TRUST METHODS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 18 November 1910, Page 6

TRUST METHODS.

HOW -COMPETITION IS - OH US 11KD. Mr W. P. Boland. an oal-owr.er of Pennsylvania is asking ie Inter-State Commerce Commission , consider some serious charges ■'ol:U he brings against the Coal •rust :uid the allied railway com.•.nies. Tl,-e experiences he relates .row a lurid light upon the methods ..'opted by so:n ( . of the great finanrJ and industrial interests in the ■aited Stares for the purpose of •ushino- competition. Mr Boland asL rts that the Trust is flagrantly vio■jtin«r the Slverma,, Anti-Trust Law a tlie effort, to crush his business in . score of ways ho has been made to r.ffer inconvenience and loss. His 1; al has to travel to the markets by he Lackawanna railway, and he has ron forced for years past to pay •'•"•her freight rates than are charged o"his rivals within the Trti.sc. He ••tates that he has been the of •vicious discrimination," and ';j railwavs are working hand and -ove with the Trust in order to drive ndependent firms out of the coal :ade. In the course of h:s muse..■•ent, Mr Boland charges the railwayv:th having refused to give him :;te s that would allow him to make ■ profit, with having made cxtortionle charges for shunting, and with aviuo- "threatened his prospective •ustomers. On on*, occasion a ynyserious fire broke out 0 n railway provert v. and was allowed to spread, •nparentlv without any effort to t'av its progress, until bis store of nal was attacked by the flames. A treaiu of water in connection with vhich his company had riparian •edits was diverted bv the railway ■umpanies at considerable c<-st and •,-ithout any purpose other than that .f damaging hi s interests. The ag■rievrd coalowner cannot expect to 'ct much relief from the operation of he law which has proved ineffective ilreadv. but perhaps his object v. ill >e achieved if he succeeds Hi dne-t- - public attention to the niethous f the Coal Trust.