Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1917 — Shipping of Country Demoralized [ARTICLE]

Shipping of Country Demoralized

The shipping of the country has become demoralized. No goods billet out can be sure of reaching destination if transferred to another road from that on which it originated. This has been largely due to the high prices and breaking of regular contracts 'by various firms. It was customary in the coal trade to contract for regular shipments at stated intervals. The delivery of these shipments had become so regular with the railroads that the car system regulated itself. When these shipments began to be reconaigned to other points without the regularity of destination their return also became irregular. Now a car of coal started from the mines may change its destination a dozen times before it is delivered unloaded, and now this coal is bought up by speculators and often held until it can be sold to the highest bidder. It has become customary now for the speculator to call up by long distance ’phone towns over the country and where they can find the place bare of coal they get almost anything they ask, and a raise of a dollar a ton gives a handsome profit of forty-five to fifty dollars a car. These speculators can afford to assemble cars in the smaller cities and then drum up trade. It is said that if you will pay the price you can get coal on immediate shipment from LaFayette any day and that city is not a coal center. There is such a demand for steam coal that many mines have done away with screening as they can sell the coal for more money, direct mine run now, than they could before the war and screen it. ——.