THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 273 



largely, the average price of coal at Port Carbon would 

 not exceed from $2.25 to $2.50 per ton." 



It is the custom of the retail dealers in the East to 

 lay in their supplies of coal for the winter during the 

 .summer and early fall. At this period of the year 

 large quantities of coal are sold by the miners, and the 

 prices then obtained to a great degree govern the retail 

 prices for the remainder of the year. The companies 

 exert themselves to keep the prices at these sales at the 

 highest possible figure, and as they are masters of the 

 situation, they succeed in obtaining whatever they may 

 choose to ask. Some idea of their high-handed manner 

 of conducting their business may be gained from the 

 following comments of the New York Tribune upon the 

 August (1873) sales of Scranton coal: 



" The poor, starving coal companies have just given 

 another turn to the screw, just 'to steady the price' 

 of the fuel by which ten millions of people are to cook 

 their food and keep themselves warm the coming win- 

 ter. The Scranton auction sale was held yesterday, 

 and the average price obtained for the 90,000 tons sold 

 was $5.17 per ton, against an average of $3.46 for 100,- 

 000 tons sold August 28th, 1872, and of $5.03 for 

 140,000 tons sold August 30th, 1871, the famine year. 

 In the year 1870, the production was also interrupted 

 by strikes, the suspension of mining in the Schuylkill 

 region for four months, terminating August 1st, enabling, 

 as President Gowen tells us, the Wyoming and Lacka- 

 wanna Companies to obtain high prices. Yet the 

 average price for 80,000 tons of Scranton coal, sold by 

 auction, August 31st, 1870, was only $4.83. We bring 

 these prices together in a line in order that the public 

 may compare them 

 18 



