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Show f IE OF COAL 18 BE ADVANCED TIM Retail Dealers Will Add Twenty-Five Cents a Ton to Cost or Fuel. j EXTRA MONEY GOES TO ! TEAMSTERS, THEY SAY Latter Claim They Can Make More Monoy at Other Kinds of Work. Coginnius today, the price of eoal to tho consumer in Salt Lalco will be o.7o a ton instead of .$5.50. an increase of 25 cents, it was nunounccd Sunday, and a canvass of the conl companies of the city Sunday night showed that practically prac-tically every retail coal dealer here is in on tho advance in prie- Xono of the (.-ornpanies talked to would admit thnt there was any agreement agree-ment between thorn to raise tho price, but two or three admitted that they 1 had talked the matter over. This, coupled cou-pled with the simultaneous action of at lcri3t six coal compouies in advancing tho prico." indicates pretty clearly that there was a preconcerted action among the coal companies to raise tho pric Tho companies which havo advanced' tho pric, beginning today, are as follows: fol-lows: Tho Bamberger Coal compauv, tho Martin Coal & Fuel company, tho Citizens Coal eoinpanv, tho Central Coal & Coke company, the Western Fuol company and the Wasatch Coal Sr. Supply Sup-ply company. Tho Kemmoror Fuel com-panj com-panj could not bo reached, nnd it therefore there-fore could not be learned whether it has .ioinod in tho movcruont to raiso tho prico. Of course, the wholesale coal companies havo nothing to do with tho advance. Extra Q005 to Teamsters. Tho retail companies which have boosted the price assert that the teamsters team-sters forced them to do so. Not onlv has tho great demand for team3 at this time made it impossiblo to secure competent com-petent and reliable teamsters to mako dolivcries at the rate established la.st Januarv. but tho toamstors havo assorted as-sorted that they can mako moro money, with shorter hours, and havo served uo-xice uo-xice on the retail coal companies. 60 tho Inttor declare, that after tho first of tho vear they will rofuso to haul coal at the old rate of 50 cents a ton, the coal companies say. According to tho coal companies, the margin of profit is so close on tho old rate that they cannot afford to pay tho teamsters more, and as tho latter can mako from S-l.oO to $5 a day at other work with shorter hours, whereas they mako onlv from $.3.50 to $4 a day deliv-ering deliv-ering coal, it is ueeossary to advance the hauling price in order to' hold tho teamsters team-sters and securo prompt and efficient delivery. de-livery. The Martin Coal & Fuel companv says that the profit on each ton or nut or lump coal delivered is only a littlo nioro than 21 cents, and on slack thero is less on account of shrinkage. It is possible that tho reduction made last January may bo mado again next summer, but this is remote. Tho price has not been advanced by tho producers nor the freight by tho railroad companies, com-panies, tho retailers say. so tho increase is duo solely to tho difficulty in maintaining main-taining a sufficient force of teamsters to mako prompt deliveries. This gives tho hope that thero may be a reduction again next summer. |
