equal capacity, and sev- 

 eral individual sbippers. The railway company and its officials became iuteres-ted in one 

 of the coal companies and such company was. by the rebate and other processes, given 

 rates which averaged but forty per cent, of the rates charged other shippers the result bo- 

 lug that all tilt* other shippers were driven out of the business, a part of them being hope- 

 lessly ruined before giving up the struggle. In addition to gross discriminations in rates 

 this railway eompauy practiced worse discriminations in the distribution of cars; for in- 

 stance during one period of 564 days, as was proven in court, they delivered to the Pitts- 

 burg Coal Compauy 2371 empty cars to be loaded with coal although such company had 

 sale for and a capacity to produce and load, during the same period, more than 10,000 

 cars. During tlie same period the railway company delivered to the 'Rogers Coal Com- 

 pany" in which the railway company and C. W. Rogers, its vice president and general 

 manager, were interested, no less than 15,483 coal cars while 456 were delivered to indi- 

 vidual shippers. lu other words; the coal company owned, in large part, by the railway 

 and its otlicials, was given 82 per cent, of all the facilities to get coal to market, although 

 the other shippers had much greater combined capacity than had the Rogers Coal Com- 

 pany. 



During the lust four months of the period named, aud when the Pittsburg Coal 

 Company had the plant, force and capacity to load thirty cars per day, they received an 

 average of one and a fourth cars per day, resulting, as was intended, in the utter ruin of 

 a prosperous business aud the involuntary sale of the property, while the railway coal 

 company, the railway officials, aud the accommodating friends who operated the Rogers 

 Coal Compauy made vast sums of money, aud when all other shippers had thus been 

 driven otf the line the price of coal was advanced to the consumer. 



pn another railway, traversing the same coal field, the railway or its officials be- 

 came interested in the Keith it Perry Coal Compauy— the largest coal company doing 

 business on the line — and here the plan seems to have been, in addition to the mauipula- 

 tion of rates, to starve other mine operators out, and force them to sell their coal to the 

 Keith & Perry compauy, by failing to furnish the needed cars to those who did not sell 

 their coal to the Keith & Perry company at a very low price. 



When the Keith & Perry company had a great demand for coal, such parties as sold 

 the product of their mines to that compauy were furnished with cars, but for the other 

 operators cars were not to be had, such cars as were brought to the field being assigned to 

 such parties as were loading to the Keith & Perry compauy, the plea being that such 

 compauy furnished the coal consumed by the locomotives of the railway. 



One operator, after being for years forced in this way to sell his product to the Keith 

 & Perry company or see his several plants stand idle, has, iu recent months, been obliged 

 to build some seven miles of railway in order to reach four different roads and thus have 

 a fighting chance for cars, although all these railways are provided with coal mines 

 owued by the corporations or their officials. 



In Arkansas Jay Gould, or his railway company, own coal mines and the coal is 

 transported to the neighboring town at low rates aud there is an ample supply of cars 

 for such mines, but the owners of an adjoining mine are forced to haul their coal, some 

 eighteen miles, to the same town in wagons, as the rates charged them over Mr. Gould's 

 railway are so high as to absorb the value of the coal at destination. 



Not only are individuals thus oppressed, but for reasons which only the iuitiated 

 can fathom there are seemingly purposeless discrimination against localities, as shown in 

 the following extract from the Coat Trade Journal of March 25th, 1891: 



"Capt, Thomas H. Bates, before the railroad committee of the Colorado Senate 

 Bald: The Grand River Coal and Coke Company mine their coal in Garfield County, 

 about fifty miles west of Leadville, and all they sell in Denver, Colorado Springs and 

 Pueblo, has to be hauled through Leadville. At Leadville the individual consumer has 

 to pay seven dollars per ton for this coal while in Denver, with an additional haul of 

 150 miles, the coal from the same mines is delivered to the individual cousuujer for 

 Jo. 50 per ton. The Colorado Coal & Iron Company produce all the anthracite coal sold 

 iu Colorado. It is mined at Crested Butte, which is 150 miles nearer Leadville than 



