The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-09-03

jed to have said at Chicago that the first steps toward government ownership of the railroads have been taken, but in this view members of the railway wal
 board do not agree. They are persuaded
 that what they have already accomplished
 and those other things they expect td
 accomplish will make 1t clear that pri-
 vate ownership and wise management,
 guided by sane regulation will produce
 better results than government owner.
 ship could.
 Some of the members of the railway
 war board are familiar from personal ex-
 perience with conditions in the northwest and have been aware that the situation there is very critical because there is scarcity of coal. Howard Elliott, for in- | stance, who, when president of the North ern Pacific railroad. spent 10 winters in | the northwest, has accurate knowledge of the severity of the winter season in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the two Da- kotas. Early in the summer the atten- tion of the railway war board was for
 mally brought to the situation respect ing coal shortage in the northwest and to l the imperative need of so handling the 6. l was decided, for instance, to organize
 an association known as the Lake rrfs
 Bttuminuous Coal exchange The purpose of this organization was the expediting of the movement of coal through the , lakes to the northwest. The organiza- ton has already justified it's formation for 1t has been very helpful. Further
 more, by the advice of the railway war board the railroads ordered the imme- diate return to the lines which served the lake ports of all of their self-clear- ing coal cars, of which there was much need. Cooperation was by mid-August so successful that 1t was possible to fore- cast considerable relief to the situation. boats at Lake Erie ports by mid-August nearly 100000 tons of coal That, how ever. was not half enough completely to assure the northwest that it was not in
 danger of coal shortage. There remains from the first of September about IA
 weeks when lake navigation is uusually
 open. In thaS time there must be load- ed and moved to the northwest 17OO0,000 additional tons of coal. A variety of
 causes have made 1t possible already to
 transport coal from Lake Erie ports to the head of Lake Superior to the extent that is necessary. Therefore, it Is vital
 that relief be at once secured since the
 fuel for domestic consumption in the
 great northwest is chiefly supplied
 through Duluth and contiguous ports.
 There may be a shortage of coal of from 100000 to 100000 tons but this can be overcome in the opinion of the railway war board if the federal govern ment sees to it that coal producers sell a reasonable proportion of their total out put in such manner as to make it posst- ble to move it through the lakes.
 The railway war board is convinced that it is of vital national importance
 that an adequate supply of fuel for the northwest be secured, for unless the fuel
 can be placed there prior to the close of the navigation there will inevitably be
 a reduction next year in the food sup ply produced in that region and in the
 iron ore shipped down the lakes. This is one of the problems to which the rail-
 way war board is now giving very se-
 rious consideration, but if this board had not been organized and permitted to op-
 crate with free hand the fuel supply
 shortage \ in the northwest this winter
 V ould have created a situation of the ut-
 most gravity.