area in the State of Pennsylvania; but here the deposit is of phenomenal richness. The total area of the Pennsylvania anthracite field is about 300,000 acres. Of this area nearly 200,000 acres is owned by seven railway corporations. These companies, either directly or through subsidiary companies controlled in the same interest, carry on mining operations, carry the coal to market, and sell it. The following figures3 exhibit the receipts of each of these companies from sales of coal from their mines during the year 1887:
| COMPANY. | TONS. | RECEIPTS. |
|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia and Reading R. R. Co. | 7,555,252 | $18,856,550 |
| Central R. R. Co. of N. J. | 4,852,859 | 12,132,146 |
| Lehigh Valley R. R. Co. | 5,784,450 | 14,461,125 |
| Del., Lackawanna, and Western R. R. Co. | 6,220,793 | 19,044,803 |
| Delaware and Hudson Canal Co. | 4,048,340 | 10,100,118 |
| Pennsylvania R. R. Co. | 3,818,143 | 8,820,718 |
| New York, Lake Erie, and Western R'y Co. | 2,363,290 | 6,846,342 |
| Total | 34,643,127 | $90,261,805 |
Thus these seven corporations alone produced from their own mines, carried to market, and sold, over 34,000,000 tons of coal during the year, for which they received about $90,000,000. Of the magnitude of the operations carried on by these great corporations we now have some idea. Let us next inquire to what extent competition is allowed to act between them to keep down prices.
Many years ago these seven companies formed the famous anthracite-coal pool. This was an agreement by which all the companies concerned agreed to maintain a uniform selling price for coal at all important distributing points where two or more of the companies came into competition. Some of the prices which were fixed by the pool were extremely arbitrary. Cities in Pennsylvania within an hour's ride of the