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30 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
PURCHASE OF WELSH COAL PROPERTY,
SUPPOSEDLY IN THE INTEREST OF
GERMANY, EXERCISES BRITISH GOV­
ERNMENT.
The statement that the Whitworth estate, near
Neath. South Wales, covering 6,000 acres, had
been sold by the owner to a German syndicate has
created a stir throughout Great Britain, and even
the government is very uneasy over the matter.
writes John L. Bevan from Cardiff. Wales. The
property has been sold nominally to an agent of
the De Freitas Shipping Co., but as some of Emperor
William's expert engineers were recently in
South Wales there is reason to think that the
German government is not uninterested in the purchase.
The fear that the German authorities are behind
the contract, and that the coal land was
bought with the sole view of supplying the Teuton's
navy steamships—these are the reasons that
give so much concern to the British people, especially
the British government. The price paid for
the 6,000 acres is $1,000,000. The estate was
offered, a little while ago, to the British government
for $300,000, but the offer was refused, and
to-day they are very sorry over this thoughtless
neglect. Soon following the news of the sale of
this valuable coal field another extraordinary
statement was made to the effect that the British
government contemplated legislation which would
tend to prohibit the export of Welsh steam coal.
The proposition seemed incredible, but later intelligence
gives reason for believing that, although
such procedure might be impracticable find commercially
suicidal, locally and nationally, there
is nevertheless good ground for the belief that
such panic legislation will be brought forward.
But it is utterly impossible to prevent foreign
navies from securing this coal and keeping large
stocks of it, unless the exportation of it be almoet
entirely prohibited. No restrictive tax will do
it. Considerations greater and more far reaching
than politics and war scares control the distribution
of coal once on the market, and it seems
that no meddling and experimenting with the laws
of supply and demand or imposing a tax. which
will still further cripple South Wales, can aid
the government.
The proposal is patriotic on the surface, but it
is utterly impossible of success as soon as it is
viewed from the commercial standpoint. If the
government will interfere what would be the
effect on the steam coal district? The collieries
would be set idle, the railways would lose their
traffic, the docks would be practically at a standstill,
ship owners would have their vessels laid
up and there would be an utter derangement of
industry affecting millions of capital and hun­
dreds of thousands of persons.
Legal prohibition, such as is proposed, would
be a serious blow, especially at this time of peculiar
national stress when it would be important
that every possible precaution should be taken
to prevent any interference with the earning
power of the country, which is already greatly
hampered by the war in the East. The common
opinion is that the proposal is amazingly impracticable^—to
attempt its enforcement would
not aid the British navy one iota, nor hinder a
possible enemy of Great Britain, but it would be
immediately ruinous to South Wales. Mr. Balfour,
the prime minister, stated lately that a commission
shall be appointed to make a thorough
investigation, so as to be able to counsel the government
what step to take in the matter. The
protectionists. Mr. Chamberlain's party, point out,
with some sarcasm, that what the government
should do is to legislate against the importation
of German manufactures, and not against German
capital, which would be of great value to the industries
and workmen of the country.
SANTE FE MAKES REDUCTIONS
IN COAL FREIGHT RATES.
Tiie Santa Fe railroad has filed as tariff some
new coal rates covering Kansas and involving
material reductions. It reduces lates from both
the Pittsburg and Osage districts, and restores the
old differential between those two districts. This
will remove the cause of complaint recently made
by the Osage district operators. They claimed
to have been almost put out of business by discriminations
in favor of the Pittsburg field. The
old differential, which is now restored, is the one
under which they operated when they were doing
their biggest business and prospering amazingly.
This schedule of rates systematizes the whole
matter of coal rates in Kansas, reducing them in
about ninety cases of every one hundred. An instance
typical of the amount of the reductions is
found in the case of Topeka, to which the rate
on lump coal from Frontenac has been $1.12 per
ton. The new schedule reduced this to 90 cents
or 22 cents per ton.
Papers have been filed in the United States
court at Des Moines, la., in which J. S. Wylie.
president of the Marquette Third Vein Coal Co.,
and one of the leading coal merchants of Eastern
Iowa, goes into bankruptcy. Mr. Wylie schedules
assets of $100,000 and liabilities of $331,209.09.
He was a partner of C. J. Devlin, of Topeka, Kas.,
and his failure is caused by that of Devlin. Most
of the liabilities consist of accommodation uaper
and notes which he was on with Devlin.