The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-01-31

Hartford, Jan. 31-Probably not more than two or three cities or towns in Connecticut have enough coal to meet their domestic needs for two weeks according to an announce ment made yesterday in an interview by Thomas W. Russell, United States Fuel Administrator for Connecticut and chairman of the coal committee of the Connecticut State Council of Defense. The fuel situation is bad throughout the state, he added, es- peciaIly in the southern part, where the Shore Line trolley company has only coal enough to keep it running for another 4S hours. MT. Russell describes the railroad congestion which has brought the situation to a head and when asked if there was any relief in sight said, "None except such as the weather man may send.".
 "It is doubtful if more than two or three localities in the state of Con- necticut have domestic coal enough to last two weeks,'' MT. Russell said. Most localities in the state have o--ly enough coal for one week and some of the small places have absolutely uO COdl 1IlS IC4CLo SO GSA|AA1NONNS coal for domestic use. Generally speaking the supplies of bitumtnous coal are approximately slightly larger than those of anthracite. The biggest difficulty in the bituminous situation is that it is unequally distributed and that while some factories have enough on hand for several months some have only enough for AS hours. The Public Utilities companies, espec- ially the light and power companies have on an average only a very few days supply. In the case of the Shore Line Electric Railway Co, it is doubtful if it can operate trolley cars for more than AS hours more, unless we are successful in our efforts to di- vert coal to it's power houses at Ha1l- vile, Saybrook, Mystic and Thames viIle.''
 Mir. Russell was asked how Connec- ticut gots it's coal, and he said that for the most part cities and the territory adjacent to them on Long Island Sound are supplied with tide-water coal from New York. While the in- land section of the State receives a1- rail coal largely from Maybrook, Har- lem River and several other smaller junction. The ice conditions in New York harbor are responsible for considerable share of the coal famine in Connecticut, according to MT. Rus sell. Owing to winter conditions" he said, "the unloading piers at New York, although they arc now being worked 20 hours day, are unable to load the normal amount Of coal into barges The cold weather increases the difficulty of loading and unload ing and also freezes the coal in the cars so that it calls for an extra amount of labor to transfer it. The large amount of ice in the North River and also in the East River up to Whitestone Landing has very greatly hampered transportation by water, Tn some cases because the unloading piers are frozen in and a lumber of other cases because the ice has broken the propeI1ers of tugs as well as strained the harges so that some have gone down at the docks' Also. due to the effect of tides a very bad ice jam has formed west of Whitestone Landing, making 1t ex- tremely difficult for tows of barges to work through"
 Tn reference to the aA-rail coal routes through Maybrook, Harlem River and other smaller junctlons' Mr. Russell said: 'HThe office of the railroad tells me that the yards at Harlem River are in fairly good shape regarding congestion, but here' agaIn' inc ice in New York harbor is very large handicap when it comes to tow inc car-hoats from the terminals or New York to Harlem River yards The conditions at Mayprook were badly congested two weeks ago, put since then have shown great deal of improvement, although, oW1ng. to a1ck of motive power, the railroad IS Tnahle to clean up the MaybrooK rna T,7s as rapidly as might be expect | ed.
 ePoints west of Maybrook are blocked and as result rall coal TOT New England is being diverted Co other places. The railroad cond1uons at Maybrook prevent coa1-carry1ns
 roads from bringing more cars lnto Mavhrook until the situation there
 has been cleaned up. It seems to me 1 that the people are paying at tniS
 time rather dearly for the criticism
 and hostility shown the railroads dur
 ing the past ten years, reducing tnelr
 earning power to such a point that IL
 has been almost impossible financially
 for them to purchase IocomotlVes ana equipment during the past two years
 "There now are at Mayorook
 something over 1,500 cars, Of which
 probably 500 are cars of coal. l am
 told that at connecting points west o1
 Mavbroook there are probably more than that number of cars or coal
 awaiting shipment over the New Ha-
 ven system.
 When asked how much coal there is on the rails in Connecticut Mr.Rus- sell said. Heaven only knows. It
 has been figured that on the railroads
 of New England in normal times 4S
 per cent. of the entire freight tonnage handled is coal, and that the average
 for the entire country is something
 over 30 per cent. If l knew each
 day how many cars there were on the lines of the New Haven railroad l
 could probably obtain the approxi- mate number of coal cars by taking
 about 33 per cent of this total.
 T When asked what towns in Connec-
 ticut are in the worst shape TOT coal
 MT. Russell said it was hard to "put