The Daily Gazette

FALL IN THE PRICE OF COAL.—The New York papers claim that the price of coal is too high, and that the coal combination ought to be broken down. They say that bituminous coal is sent to this country and sold cheaper than anthracite, although a duty of seventy-five cents in gold per ton is paid on it. They refer to the fall of the prices of anthracite in Boston, seventy-five cents per ton, and say a corresponding reduction will take place all over the country if the people will refuse to lay in their winter supply until about November. So far, comparatively very little anthracite coal has been distributed this season. The public leave the combination to store and carry immense accumulations of coal, which in other years had already in May and June been snugly stowed away in the cellars of our citizens, while the arbitrary sums exacted from the consumer, amounting in the aggregate to millions of dollars, were gratuitously enjoyed by the coal companies for a period of five months. They say further that anthracite coal would pay very handsomely if retailed in the New York market at $5.50 per ton, delivered. It could be sold at less than that and still pay a fair profit, basing the calculation on a regular and continued production at the present price of labor. The Sun asks: Who will first raise in this city a standard which shall bear the inscription, "Steady work for the miner; cheap coal for the consumer?"