The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1918-01-22
Nearly All Business Houses
Closed in Forenoon and All
in Afternoon.
WAS A GENERAL HOLIDAY
Cotton Mill on Five-Day Sus-
pension Paying Workers Half
Time-Many Spend the Day
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Close.

The first fuelleSs Monday was gen
orally observed in Lancaster. None
OF the business houses except drug
stores. grocery stores and the banks
opened for business and these were
closed after IL o'clock. The Star
theatre operated as usual, but is
closed today. The pool room like
wise is observing today instead of
yesterday as the "heatless day"
The banks and drug stores were not
asked to close any part of the day.
but in order to cooperate fully in
the effort to reduce fuel consump-
tion they closed their doors at noon
and did not reopen for business.
The fuel administration in Wash
ington Saturday afternoon granted
the request Of moving picture and
theatre operators that they be al
lowed to observe Tuesday as a
"heatless day" instead of Monday.
This was done in order to afford
amusement for the workmen who
were idle Monday on account of the
general closing order, but who could
not well attend the theatres on
Tuesday. Billiard and pool rooms
were included in this modification
OF the original order. The theatres
and pool rooms will observe Tues
day of each week, instead of Mon
day, for the ten weeks
There was no confusion locally ow-
ing to the fact that most, If not all of
the business houses were willing to
| close. even though not actually re-
CURED to. There was nothing in
the order to require the newspapers
to close. but they, and in fact. all
printing offices in the city closed for
the day. This will possibly have the
effect OF making the papers late in
reaching their subscribers. but new
ertheless the newspapers are CO.
operating in every possible way
with the national. state and county
fuel administration
The Lancaster cotton mill closed
Saturday for the five-day period.
The mill uses about two and a half
cars of coal daily, but when using
the hydro-electric power less than a
car suffices for heating purposes.
The mill is working on large gov
ernment contracts, and Col Leroy
Springs was advised Saturday bv
the government to continue opera
tions. but the orders were received
after the mill had closed, and by
reason OF the shortage of coal, re-
mained closed There are about
] 200 employees Of the mill and dur
ing the suspension of operations
they receive pay for half-time. This
policy was in operation at all of the
Springs mills before the fuel admin
istration's order was sent out Sew
eral times during the past two
months the mills have shut down for
from half-a-day to two days on ac-
va 'N"''i'y VI tOdl, anu tdcn
time the workmen have been paid
half their regular wages during the
time OF suspension.
The Lancaster cotton oil mill
operated Monday as usual This
comes under the head of the food
producing concerns. The Catawba
fertilizer plant is closed for the five
days. The county offices in the
court house were open as usual. The
harness and shoe shop OF the Greg
ory-Hood Live Stock company. next
door to The Lancaster News office,
closed for the five-day period. The
ice plant operated as usual. Gar
ages were only open to allow per-
sons to get their cars in or out. The
freight depots, Southern Express
company office. the Western Union
and the telephone Office operated as
usual. The Red Cross work-room
was unusually busy during the day.
There were many hunting parties
made up in the city. mostly rabbit
hunters and many people took oc-
casion to make short drives in their
cars, though the weather was so
cold that the trips were little en-
joyed.