William G. McAdoo to Woodrow Wilson

I am glad to see that you have fixed the price of bituminous coal. I do hope that you intend to fix the price quickly of anthracite, as well. There is no more extortionate trust in this country than the anthracite trust, nor one which grinds the people the poor people particularly more by its extortions than this trust. It is given a monopoly in the great cities by the laws and ordinances which compel the use of smokeless coal, and it takes advantage of that fact to extort the utmost from those who are compelled to use its product. For the great masses of poor people on the Eastern seaboard it is more important to control the price of anthracite than of bituminous. Each is, however, vitally important.