Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 183, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1917 — ROBBERS MAKE $5.81 PER TON ON COAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ROBBERS MAKE $5.81 PER TON ON COAL

Censored by the Military Authorities.

Outrageous Profits Made By Retail Coal Dealers in Indianapolis Rouses Indignation. Indianapolis, Ind., Aug. 18.—Retail coal dealers in Indiana made profits running as high as $5.81 a ton on the coal they sold in April, May and June, of this year, according to the report of the investigation which the Federal Trade Commission made recently of coal conditions in this city. These enormous profits show the manner in which the public has been sandbagged on coal prices in the past year. Examiners of the Federal Trade Commission came to Indiana some time ago and quietly began an investigation. They not only investigated the cost of production of coal ate the mines and the cost of transportation and the prices at which the coal was sold by operators to dealerk, but they went further and delved into the retail business, as well. probed in and found the prices at which retailers bought coal and what it cost to deliver the coal on the tracks in their yards in this city. These examiners found that between the time the coal reached the retail coal yards and the time it .reached the ultimate consumer there was a profit running all the way from $2 to $5.81 a ton. Thus, it is pointed out by the Federal Trade Commission, coal operators are not the only pirates who have been holding up the people on coal prices. Retail dealers have done as much or more of this than the operators. The report filed with Governor Goodrich by the commission shows the names of the coal companies in this city that were invesitgated, the amount of coal they bought and sold in the three months, the prices they paid for the coal, the prices at which they sold it, and the profits they made. The reports say, also, that there was no shortage of coal that would justify these robber profits, because the coal companies bought more coal than they sold in those three months. Publication of this'” report here, yesterday afternoon, caused a big sensation, and aroused the public further in favor of drastic government or state action to curb the coal pirates. /<