New Britain herald., 1918-01-07
JOHNSTON REPLIES
 ID OFFICIAL HOWL
Explains Why He Sold Coal to
 Consumers in Pennington

F. H. Johnston of the City Coal and Wood Go. emphatjcally denies that he 1 has sold coal to out of town custom CTS except with the permission of l Thomas W. Russell, state fuel admins ! trator MT. Johnston was prompted 1 to issue statement in reply to infor- nation given out at City hall and pub- lished in afternoon papers Saturday in which he was held up by Mayor Quig- ley and Clerk kisselbrack of the War Bureau as being guilty of a wrong to coal consumers in this city.
 ContIs,dicts Kisselbrack.
 MT. Kisselbrack said that the City Coal and Wood Co. did not have any loaded cars on it's tracks awaiting to Johnston says:
 ''The statement of Earl Kissel- brack of the War Bureau, in an eve- ming paper, is a deliberate misstate- ment. I did apply to him for help for the purpose of unloading cars of coal. I did state to him that we had cars on our tracks for the past three to five days which we had been un-
 
 could get was working loading up teams, so as to get out every pound of coal we could deliver. Those cars are on our track at this writing and we are paying demurrage on them. MT. kisselbrack's statement that we had charged 55 cents per bag at the yard is another deliberate misstate- nrent He stated that he had wo- man irr his office who claimed we had charged that price. He denied it and requested MT. Kisselbrack to bring the woman to our office and we would check up our records, which, of course, he did not do. It is evident that some people prefer loose state ments to facts even when they can get them"
 Answer to Mayor Quigley.
 In reference to Mayor Quigleys statement concerning the sale of coal to Farmington people, MT. Johnston says:
 For the past ten years the City Coal and Wood Company has been selling between 500 and 800 tons of coal yearly to peaple in Pennington, and for the past few months, there have been orders on our books from customers D Farmlngton, which we have been unable to fil. After re- ceiving several very emphatic appeals from nay customers I told them that if they would send teams to my yard, they could have furnace size coal, but nothing else. Immediately on receiv- ing the notice that was sent to all the coal dealers this morning by the To- cal committee, I called MT. Russell, e, I,;r toto he. telephone and was told tbat if these people were regular customers and in extreme need of coal to give them some Three double teams which came in from Pennington from peo ple who are not regular customers were turned back without bit of coal. This afternoon, Mr. Russell tel egraphed me, requesting that hereaf- ter I get permission from our local coal committee before filling orders, which I am very glad to do. So far as supplying the people of the city with coal is concerned, the City Coal and Wood Company has done every thing in it's power to relieve all of it's customers and has stated to all per- sons, so far as I know of, that if they send to the yard they will be given small lhts of coal to relieve any absO lute necessity.
 To-day Saturday. we gave out coal to over 300 people and we had to ask police protection because of the fact that at one time there were thirty express teams and trucks at the yard for coal and it was getting impossible to handle any business whatever. Dur ing the past ten days coal has been sold by us to over 1000 people, many of whom were not regular custom CTS. All the yards in the city have regular customers in surrounding and adja- cent places, but in no case has coal been allowed to go out of New Brit ain so far as I know, unless in cases Of extreme necessity
 Chairman Christ of the fuel com mittee stated today that the commit tee has no desire to interfere with legitimate trade or to disrupt business but in the future it will be necessary for retail dealers to secure written permission before delivering coal out of town. In the case of legitimate customers in the suburbs who have been trading with dealers for a long while, it is not believed the com mittee will interfere, but permission will be necessary.