The Colorado statesman., 1917-06-16
Waste Is Harmful to Essential
War Industries, Says Ma
tionaI Defense Aid.
SAVING ALSO TO CUT PRICES
Supply Is Abundant but Problem Is to
Get It Out OF Ground and Deliv.
cred Promptly at the Prop
er Places.


the last gasp of energy necessary to
drive shell home true to the enemy,
and spell victory instead of defeat.
The pounds of coal many Mr.. Citi-
zens may save today may forge the
shells that may decide the war in
favor of a worlds democracy.
The pounds of coal many Mr.. Citi-
zens may save on many days may
hasten the end of the war and save
thousands of lives.
This is the statement of Francis S.
Peabody, chairman of the National
Coal Board, Council of National De-
fense, in an appeal issued to all the
people of the country in an effort to
have them conserve in the use of fuel
so that there may at all times be a
sufficient quantity available for battle
ships, the munitiOn factories, the rail
roads, and all enterprises that are
making materials for use in the war.
1T is not that we do not have the
coal in this country" continued Mr..
Peabody. perhaps no country in the
world is so blessed with such a su-
perabundance, but it is a question of
digging it out of the ground fast
enough and having prompt deliveries
by the railroads at the places where
it is most needed.
'"rhe less coal the householder uses,
therefore, the more there will be for
the essential industries, the men of
which in this industrial war are all
soldiers as much as the man who
wears uniform and marches to the
front. q
Householder Can Save.
"But the householder asks where
he comes in. In the first place, in
many homes throughout the country
he can maintain a less number of coal
fires. He can even shorten the num-
ber of hours they are in operation.
He can see that gas stoves are turned
off as soon as the cooking is over.
When the weather is cool, he can car
ry lower temperatures in his home
than he has been accustomed to, I'M
less there is Illness in the house. A
temperature of 60 degrees instead of
20 is sufficient. Then he can operate
fewer gas and electric lights and see
that they are turned off when not
needed or when he leaves the room.
And this leads to the suggestion
that, If ever there were need for the
Introduction of the proposed daylight
saving act throughout the country, it
is now. Begin work an hour earlier
and quit an hour earlier. That imme
diately would take an hours burden
hn CTR hn al ri
light companies and the electric pow
er companies. The owl car would be
an hour earlier. People would be
sleeping instead of using lights gen.
Grated by coal. In compact little Eng
land, with daylight saving, they have
saved 100000 tons of coal in a year.
"In time of war the coal wasted In
this manner is luxury coal, and that
leads to the thought that Americans
are the greatest advertisers in the
world with their brilliantly-lighted
downtown sections of great cities; 4;
the mammoth electric advertising
signs blazing for miles, and their
elaborate White Cities their Coney
islands and their 'Dreamlands.' 1t is
all very well to be up and doing and
pushing your product in big way in
peace times, rejecting much enter
prise upon American methods of do
ing business. But in war time doesn't
all this tremendous expenditure of
energy from coal mean the use of
luxury coal which ought to be
stopped from a pure spirit of patriot
Ism?
Saving Luxury" Coal.
"For the time being, let's save this
luxury coal that goes into amuse-
ments and eXtravagances and frivoli-
ties. Some American merchants may
call this sacrifice, but to my mind it
Isn't sacrifice at all when we think of
the Washington widow whose brave
son, member of a United States navy
crew, gave up his life when his vessel
was torpedoed by the Germans, the
first navy victim of the war. Any
how, we all have to make sacrifices
n times like these.
"The largest anthracite operator in
the United States expressed himself
as entirely puzzled at the present sit
uation of soaring prices in anthracite
coal. He knows that the production
Is as great as it has ever been and
can only explain the present situation
by saying that it is probably due to
Lie national extravaganza of the
American householder. Coal, he says,
Is being stored by overanxious and
selfish people, disturbing the natural
movement of this necessary COM
modify and unduly increasing the
price. Not only does it do this, but
it is taking the necessary supply away
from the industries that need the coal
in the manufacture of material essen
tial to the successful prosecution of
the war. In this, too, we must be pa
triotic and unselfish, with the reward
that prices will reach a lower level