New-York tribune., 1918-02-10

G Lurepe, AS N"'N'
4 appreciated his feeling as sat in a Broad
vay car after day spent amid the misery of
? ,hc East Side. I marvelled that the people
4 the car could still laugh and be merry when
1 here was all that suffering just around the
prner, for it can be truly said that "thcre isn't
smile in all the East Side" If you could
( 20 the conditions there as I saw them you
+ rcald cease to wonder at the lack of smiles:
/ vur only wonder would be that the people had
he courage to continue the struggle for exist
nee.
War and the weather have combined to
make conditions in this district worse (Oh,
very much worseD than they have ever been
siore. Do you realize that the population of
/ that district which we know as "The East
n Side" is as great as that of the city of Boston?
Il And do you realize the difference in the area
covered by this section and the area Of the city
Fl Boston?
1 If you do, then you have an idea Of the con-
geston on the East Side. And realizing this,
+ you will have slight idea of what the fuel
situation must be in this district. 1t is a SOL
smn fact that there are scores of tenement
houses on the East Side in which there has
+ Teen no gas or water or heat since the first
cd weather descended upon us the last of
December.
Can you begin to get an inkling Of the con-
dion of the dwellers in these tenements? Do
you know that for over month they have not
' taken off their clothes night or day, and that
they live and sleep in rooms in which the
cracks of the windows and doors are stuffed
with paper or rags so that not breath Of air
/ can enter?
4 Can you imagine the condition of the plumb
Ing in these tenements, where the pipes have
/ 5een frozen all this time? And don't you mar
Nyel at the fact that as yet no epidemic has
|resulted from all this?
Can you imagine what it must be like to
live for days and days on dry bread, with now
and then slice of raw onion to make it pal
aabe, and with not even enough fire to make
acup of tea? If you can comprehend a quar-
ter part of the discomforts which these poor
souls have been enduring you will understand
what the shortage of coal means to them. The
wonder of it is that there have been no riots
uprisngs, for this is just about the last
raw on the back of thoroughly weakened
I'D thoroughly disheartened camel.
We have all suffered in a greater or lesser
IL,
Teat East Side district that has suffered the
most; the people who have no facilities for
storing any appreciable amount of COAL and
who, even if they had the storage space, would
never get enough money together to buy
H whole ton of coal at once.
Il THE PROBLEM OF THE CELLAR
DEALERS
These people are e&eendcnt on the cellar
dealers for their supply of coal. These cellar
dealers, selling coal by the bag or basket, have
until very recently controlled the entire dis
noutlon for the tenement dwellers. The
pnces which they asked we're fixed by COM
petton. The coal was sold by bag or basket,
never by weight
The cellar dealers were supplied by carriers,
'ho brought the coal to them from the coal
ards These carriers banded together and
iade their own prices for carriage, and the
Rllar dealer could pay these prices or go
'Ahout his coal. Before the Fuel Administra-
Of TOOK hold of the matter the carter was pay
T ns 80 per ton for the coal and charging the
Nllar man So per ton for delivering it. This
aade the price per ton SIP for the cellar deal
ahd consequently, in order to make any
'front.' at all, he was obliged to charge what
temed to the consumer exorbitant prices for
his COAL
NOW, to remedy this, the Fuel Administrator
SspS IN and ordains that coal shall be sold by
we mndredweight, and that the price per
| nuadfedweight shall be 60 cents. So, you see,
d 'e cellar dealer is paying s12 for two thou
'aAa pounds Of coal and selling it for exactly
""as ne pays for it if he sells it at the regula-
"Va price. In order to make any profit at all
'a' OF the transaction he pursues one of three
VurseS: he sells underweight, he mixes bits Of
.a'e or sand with the coal or he openly defes
'e law and charges more than he is allowed.
=" oae latter case the customer may demur and
ssue' but in the end he usually pays the deal
price, knowing that if he makes any trou-
"e about it the dealer will refuse to sell him
Va' IN the future
.ne result therefore, of fixing the price of
val at 90 cents hundredweight was that two
l I''us OF the cellar dealers on the East Side
vSea their cellars and temporarily retired
vt" BUSINESS In this crisis the people could
s''Sue one of two courses they could either
~ e" The coal yards or they could buy of the
Nes1 pedlers who sold coal, regardless of the
Wv at prices ranging from 70 cents to $1.25
sr hundredweight
naturally they preferred to go to the coal