The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-09
SILVER ALREADY AT
68 DEGREE ORDER
Coal Users Want to Learn
What Garfield Means. but
No One Knows.
BRONX IS PESSIMISTIC
Local Administrator Says Re-
port of NOn-Existent Off
cial Is Wanted.

The decree Of DR. GARFIELD. head Of
the National Fuel Administration, that
no householder next winter shall have
more Goa, than enough to keep his house
al 6S degrees. brought large number
Of persons to the city fuel offices yes
terday. where they learned that no
householder shall have more coal than
enough to keep his house at IS degrees
Months have passed since the last
local administrator in these parts re-
iterated the official phrase-"the duties
Of this office are ministerial. not judicial
and all interpretations of DR.. Garfelds
orders will have to come from DR.. Gar
field"-and yesterday the phrase was
hauled out of the mothproof vault and
restored to circulation. Only one official
voice was silent that OF Albert r. Wig
gin who resigned az State Admini strator
at the time OF the last Liberty loan
drive, and whose office. lacking his
successor. is in charge Of clerks
Reeve Schlcy. administrator FOR New
York county. went to Washington last
| night. but before leaving said he knew
nothing which would add TO the sum OF
public knowledge concerning coal A
goodly quantity OF anthracite was mined
during June. perhaps the largest amount
| In any month in the history OF the whole
coal industry.
No. Mr.. Schley didn't know how much
| II would cost to effect a rationing or
| ganization for New York city. Yes, II
! appeared feasible and would probably
be n good thing No. there was nothing
to indicate that the coal situation might
| be either worse or better next winter
than last. Yes, il was true that the
number of essential war industries has
heen increasing and that they have de-
! voured a good deal OF coal
| Actual Needs to He Filled.
In the end the anxious men and
| women who had come downtown to dis
cover whether DR.. Gerfield's rationine
| scheme meant that there was not to bt
enough coal next winter to keep tht
home fires burning were referred 10 hi:
language in the Washington dispatches
mo one will be deprived of coal actu
ally needed for heating" and admon
ished to go at once to their dealers ant
place their winter order
1t Is a'fact that a large amount o.
the fue. necessary for next winter
use has already been laid in by house
holders and apartment house owners ii
this borough and in Brooklyn. but th'
same class of consumers have not beer
SO fortunate either in The Bronx or il
Queens
In Queens the administrator made hi
requisition for the borough's needs earl,
last April. when II was his understand
ing that the national Administration
desired fuel bought End stored durini
the summer But he never got th'
coal.
In The Bronx nobody expects 10 h'
warm next winter The Bronx BoarC
Of Trade. remembering last winter whei
the conditions were desperate from No
vember 10 March. began a fuel aGita
ton in May and has been holding ;
series OF public meetings ever since. thu
most recent OF them yesterday after
noon. Cyrus W, Miller, the borough adj
ministrator, presided and delivered him
self OF an address which breathed pes
sm;sm and discomfort