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Show JIEIGTO PROTEST SOnlGJM PRICES Consumers Will Stage Big Indignation Show at Utah Hotel Monday. A meeting of the coal consumers ot Salt Lake has been called for tomorrow evening at 8 o'clock, and will be held on the mezzanine floor of the Hotel Utah. The object of the meeting is to protest against the increase in the price of coal proposed by some of the dealers. Hotels, apartment houses, laundries, factories and all large users of coal will be represented at the meeting. Joseph S. Peery, manager of the Peery apartment house and agent of the Peeiy hotel building, said in regard to the proposed increase in the price of coal: "It is high time the coal consumers were waking up and taking action against the increase in the price of coal. A few weeks ago slack was delivered at $3 a ton; then it was raised to $3.25; then the announcement came raising it to $3.75; and now the consumers are notified that, in the future, they must pay $4.25 for this same grade of coal. ' "It would seem," he continued, "that our public utilities commission should be notified of the successive jumps, leaps and bounds in the price of a staple commodity, and an appeal made to it tfor protection. If the commission cannot grant relief it is time tho people of Utah and Salt Lake were advised of this fact. "With great coal fields in the state, exceeding in area the extensive fields of Pennsylvania, there appears little reason for this proposed increase in price of coal to all classes of consumers. consum-ers. Salt Lake City needs factories, but what agency could induce them to locate here with the price of slack coal at $4.25 a ton and still threatening to soar to heights unknown. Something can be done if the coal consumers act concertedly. "I suggest that all large consumers of coal attend the meeting at the Hotel Utah Monday evening and consider ways and means to combat the coal dealers. Coal is a vital commodity, which providence has placed near us in great quantities, and Utah is especially blessed in this respect. It remains for the consumer to see that justice is done in the matter of price regulation." |