Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-25
LIGHTLESS DAYS

NUoSl people are WllllnE 10 a0n1lt tndt
A'1. the fuel administration and Mr. Gar
field and Mr.. Potter are doing their best in
a difficult situation. The fault isn't with
the intention of either administrator. 1t
is with the performance. Their best is dis
ilusoning. It is often the worst that even
a pessimlst has right to expect.
II Is only a little while ago that enough
lights were provided in Fairmount Park to
insure the driver OF a motorcar against a
tumutuous passing out in a collision with
a tree or fight over an embankment or
an impact with another vehicle.
Now, when motorcars move about in
dense clouds. Mr.. Potter Is turning out
some of the lights which the Park Com
mission grudgingly supplied for their
safety and the safety of people afoot. The
fuel administrator In his zeal to win the
war is turning out some of the lights on
Broad street.
Broad street has never been provided
with the lights essential to safe motor
traffic at night. Councils has refused to
supply the funds necessary to install il.
Illuminated signals at the crossings. Night
traffic takes care of itself. All Of the lamps
on Broad street are needed for the safety
of foot and vehicle traffic after dark.
Human imagination isn't adequate TO esti-
mate the degree to which the current with
held from a few hundred street lamps will
aid in crushing the Germans. One can
imagine Mr. Potter carving out a new
slogan and gravely declaimng that "frac-
tured skulls will win the war
The people took the .skip-stop and a cur.
tailed elevator service without a whimper.
1t is becoming apparent that the skip-stop
and the partial suspension Of elevators,
while calculated to save a modicum Of coal
ON paper-may really waste more valua-
bic energy elsewhere. The skip,stop troll.
leys do not always keep up their speed at
the crossings. The motormen are more
| cautious than the fuel administration. They
are compelled to slow down, and they re-
quire the usual excess power In getting
under way again, and the chief result Of
the system is annoyance and resentment
in crowds OF delayed and inconvenienced
passengers. Business men who have been
compelled to work long hours because OF
a shortage of help have to climb interim
nable flights Of stairs to their offices as an
added penalty Thus priceless human en-.
ergy Is wasted Meanwhile in the suburban
towns and in the cities a casual survey at
night reveals consistent wastage of light
| and power at unessential uses.
The war will not be won by food or coal
or light or money alone, but by efficient
administration. So far, the mauing in
each successive conservation experiment
by the amateurs has fallen to the ultimate
consumer-the men and women in the
great group that endures and co-operates
and makes no sound because 1t has no
collective voice. The men who climb up
office building stairs and grope about on
lightless nights are the same to whom
every producer passes on excess costs.
They pay doubde for luncheons. They bear
the brunt of inflated prices upon food. milk.
tobacco coal, ice. clothing and shoes. The
landlord plumbers them. Their patience
makes lightless nights. skip-stops and cur
| tailed elevator service and such futile ex-
periments possible. Though they are voice.
| less. they are giving a fine proof of
patriotism. They go along patiently and
| in good temper, though in their hearts they
must feel that they are living not in light
| less nights, but in lightless days.