A BILL TO PROVIDE FOR THE OPENING, MAINTENANCE, CANAL, AND THE SANITATION AND GOV ERNMENT OF THE CANAL ZONE MAY 20 AND 23, 1912 U.S. Conquess. Fr. " Printed for the use of the Committee on Interoceanic Canals PART 8 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 23 The CHAIRMAN. What does Pocahontas coal sell for at the mines? The CHAIRMAN. At the mines? Mr. GREEN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Where is that produced? Mr. GREEN. In West Virginia. TC774 The CHAIRMAN. What will that retail for in New Orleans? Mr. GREEN. It does not go there. The CHAIRMAN. Why? Mr. GREEN. It would cost too much. The CHAIRMAN. It goes up into New England. Mr. GREEN. Yes, sir; a great deal of it is used through the North. Mr. GREEN. The Norfolk & Western Railroad carries it to Norfolk for $1.50; and it is there put into coal barges and transported very cheaply to the New England coast. The CHAIRMAN. Why could it not be taken by barges to New Orleans? Mr. GREEN. Because the coal in the Pittsburgh district is handled that way. The CHAIRMAN. It is a question of competition with another coal? Mr. GREEN. Yes, sir. It is a position like that of Alabama. The Pennsylvania coal was hauled into the South for years and years; but it is put out now by the Alabama coal. Mr. THOм. Mr. Green, I call your attention to what Mr. Turner said in his testimony published in part 5, page 150, of these hearings. I would like to put that into the record, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Read it aloud, please. Mr. GREEN (reading): Mr. TURNER. Here is what I say is the nigger in the woodpile. The railroad will put a wharfage charge, which we will say averages 15 cents a ton. That is pretty near the average in our section of the country. Everybody else immediately comes to that 15 cents a ton. At the time the goods move over the railroad wharf they will credit their wharf company, we will say, with 15 cents a ton. Or, if in these ship-side rates the goods go over a rival dock, that rival dock receives that same credit, which is 15 cents a ton. The actual cost is somewhere between 35 and 40 cents a ton. At the end of the year, of course, the railroad has got to make good any deficit that this dock company has incurred. It has got to pay its obligations and its upkeep. Doubtless that costs them 40 cents a ton on an average over the country. Here is the other fellow, living on 15 cents a ton, at the end of the year with nothing to recoup his loss. He gradually dries up and does not know what is the matter with him. Mг. THOм. What do you say to the statement that the average charge is 15 cents a ton? Mr. GREEN. I do not know exactly what the average charge is or what the average cost is. Of course, it must vary with the variation in the classes of traffic. The charge is less on lumber than on cotton. It is more on cottonseed meal than it is on cotton, and so on; but at Mobile we do not attempt to keep any separation of accounts that I know of as between wharfage and the other items. Mг. THOм. Well, but on cotton, instead of 15 cents a ton, it is about 60 cents a ton. Mr. GREEN. Yes, sir; and the average must be more than 15 cents, because cotton is the predominant thing. Mr. THOм. Whatever it is, is it necessary for you to make your rates conform to the rates at other ports than Mobile? |