The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-11-07
FUEL BOARD TO
 APPORTION COAL WHERE NEEDED
Storrow to Act Under Or. derS From National
 Administrator.

row, New England Fuel Administra- tor, Is sending to the fuel administra-
 tors of all the New England states i copies of an order from Dr. Garfield, authorizing Storrow to obtain and supply nnated quantities of coal to i meet immediate exigeneies. A copy Of this order has been received by Thomas W. Russell Federal Fuel Ad-
 ministrator for Connecticut and chair man of the coal committee of the Connecticut State Council Of Defense. ! The order does not give the Fuel Ad- ministrator autocratic power to sedEe gooal, but 1t does enable him to do things to bring about better dis l tribution of coal for emergency pur- poses.
 1 The executive order fixing the price of coal was adopted for the purpose of preventing speculation in that nec- essary commodity. New England was not in @ position to derive much ben, eft from 1t, however, because practf cally all her coal contracts at the mines had been made before this or der became effective. Most of Bos-
 toms soft coal comes by water from Norfolk and Newport News. It must be contracted for far in advance of
 local needs for it, in order to be for warded when shipping conditions are
 favorable. Thus, contracts for this
 winters coal were made last spring and even as far back as a year ago., Such was the practice this year, and
 because of the uncertain conditions
 surrounding the coal industry the
 price paid at the mine by practically
 all buyers from this region was con- siderafbly in excess of the price fixed by executive orders last September. The executive order fixing the prices of coal at the mines also established other regulations. For instance. many
 of the coal jobbers of this section had contracts with coal producers at the mines, by which they agreed to take large quantities of coal at prices of approximately $4 per ton. Some of them had thousands of tons of coal in storage and were willing to relieve in
 cidental cases of distress by supplying the coal at the price they paid for it, ] plus a commission of 15 cents g. ton 1 and the transportation charges. Un- | .Iss these jobbers had formal contracts with the persons thus to be supplied. however, they could charge only $2.4s l per ton for coal which may have cost them as high as $4.
 | When this situation was made clear to Dr. Garfield. he apparently saw l that the price fixing order in all it's 1 details, however beneficial it might l be to those having ready access to the mines, was the cause of individual
 cases of hardships to New England 1 business concerns, and hence the new order, which sets up MT. Storrcw- as l pr. Garfield's personal representative I in New England, and which empowers him to do. that which Dr. Garfield
 would do could he give his personal 1 attention to the job.
 1 Thus MT. Storrow can borrow a
 carload lot to help out some needy 1 industry and pledge Dr. Garfeld's of l ficial credit that this loan will be re- 1 turned. If he finds an industrial plant 1 or any department of government, or
 any public utility needing coal, he l can waive the price-fixing terms of the original executive order and per- init the jobber and the institution to l contract for coal on the basis of the price paid by the jobber, plus g. req sonable commission. If this (coal dealer had actually unloaded this coal 1 into his yard before resel1ing it, his price may be construed under the 1 provision of the executive order appn-
 cable to retailers, if the coal is sold while in cars or barges, the dealers charge must be based on the section in the executive price-fxing order re- lattng to jobbers' commissions.
 Boston, Nov. 6-The Boston fuel committee hopes to be able to an- nounce it's decision as to retail prices of coal within few days. Confer
 ences have been held with coal deal- CTS and others interested, and today
 the committee met delegation rep-