New Britain herald., 1918-05-22

foro and much of this demand will
simply have to be supplied with an.
thracite, 1T is evident that the sup.
ply to other sections will natural,
have to be curtailed and especially in
those sections where it will be pos
sible to substitute wood or bituminous
coal.
This condition. of course, makes II
hard for the retailer as he is unable
to secure any definite promises as to
how much anthracite tonnage he can
get. His only redress, therefore, lies
in protecting himself by accepting Or
ders from his customers subject to
his ability to get the coal.
Those retailers who in the past have
bought their coal from the larger
producing companies will stand the
best chance Of getting their norma Al
supply but AS 1T is now too late to
attempt to make cher arrangeme
or new connections, it follows that
each retailer must "lay close" to
whomev ever he has been accustomed to
buy his anthracite from in years past
and use his utmost tact and dtplom-
acy to coax as large a share Of the
tonnage for his community's needs as
he can. The redeeming feature Is tina
1t all helps to win the war and for that
reason the retail coal merchant must
do his part In making the consum or
realize that it will be but a small sac
rihce In helping to bring victory to
our country, if he has to use soft
coal for one winter instead of his GUS
tomary amount of anthracite.
The one important thing for the
next few months Is to keep all the
coal possible moving and get it stored
i'll the consumers bins. This will
spread the distribution through out
the year and is the only way that a
most serious situation next fall and
winter can be relieved.
The retail coal merchants know
the needs Of their communities and of
each individual consumer far better
than anyone else can possibly know
them. It is their business and they
have been familiar with them for
years. Consequently each retailer has
a most important responsi bility rest
ing upon his shoulders at this time
by seeing that an equitable distrbu-
ton is made in his locality and that
thoughtless dealers do not give any
consumer more than his rightful
share OF his years requirements.
Bituminous-The zoning system Is
still uppermost in the bituminous
branch of the industry and in most
sections it has made some very radi-
cal changes in the Goals to be han
died by the retail coal merchants.
AS in all other rulings, since the
governmen regulation went into eff
feet the retailers have shown their
earnest patriotism by being willing to
do anything within their power that
was for the good of the country and
would help win the war, provided 1t
was not an unnecessary injustice.
In the present instance, they rec
ognize the fact that eighty per cent.
OF the munition plants are located in
the East consequently it is Of first
that they should get the
better grade steam Goals that are
produced nearest to them.
With such a radical and arbitrary
limitation of distribution as is CON-
tanned in the coming rules, it is, Of
course, probiematica1 how it will
work out and there are many differ
ences of opinion in the trade on this
point.
Already some changes have been
made in the zone boundaries since the
able that more will follow from time
to time.
Inasmuch as coal production and
coal distribution is so entirely de-
pendent upon transportation facili-
ties it is natural that 1t is difficult to
make any arbitrary rulings that will
not have to be changed whenever
embargoes or lack of ade
Al q
At the present time the demand for
domestic coal keeps up in most sec
tons and particularly on the better
grades of bituminous
This has softened the demand for
somewhat and in the mid
die west there seems to be tenden-
CIV on the part of some of the large
steam users to stay out of the market,
in an evident desire to break the
price before they begin storing the
large quantities that they will need
later on. This condition. however, is
probably only temporary as most Of
the large buyers are broad enough
business men to realize trade condi-
tons and understand the difficulty
there will be next fall and winter in
getting a sufficiency of coal at any
point The railroads are and will con-
tinue to be taxed to their utm lost In
munitions. food supplies and
everything else needed to carry on
The war and which cannot be delayed
very long even with an insistent de-
mand for coal.
: In view Of the uncertainty Of the
coal supply, retail coal merchants
will do we'll to bend every effort to get
any kind of coal they can and then
to pass it on to their customers as the
IDEAL place to store coal in the spring