The evening world. Newspaper, December 10, 1902, Page 2

a + Wriow go The Rivers Lined with Full Barges, for Which the Owners Demand Famine Figures, Unmoved by Either Suffering or Death Which the Artificial Short- age Is Occasioning. F The coal famine which fs making the rich shiver and the poor die In this élty 1s not genuine. It is the result of a corner—a deliberate con- Spiracy on the part of coal operators to Keep the supply short and force prices to the top. Dwellers in New York who have listened to the long stories given out * “by the press agents of the operators about their herculean efforts to keep shia’ city ‘supplied may believe all these professions, but the business men “who live in New Jersey and who come daily into New York as commuters {Ou the" aitterent roads know exactly what the situation is. Ask one of these men what the price isin any of the hundreds of New ~Gersey towns and cit'es within 100 miles of New York. He will tell you “that he can get coal--al, he wants of it—for $6.25 a ton. He will tell you that all alony the Erie, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, Ontario and western, th» Lenigh Valley and the other coal road tracks there are thou- sogands upen thovsands of coal cars, filled with anthracite. Some of it has Sheen” waitiny ‘on sidings for wecks. It ts covered with snow. The men _Whosown yt luave beer holding !t for the zero weather they know would n afflic. New York.. While they kept up the talk of the steady con- Gaumyt.on of the daily supply, they were holding out a percentage for the abaryest which the first good hard cold snap would assure them. HOLD FOR PROFITS WHILE PEOPLE FREEZE. | So New York shivers. Mothers and their babies lie down at night and when the neighbors come the next day they are frozen corpses. Even the rich shiver, for as the price soars higher and higher, from $7.50 to $8, to $9, to $10, tu $11. to $12, the greedy holders hang on in the hope that it will go highes yet. Perhaps it will, unless the indignation of the millions of vers In this city goes higher too and frightens the consptratora into loosening their frozen grip. bane Newark ana Rutherford and Paterson and Morristown and the other | Yersey towns can get coal, for the people in tHose places can see with thefr (gw eyes the Hines of laden coal cars standing at the sidings. It wouldn't do to tel! them there fs no coal, that the demand is greater than the supply, that the operators are only selling to those who will charge a ‘‘decent” (price) for these people know better. ' © “So the ruilronds satisfy their clamor for coal, and the New Yorker, who “eannot get his information first hand, but must depend more or less on othe skilful press agents and dtatisticlans of the operators, get squeezed, or froren i! he refuses to be squeezed. » ake, for instance, the action of Stickney, Conyngham & Co., of No. 1 Broadway, who handle the output of the Pennsylvania Railroad. They have just notified all the retallers who they have been supplying that here- after ‘they could have no more coal. The reason given for this sudden move was that the coal was needed more in Philadelphia, Boston and other points, Some of the firms affected are J, F. R. Ernst, of No, 218 East Forty- ‘fourth street; Ernst Bros., who have yards In Fast Twenty-ninth and East One ‘Hundred and Ninth streets, and O. J. Stephens, of One Hundred and ‘Thirty-elghth street and the Harlem ship canal. These men have been forced to buy coal of speculators. Go isk these men about the conspiracy. A member of the firm of Stickney, Conyngham & Co. admitted that} “the nouce had been sent out. ~ swhy?” he was asked. “Because we aren't getting the coal,” he said. Ho refused to give any further explanation. There is no way of telling whether this coal really is going to Boston and Philadelphia or whether it is being sold to speculators right here in! New York for fancy prices, but the public will be able to draw its own in- ferences from the action taken and the attitude of the firm when asked for an explanation of their conduct. ‘ THE SPECULATOR’S HARVEST. To cover their tracks as far as possible the third party has been brought | into the ‘niquitous deal. This is the speculator, New York knows him fi other lines of trade. The fetallers whose yards are empty, the mie who have a few tons to sell at exorbitant prices either by the half or quarter ton or by the bag or pail to the very poor, tell you that they can't get coai of the operators, They have to get it of the speculator pay whatever prices may be demanded. Some of the speculators de- | mand as high av $9 and $1U aton. Yet coal is selling for $5.50 at the mines. Who ells to the speculator? | ‘The railroads know who these men are. They have big offices. Some of them are friends and others relatives of the men who mine the coal. | ‘They gei conl at the price which the wholesaler who isn't a speculator gets | tt Then; with the connivance of the raflroad and the operators, they hold At until they have a profit of 100 per cent. | 3 While the cparators are feeding into the city, to supply the dally de- | nd, part of their output, they are storing up either through speculators | atffecty on their own account part of their output for the harvest which pw gding on. The North and the East Rivers are full of barges of coal Weld ‘by specutators, Go down to the river front and you can see them “It Is going elsewhére.” | a or » Yafieri ‘to the“deck with coal and moored alongside the piers. Only yester- | May Erriet! & Co., on Bast Forty-fourth street, managed by paying $9.50 a ton to got two tons of coal from a full barge at the foot of East Forty- Abit af-thé railroads want to rush a larger supply from the recelving points in Now Jersey to this city they will be hampered, as the supply of barges 1s Iinoiited —« = 4 F , | FAMINE AMID PLENTY. New Jersey is full of coal; the rivers on each side of the city are full their pathetic details in the bureaus of the charitable organizations of New |tion !n the Army wagons. Altnougn ‘@@-conl; but the bins of the rich and the bags of the poor are empty. Thou- fande of poor clamor at the Bast’ Side yards for enough to keep death Poor “Waffles” j Yeaterday at $9. ] ‘street. The other tons were held for higher prices. | Wf "Phe number of tall barges loaded with the speculators’ coal is so great | ‘kaw Wirmuds WHONKSUDAY KVENING, UBCKMBEK 10, 1902, away. Thousands of well-to-do and rich are running around from coal yard to coal yard begging for fuel, and exerting as much influence to get it as they would were they seeking political office. While the consumer dances, the speculator and the operator look on and keep raising prices, The coal roads admit that the evil of speculation is partly responsible for the present situation, but they blame It all on the independent opera- tors. They say that ever since mining was resumed coal has been coming into New Jersey from the independent mines at the average rate of 1,000 tons a day. This bas al! been bought at the mines by speculators. “Prac- tically none of it has been sold. Therefore there is a total, they say, of 40,000 tons on hand , and it 1s this coal which js now being sent out at exorbitant prices, IMPROVEMENT PROMISED. They further say that there {s a better outlook for New York's supply in the future, because the very cold snap which has brought on this crisis has closed navigation on the great lakes. Since Iast Friday no coal has been going by the wator route for the lake ports, In the last week of navi- gation there was a total of more than 70,000 tons sent to the Northwest. This, or the greater part of it, will now come to New York, as by rail hard coal cannot compete with soft in this soft coal district owing to the high rates by rail. Acording to figures given out by the railroads, there has come Into New York ever since Thanksgiving a daily average of 51,000 tons of coal, divided among the roads as follows: D., L. and W. ... Erle and D. and H. Jersey Central .. . 10,000 Lebigh .... -+ 8,000 One-third of this has gone to New England points supply of other years. Retail prices of coal this year and last, by a retailer, are as follows: 5,000 3,800 3,000 11,000 + 10,500 Pennsylvania . This {s the normal ‘iven out Last year. This year. Stove, nut, egg and furnace ~ $6.00 $7.60-$11.00 Pen ......+++ + see 8.75 6.50 No. 1 buckwheat . 3.25 5.50 No. 2 buckwheat ... 3.75 5.00 Soft coal ....... ene cence seine « 3.75 6,50- 7.50 NOT STOVE COAL, SAYS ERIF, OFFICIAL, An official of the Erle road, when asked about the large number of coal-laden cars piled up in New Jersey, admitted that they were there, but sald: “If you scrape the snow off them you will find, I think, that most of them are filled with pea coal for which there has been no demand in New York until the last two days. The railroads are hampered in thelr work of getting the coal oss to New York by the lack of barges. The roads do not control the barges. They own some, but the greater part are owned by coal dealers in New York or by captains who rent them to the highest bidder. There will be a larger supply from now on, as the canal barges can be used, owing to the fact that the canal {s closed.” The coal ugent for the D. L. & W. road also admitted that there were many coal cara in New Jersey. “They are held by speculators who have bought from the Independent operators,” he sald. “We are doing our best to force them to unload at once, We charge them $i a day demurrage for each car after it has been 48 hours at Its dertination. That Js the only control over them we have, But even were we to land per cent, more coal in New York than we are | dally doing the New York men could not handle it, as they have not the facilities, athough they have pressed Into service all sorts of carts. The #l'ppery etroets Lavo also interfered with the deliveries and made the lack of coal seem greater than it really has been.” TRICKY PURCHASERS, TOO, A big retaller told an Evening World reporter to-day that many persons had plenty of coal in their cellars and pretended that they haven't. He sald one man came into his place with tears in his eyes and told of a wife dying because there was no coal in the house, 2 “L sent him,” sald the dealer, ‘one ton at once. When the driver got tq the house he found the fellow had fifteen tons already in his cellar, The driver brought the coal back. That chap was just stocking up for fear prices are golug higher all winter and there are a lot like him.” SAYS THERE IS A CONSPIRACY. Michael J. Burns, of Burns Bros,,. one of the largest retail firms in the city, admitted to-day that there was a conspiracy, but he said it was not among the coal combine, but among the jobberg, who bought the coal at the flat rate of $6 and then held it for the rise. “I do not know of a single instance,” he said, “where a member of the so-called coal combine has sold above the regular flat rate of $5 a ton at tide water. The conspiracy Is among the middlemen, who market the product of the independents, They buy the coal at the mines, ship it here and pay the freight. Then they leave it in the cars, paying a dollar a day demurrage for a forty-ton car until the price gets up high enough to give them a tremendous profit. “Only last week a liquor dealer at Mayfield, Pa., offered tO supply me with fifteen carloads of coal per week from an independent mine. I could not find out who he was or where the coal was coming from, and I re- fused to accept the offer, “Coal from these Individual companies ts being brought here and sold for $10 a ton, Any quantity of it is to be had, I got two cargoes I should say that the estimate of 1,000 tons a day com- ing in here for the speculators every day ts small. In fact, I know it’ ts. “Another reason why the New York public has to pay high prices is that the barge owne who were Idle all summer, have raised thefr rate per ton from 17 to 75 cents. I can’t say that I blame them, for this is their only chance to get even for the summer's losses, which almost bankrupted some of them.” ALDERMANIC ACTION COMMENDED. Tre Roard of Aldermen's prompt action tn the coal erists elicited more commendation in the City Hall than anything the Fatheys have done for years. Republicans aud Democrats allke voiced the same sentiment, that the proposition was humane and timely. “The cnly unfortunate feature about it is that requests of this sort, according to our Jaw,” said Assistant Corporation Counsel Clarke, “must be held up three days before the Mayor can sign. This means that {t will be next Monday before the Board of Estimate and Apportionment can avt upen it. “The Mayor himself ts Chatrman of the Board, and I have no doubt that he will sign just as soon as the law permits in order that the Board may take action speedily. “By the constitution, If any one member of the Apportionment Board votes against a proposition it, 1s lost. But.J have little fear of that con- tingency in the coal fund request. It appears tO be entirely popular.” + ' WRETCHEDNESS AMONG THE POOR IN EAST SIDE TENEMENTS. Stories of mlorry resultine from the severe cold continue to unfold ‘ork.’ The rise “in the temperature to-day has brought some slight relief, but the poor, who have suffered so piteOusly, are still flocking to the coal yards striving to ‘buy the pai! of coal that will keep a ttle fire burning in their freezing homes. ‘ Such is the suffering in the east side alone that even the prefessional workers among the poor, inured as they are to scenes of wretchedness, shudder at the awful misery on all sides. The pitiful cry for coai is iieard on all sides and many schemes have been proposed by which to furnish heat for the shivering unfortunates, An incident of unusual pathos occurred on Oliver street this morning when @ coal wagon which had just been emptied jostled over the street. In its wake were seven or eight children, shivering and poorly clad, their Mttle hands blue with the cold, catching the coal dust as {ft fell from the wagon. As fast as their tiny hands were filled with the preclous powder they disappeared Into their tenemnet-house homes and were back again In a trice, reaching for the particles of fuel which they hoped to convert into a little warmth. THINK OF THIS, YOU, WELL-WARMED. y mother js sick in bed,” said the oldest girl in the pathetic little group, “and all day yesterday we nearly froze. We hada little bit of coal, but {t’s all gone now and we can't buy any more. I get a little help by searching the ash barrels, and sometimes I find enough to make a little fire. “When « can go around the stores sometimes I can get some kindling wood, but mother is ty» sick for me to leave her long, and I have to mind the baby.” As the girl spoke be regarded the handful of coal dust in her posses- sion as if it were the greatest treasure in the world. The poor who search the ash barrels for fuel, and wo in their inability to obtain coal are on the verge of desperation, conjure up every conceivable means of keeping warm, but the severjty of the weather has twarted their feeble efforts. The slum workers of the Salvation Army tell -many sad stories of dis- trees which they have come across and to-day they say that sickness is de- veloping in the unheated homes. Pneumonia and lung trouble follow in the wake of the bitter cold and the demands for medical ald are increasing. WOULD RATHER DIE TOGETHER. “Many of cur most pathetic cases come from people who cannot, obtain help from the city," said Staff-Captain Johnson this morning. “I found a case of pitiable suffering on Cherry street last night, where a crippled woman, her invalid husband and three children were shivering in a miserable Iittle room, in absolute need of food and clothes. The wife stated that she had re was an institutional case, no further relief could be given. “My husband has consumption and could get in a hospital, but he does not want to leave me and the children. We would rather die together. If we only had a little coal, everything would be all right.” At the coal yards this morning the scenes of yesterday were duplicated. A long line of applicants stood at the yards of Alfred Barber's Suns, No. 367 Water street, anxiously awaiting their turn to fill the pail or bag which each one carried. Women with baby carriages, children with wagons, little tots with sacks which they could scarcely carry, were in the struggling mass, piteoys- ly demanding fuel. Sometimes the applicants strove among themselv@®, shoving and push- ing each other with the desperation of hungry animals, in the endeavor to get thelr pails filled hefore the supply gave out. 4 At Alfred Barber's Sons it was stated that it was scarcely possible that the demand could be met. At Fisbman’s coal yard, No. 105 Broome strect, a riot occurred last night, a crowd of freezing and starving seekers for coal engaging in a con- test for the righ! to the last few buckets full. This morning Fishman was unable to supply the demand, At the Co-operative Coal Company's, No. 50 Delancey street, a crowd of shivering, desperate people demanded coal this morning. Policemen were forced to quiet the throng. It was stated that there was just about enough to go around. A tiny Httle girl with a coal bag on her arm stood crying on the edge of the group this morning. “I've been here all morning,” she sobbed, “and mamma is 80 sick at home. She most froze to death yesterday and mamma and thé babies are all sick to-day. I'm so cold and hungry and I just must get some coal.” HAD CRAWLED “HOME” TO DIE. In a basement in Oliver street a widow was found by the Salvation Army yesterday almost dead from cold, She had tried to buy coal; had failed, and had crawled back to her miserable abode to die. The people who go to tho coal yards with their sacks and nails each represent a story of suffering In the homes from which they come. “My father !s sick and can't work,” said a consumptive looking girl this morning, “and it’s all we can do to get money for a little coal. Then, when we do get the money, we can't get the coal. I've been here over two hours, and I don’t know whiat will happen if I don’t get coal.” The girl was clad in a calico gown and the tears rolled down her cheeks as she spoke. “Sometimes we think we'll go hungry and be warm,” she sald, with a sob, “and then we think again, we'll try being warm and hungry, but I don’t know which I'd rather do, If it wasn't for father being sick I'd get along.” The various organized charities are powerless to cope with the wiae- spread distress. In the general scarcity of fuel those who are able to pay for fuel are almost as badly off as those who are not. Those not quite desti- tute at the beginning of the winter are rapidly becoming so. On every side are seen the inroads of the pawn shop. Some people have pledged even their beds during the past few days for money to buy coal, eo SALVATION ARMY APPEALS TO MORGAN. ;to buy, and this 1s why the appeal was made to Mr, Morgan, “I think It is a mistake," sald Com- mander Booth-Tucker to-day, “to give treference to the yards where the poor come with bags and pails, It would be muoh better to allow the wagons, which are either giving or selling the coal at me price as it ts being distributed @ who carry it away, to get thelr first. It would save the poor much Jabor, time and humiliation, Some of the families have only children to send and the burden Is great for thelt meagre strength, Others have no one to send, and #o they die as did the poor J. Plerpont Morgan hag been appealed to by Commander Booth-Tucker, of the Salvation Army, to use his influence to have the Army supplied dally with from % to 100 tons of coal in order that they may distribute it among the poor, He was asked this favor to-day by the Commander, and promised through his secretary to do everything tn his power toward that end, would be well to those whom the but when there are wagons ready to take the coal to the doors of the poor it seems a pity that they cannot get coal, whereas the people themselves can atlll’ get It If they go after it, I sp not only In behalf of the ‘Salvation Army, but other organizations which are doing the same work,” ‘The Commander said that he had de- cided to buy a large number of porous bricks and distribute them free among the poor, ip order that they may burn of! which has been soaked into them. He has been experimenting and has eatisfied himself that the oll-soaked brick is practical, He thinks the scheme can be made of great service to the poor if the bricks are distributed and the people shown how they should be gan Is taking a pereonal interost in my request, Qf course, if he cannot do It, ho man can. I am sure that he will make a strong effort in our behalf, for he haa a splendid heart." Many rich persons in New York are helping the Army in its efforts to ro- leve the poor, Amon; them is Miss Helen Gould, who to-day gent her check for $1,000 to the Army headquart he asked that her donation be kept secret, but Jt became known, The money j1s belng used to buy coal for dlstribu- e the yards open to ons cannot reach,’ | great courtesy has been shown the Sal- vationista. at the various yards, they have bad great ditttculty tn findl ved coal from the city once, but that as hers| “His secretary told me," said Com- Ora ane Ter eeuta whose igeath: is re- mander Booth-Tucker, “that Mr. Mor-| "After the wagons Mare ail supplied it|% SHOE. TOE CAP, YOUR CHEAP AND BRITTLE NEW YORK cITy. jarsau St, bet. Ann and Beekman. a ‘cor. Reade St. 1 2087 Seventh Ave, cor. 1250 NEW YORK CITY: 785 Broadway, corner 10th Ladies’ Black Cashmere Hose, | 25c pair; value 35:. Ladies’ extra quality Black Cashmere Hose, 50c pair; value 65c. Ladies’ Black Fleeced Cotton | Hose, 25c pair; value 35c. 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Ladies’ Black Merino Eques- trienne Tights, . 75c pair; value 1.00. Ladies’ Black Wool\ Equestri- enne Tights, O8c pair; value 1.25. Ladies’, Children’s & Youths’ Fleeced Vests, Pants and Draw- ers, White and Natural, will be sold for 25c garment; value 39c, ENTRANCES ON THREE THOROUGHFARES. and 9th Streets. extra small back S2WEST H*St By = a3 Fa a 89 Maas 7979779 They e Coated Tongue, Bad Breath, stlon, Dyspepsia, Liver Complaint, / | | ( bi] Flap Jack” a arousing both wonder and wrath By giving poor “ Waffles" a cold shower bath. ’ You can’t have poor waffles when they are made from the magical Prest (Better than flour) 8 certaintios,, Waffles are rather out of fagte .