The Press., 1918-01-03

| < fnI6tee or CnS O0nnSCSICuS 0haSG N 4 Council of Defense for pubIica- 4 1 < tion in Connecticut newspapersf 4 l 4 They will deal with all phases T
 4 of the nations organization for T 4 war and will be as complete and < < informative as the exigencies of & 4 military strategy will permit. < < I kA&kk4+k&& < && kk kk%%&& | | The United States produced i'll 1917 something like e75,OOO,OOO tons of coal. This is a 10 per cent gain over 1916 and 25 per cent gain over 1915. i The coal shortage is a problem of transportation.
 There is always plenty of cOal-4OO | times as much of 1t under these Unit ed States right now as we and our ancestors have dug out in the last 100 years,
 And there are coal mines enough 1000 mines and 100000 miners. Even In the unprecedented year of 1916 the productive capacity of the mines was 1OO,OOOOOO tons above the ac. tual production. In 1915, good year, the 5,6OO soft coal mines of the cOun- try worked only 2O3 full days instead of 300 and produced twO-thirds Aas much coal as they might have r so- duced. P.
 The difficulty is to get the coal to the right place. The solution of yhis difficulty Is what the consumer is pin cipally paying for when he buys his winter coal. Half of his coal bill goes for railroad transportation and for hauling through city streets. /.
 It Is the moving of coal, not the mining of 1t, that gives the big hew fuel administration offices most .fof their work to do.
 Distribution is the thing. The sthte administrators concern themselves 3di- rectly with nothing else. Production 1s left TOT the W asn1ngrOn once eu handle. But the Washington office, too, is mainly occupied with gek ang coal from one point-ge generally eid. ing in a railroad yard-to anotbser polnt-say the furnaces of a hokpi- tai, or the bunkers of a scout cruIker, or the coal box of one of the hundged neediest cases.
 If the i'll and the needy should be to hn should make only 25 knots when 30 knots would mean many lives saNed, or If anything goes wrong anywhere with heating plant or engine, a 9ag- gestion Is likely to reach the fuel lad. ministration that 1t do something i'm mediately-and preferably to the fail. roads.
 There has been sufficient congestion at railroad terminals to lend some icOl- or to the frequent charges that Ithe railroads are responsible for the coal shortage. But the real cause ofithe' trouble goes beyond the railroads.
 Our whole system of coal prOAuc- ton and distribution is wastefulY It is wasteful, for instance, for the Ne. braska farmer to ship coal from West Virginia in place of buying the sfnOhler and dustIer coal that Kansas produces.
 Our national use of fuel Is extrhva. gant. It is wasteful. not so much of resources as of mine labor and espe- cially of ton miles of transportatidn.
 But the coal industry is fundaInen. tai. Railroads and manufactures have shaped themselves to the existing state of the industry. To make any radical changes In the coal trade would He to throw the whole machinery ote of gear.
 Hence the fuel admInistratio scon- cerns itself not with opening new channels for the coal trade, but with keeping old channels stretched wide open. In most cases when the results it obtains fall short of perfection it is idle to try to pin the blame down to the fuel administration, or to thearafl. roads, or to any other single element in the situation. a.
 That the fuel administration, isieOD- ing with the problem successfully ls shown by these facts: That the navy and the transports have been getting all the coal they need and of the best quality, that the cantonments and mu- hilton factories are kept well sup. piled and that the railroads inl this time of the worlds great need ard car rying much the greatest traffic of their history.
 German Mayer Has Sense Oe AAmoP.
 The Prussian town of Altwassef has developed a humorous burgomaster. The Schwaebische Tagwacht says:
 '"rhe burgomaster of AltwasseE. who has been flooded with anonymous let ters accusing him of failing in his duty as regards the food supplies. has caused a reply to his accusers to be :, posted at the town hall. It reads:
 CT am blamed in letters for the scarcity of potatoes, for the heavy rains and the consequent muddy state of the streets, and for the unlawful appropriation of food cards on the part of many of the inhabitants. Besides the writers of these missives attack me for providing my household with more than I am entitled to and for pocketing public funds ag salary.
 "T invite some of these pettifogging spirits, who have no other resource than to besmirch the reputation of their public officials, to come and dine with me any Sunday.
 "'They would regret not having stayed at home to partake of the meat with which they are no doubt prOvld. ed. instead of the cabbage and tsarnlpg