Southern Coal in Chicago.
President M. H. Smith, of the Louisville & Nashville, has arranged for a reduction of coal rates from Jellico, which will permit of the introduction of Jellico coal into Chicago and Illinois and Michigan points on the same basis as West Virginia coal. This will, it is reported, also include the Middlesborough district. The reduced rate will doubtless result in a great increase in the Western shipments of Kentucky coal, the superior quality of which has created for it a Western demand, despite high freights.