New-York tribune., 1918-01-18
Irony

The facts are incredible and Germany
may not believe them, if that is any
comfort.
Power of life or death over the Ameri-
hands of a man who knows nothing about
its processes and is not responsible for
them. He is not member of the Cabinet,
of the Council of National Defence, of the
War Industries Board or of any other BODY
concerned with the conduct of war. He
thinks industry can be shut up and carried
around in his pocket for five days like
a jackknife, without serious injury
He had not the strength to deal with
the coal operators, which was his par
ticular job and allowed many of them to
go on making contracts in violation of his
orders. BY now he has the obstinacv to
defy the United States Senate.
He is so obsessed with the idea of dis
tributing equally the hardships entailed
by his own failures, that after havinp
shut up coal-using factories to save fuel.
lie would shut up also factories driven bv
water power, for if they continue to ru,
1t would be unfair to the others
Unawares to all the various bodies en-
Caged in the production of war materials
and without consulting the representatives
of industry, he announced on Wednesday
evening that he would issue an order clos
ing all factories east of the Mississippi for
period of five consecutive days and for
ten Mondays besides, the mandate to bo-
come effective on the next day Later he
changed his mind and made it effective
the next day but one. Then he issned the
text of preliminary order
Yesterday the whole industrial world
was in an uproar. The White House. the
luel Administrators Office, every govern
ment department and Congress were del
uged with kilograms of dismay. Congress
proceeded to debate the matter. The Fuel
Administrator was hailed to Capitol Hill
to explain his amazing proposal. The Sen
ate then addressed to him a resolution re-
questing that he postpone action for five
days. But at 5:45 p. m. he signed the or
der, and issued it in time to beat the reso
luton; whereupon the author of the reso-
luton gave out a statement in which it is
suggested that people may refuse to obev
the order.
Meanwhile there was pressure from
within the government almost as great as
that from without. The heads of depart-
ments responsible for vital industrial pro-
grammes urged the Fuel Administrator to
relax his decree. They showed him let-
ters from manufacturers saying that rath-
er than close down they would tear down
their own buildings, or as manv as coud
be spared and burn them for fuel, but the
Fuel Administrator was obdurate.
Ills order went He would hold. no
doubt, that manufacturer who burned his
own buildings for fuel would be therebv
convicted OF unfairness to those who hadn't
any surplus structures to burn.
The last and fantastic touch was added
when group of men representing the tho
atrlcal industry, having come to the White
House to protest, went tiptoeing out Of
Washington, their fingers on their ];ns
with an awful war secret they could not
divulge. 1t was enough to reconcile them
to the situation. That is all they would
say.
There was intelligence enough in Wash
.ngton to have avertcd fuel famine. and
there Is intelligence enough in WASHINGTON
now to mend the situation, but, as bv the
inhibition of a nightmare it cannot be
utilized. Last September the railroad
war board laid before the Fuel Adminjs-
traitor Il plan for distributing coal bv
zones, plating the whole country in areas
to be served with fuel from the nearest
n:lnes. 1t was a plan that would have in
creased coal production perhaps 20 per
cent. Because the Fuel Administrator
suspected that this plan originated with
% L.