The Republican journal., 1918-03-07
Senator Lodge Talks About Coal

In a recent speech, Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge analysed the tesIlmony
taken by the Reed committee whicn not
long ago investigated the shortage OF coal:
Senator Lodge advocated the aDonti0n OF
the Federal Fuel administration, deciaIe9
that there was no reason why the ruei
Administration should exist as such, ana
that ''its powers have been employed IN
such a way as to make bad SITUATION
worse and do nothing but narm' l
know" said the senator, shat in what l
have lust said am open to the sueges-
ton that my criticism is purely oest1uc-
tive. So it is, but it is the destruction
which is intended to precede construc-
tion."
Chaos of Priority Orders.
The senator pointed out early IN MS
argument that although the railroad situa,
ton was the vital point in the whole coal
problem the Fuel Administration came
into being with no power whatever 10
deal with the transportation systems ".
Harry A. Garfield and his associates, the
senator said. could only issue priority OF
| ders, divert coal shipments and add to the
tangle which those orders created. MOI
| content with this, they set to Work 10
change the whole system of distributor
''No more reckless experiment could nave
been attempted. The distribution OF coal
from the mine to the consumer nao oeen
slowly built up into great and lntrlcate
system, covering the whole country oy
the experience of nearly seventy nve
years. The channels through which the
coal flowed had been during TINS long
time esta blished. In a moment, by ,ne
action of the Fuel Administrator, this
vast network of distribution was sudaeh-
ly thrown out of gear so that IL e1tnei
did not work at all or worked very Dadis
and clumsily. With a single blow they
crippled and partially paralyzed all the
machinery of distribution and deprived
themselves and the country OF the erea'
driving power of private interest never
SO valuable as in period OF DISTURBED
| transportation.
Mr. Lodge asserted that the coal dlstri-
button has been interfered with greatly
by the hundreds of orders which have
been issued by the Fuel Administration
contradictory orders, explanatory or
| ders, new orders, and all supplemented py
statements through the press. he reao
those fixing the price of coal, the flrst OF
Aug 21St, establishing the price at 81
ton and finally the last, making the pres
ent price 50 O5 per ton, which is 1lve
cents more than the price made last lai
by an agreement of operators when Dec
rotary of War Baker characterized as I'M
Just, exorbitant and oppressive,
The senator characterized as reckless
the order closing down factories and IN
dustries of all sorts for five days. he
gave two concrete examples OF factories
in Massachusetts,, one factory saved ut
teen tons of coal day, but the loss II
wages to the employees was about SIoos
q day and the loss to the company in pro-
duction and profit was much larger. Inc
second industry experienced a loss OF
S470, 600 while the saving of fuel was only
SlO0, 600 Mr. Lodge declared what was
needed was not shutting down OF IN
dustries, with all the enormous losses ano
dlslocations of business thereby, entaileo,
but freight embargo on the railroads
He said that the Administration shoulo
encourage the purchasing and storing OF
coal for domestic and industrial use dur.
ing the coming summer when the demand
is the lowest and transportation the
easiest "Above all, }" he continued, "dl-
rect every effort to supplying rail ans
water transportation for coal during tbs
summer and at all times. Do not inter
fere with established methods of dis
tribution and do not make the fatal mis-
take of destroying the distribution ma
chinery."