THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 279 



however, would be subject to a heavy transportation 

 tax which would be levied upon it by the railroads 

 over which it would have to pass, and this would go 

 far towards preventing it from becoming a formidable 

 rival to Pennsylvania coal. 



Another remedy that has been proposed is the con- 

 struction of a freight railroad by the General Govern- 

 ment from New York to Chicago. It is believed by the 

 advocates of this scheme that such a road, on which 

 minimum rates of transportation would be charged, 

 would bring Western coal to the Eastern markets at 

 rates which would effectually break down the anthra- 

 cite monopoly. There can be no doubt that if the 

 Western coal could be laid down in New York and 

 Boston at reasonable rates, it would prove a formidable 

 rival to anthracite ; but the railroad rates, as at present 

 managed, preserve the supremacy of the kindred mo- 

 nopoly. Should the proposed Government road touch 

 the Pennsylvania coal regions on its way to the West, 

 another blow would be struck at the monopoly. By 

 affording cheap transportation to the Eastern markets, 

 it would reduce the price of coal at least one-half. It 

 is the cost of transportation alone that raises the price 

 of fuel, and not the cost of producing it. 



A recent number of Harper's Weekly, commenting 

 upon the extortions of the coal monopoly, thus speaks 

 of the necessity for such a railroad : 



"But the future of the coal trade is still more 

 suggestive. Soon the mines of Pennsylvania and the 

 West must supply the fuel of the world. The mines 

 of England, yielding 120,000,000 tons a year, already 

 show signs of exhaustion. Coal has doubled in price in 

 England within three years. English iron manufactu- 



