Show CORPORATIONS VS THE STATE Our Saturday night dispatches contained con-tained the following from Harrisburg Pennsylvania which is just now a very interesting topic as it will tend to prove how far corporations chartered by a State cin go in raising the price commodities which they produce and whether the State Government can stop them from so doing or not Governor Pattison has addressed n letter to AttorneyGeneral Cassidy on the action of the Anthracite Pool and requesting him to move against it in court In the course of his letter the Governor says My attention atten-tion has been directed to the fact within the past fortnight that certain corporations chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania acting in concert have ordered two advances in prices of anthracite coal It has been ascertained upon inquiry that these corporations comprise what is known as the Anthracite coal combination which was created in its present form at a meeting held in New York on December 31 1884 when there were present representatives of the Delaware Lackawanna tt Western Railroad Rail-road Company the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company the Philadelphia t Heading Railroad Rail-road Company the New York Lake Erie Western Railroad Company the Delaware A Hudson Canal Company the Lehigh Coal Navigation Company and the Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania Kailroad Company At that meeting meet-ing an agreement was entered into by which six of these corporations were in effect pledged in writing to restrict and regulate the production of coal and to maintain and advance its price An apportionment appor-tionment of the total production was then allotted to each company for the year 1885 and on January 1 1886 a new allotment went into operation based on the annual production of S3500UW tons After referring to the advance of 30 cents per ton in the price of coal since Juiy 2 1886 the Governorsays Recently through the officers of the syndicate of capitalists there has been a strengthening of the Anthracite An-thracite Coal Combination and the claim is now made by some of the members that they can mark up the coal prices to any figure they please thereby subjecting the public to their mercy injuriously and unwarrantably un-warrantably taxing every fireside and imposing im-posing upon the coal consumers The State Constitution declares that no corporate corpo-rate company doing the business of a common com-mon carrier shall directly or indirectly prosecute pros-ecute or engage in mining or manufacturing articles for transportation over its roads yet all or nearly all of the common carriers represented in the Anthracite Coal Combination Combi-nation are engaged directly or indirectly in the mining of coal By restricting the production and advancing advanc-ing the prices it has crippled the vast iron interests decreasing the demand for anthracite coal and in the reduction of iron ores forcing the iron furnaces out of blast and placing nearly all the industries Eastern East-ern Pennsylvania at the mercy of the managers mana-gers of these companies The Governor also calls attention to the Trunk Line pool which he says by its arbitrary arbi-trary power holds a perpetual menace over the material interests of the country Inclosing In-closing the Governor says Against such combinations the individual is helpless The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in creating creat-ing the corporations that are members of the Anthracite Coal Combination and of tha Trunk Line Pool vested them with the right of eminent domain and other franchises fran-chises of a public nature They owe certain duties to their creator and one of these is to avoid any infringement upon the rights of individuals or the general well being of the State Their interference with the natural current and condition of trade has been in violation of what is believed to be sound public policy and against the interests of the State It prejudices the public and suppresses the individuals It is a perversion of the purpose pur-pose for which they were created These facts which have been reported to me and which are measurably authenticated I deem of sufficient importance to refer to you for your consideration and such action as the circumstances may warrant It is understood that AttorneyGeneral Cassidy will at once proceed against the coal pool but in what manner he has not yet decided This is considered one of the most important steps yet taken by the State administration and was not decided upon until after very careful consideration In the above corporations are represented repre-sented the wealthiest in the State and they handle the greatest industries in the State and if the can pool their interests in the manner described there is no limit to the rise in prices they can make short of extortion and eVery fireside in the Eastern half of the land would pay tribute to them while the maddening fact remains that the thousands who labor for f i 4 them are in no manner benefitted by the i 14 move The average reader with a fair It k memory will think that tli t riots in 1877 in Pittsburg should be a warning to the Pennsylvania railroad company to be careful how they goaded the poor I classes again and if for no other reason i i rea-son they should be slow to again abuse them It is true that the coming elections in that State call for political I capital but this move by the Governor t I 4 can hardly bo classed as such while the 1 nation at large will be earnest and eager I1j or to see just how the law will handle capi talists when they combine to injure labor This being the first move of the kind in Pennsylvania which more than any Statcin the Union is cursed with labor troubles the workingmen of the nation will watch with bated breath the outcome of the fight against capital in which they I have no direct hand If these gigantic i corporations can legally be forced to terms by the law then the greatest victory I vic-tory ever won by labor will be recorded and a big stride be made toward forcing capital l to acknowledge that the poor have j rights which it is bound to respect |