Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1920 — COAL SITUATION HERE IS BAD Rensselaer, In Common With Other Cities, Suffering for Lack of Fuel. [ARTICLE]

COAL SITUATION HERE IS BAD

Rensselaer, In Common With Other Cities, Suffering for Lack of Fuel.

The fuel situation in Rensselaer has become quite acute during present cold snap. While perhaps there has been no actual suffering ag yet, there is little coal in the ( blns of consumers and practically none in the hands of the local dealers. Jay W. Stockton got onto 10 cars of Illinois mine run coal that could be bought at Canton, dll., at >3.50 per ton there and he urged the/city to buy It and retail It out to residents of Rensselaer at as small a profit as consistent. The city ordered two cars of this coal, the freight on which is >3.75 per ton ta Rensselaer. This would make it coat >7.25 on track here, and a dollar a ton for handling it will make it cost the consumer >8.25. Nobody here knows much about this kind of coal, whether It te good, bad or Indifferent, bnt some Rltnois coal is awfully poor stuff while some Is better than our Indiana coal, it is Said, and we can only wait and see What this particular coal is like. Monday the city borrowed a 30-tpn car of Indiana lump coal from the county that is in transit and this will be doled out where most needed, at >7.50 per ton delivered, when it arrives. 71. C. Gwin & Son got in a car of Indiana lump Monday and another carload yesterday. This coal was secured through the state coal commission. There Is a little mine run Kentucky coal in the hands of a couple of dealers here, it is understood, that is being sold at some >l6 per ton. It looks like the Indiana mine operators are trying their best to beat the new coal commission law and are shipping nearly all their coal out of the state, local dealers being unable to secure but very little, and of course this commission has no control over prices of coal shipped in from other states. The city is not getting any coal at present from the companies with which it has contracts, various excuses being made for not shipping. One mine says it is short of water for its boilers and cannot operate its mines as a result. And there you are. It would seem that the coal mines must be taken over by the government or adequate laws enacted that will compel the operation of the mines and furnishing of coal to consumers. With a state and .nation so rich in coal -mines as Indiana and the’ United States it is an outrage that the people must be robbed in prices and compelled Jto suffer for want of fuel every fall and winter.