Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-07-16
Coal for Nest Winter
DgHTT
By Donald /. Breed.

L. Breed. EHyT
The Order Your Coal Now cam
paign has been helpful. Those who
have needed the cali have been insur-
winter. But they have done more
than that. They have done. their bit
to prevent q repetition Of last winters
calamity, when railways were storm
bound and many families went with
out heat. BY keeping trains Of coal
moving every day through the sum-
mer, while there Is no risk of stop
page by snowdrifts, We shall help to
perienced last winter. a
There is another element in trans
portation which may help to keep
coal moving into the bins through
the summer. That Is. the system OF
highway motor transports which will
supplement the railroads. But that is
new and we must not rely on it for
any sweeping improvements.
Clearly, we cannot depend on in
creased production alone to supply us
with fuel. To make available the
most rigorous conservation. 1t is use
less to say that we have three trillion
tons OF coal lying about under the
earth, and that we had better fall to
and mine 1t before W. begin to talk
about conservation. The fact Is, we
cannot mine it. We must conserve.
II we do not conserve we shall go cold
dustrial plants will be idle.
Household conservation is simple
enough, but it Is not often practiced.
furnace owners are accustomed to
turn the furnace over to the .mercies
OF careless and Incompetent individ-
uals, who do not care how much coal
they waste or how they attend to the
The fuel administration will prob
ably soon institute a campaign to en-
roll owners in a conservation
project. All owners of furnaces will
receive through the mail a card bear
ing a message from President Wilson,.
and a statement Of the ways in which
a furnace may best be u SO as to
save coal. They will be asked to sign
the printed pledge on this card and
return it to the fuel administration's
offices at Washington. The principal
request to be made is that they give
their personal attention to the fur
mace, so that they may know whether
or not 1t is being run in the most eco
nomicol way. . Another request will
be that only those parts of the houses
which are actually in use be heated.
thousands Of tons Of coal have been
wasted every winter in supplying heat
to rooms which are not occupied.
BESIDES the economical operation Of
the furnace. there are other ways in
which fuel may be saved in every
household. Gas should not be left
burning and electric lights should be
turned u when they are not needed.
Care in the use Of gas and electricity
Tor cooking will release millions Of
tons Of coal to provide warmth for
the babies and for the aged and in.
firm.
Factories. too, will be called upon
to conserve. Even many I factories
which are tolerably welE run have
been wasting from 20 to 80 per cent
OF their fuel because they are not be-
Ing properly operated. Hot air pipes
leaks have been allowed to go un-
mended. Steam has been permitted
to escape into the air in spite of the
fact that. after passing through the
engine, 1t still retains 80 per cent Of
Its original heat. In many cases, pow
er plants simply have not kept track
Of the amounts Of coal they were u.s.
ing and do not know how much heat,
power or light should be obtained
from every pound Of fuel consumed.
The engineering section Of the fuel
administration is bending its efforts to
bring about reforms in industrial con-
Germs which will save between TO-
100000 and 100000 00 tons of coal
this year.
Another 100000 tons can be saw
ed by the consolidation Of rival pow
example, there is q cluster Of big
power houses which do not operate to
capacity. They waste a large amount
OF coal because they do not run their
establishments on a capacity basis. In
peace time it Is we'll enough to permit
such wastage for the sake of stimulat-
ing business competition. But this is
war time. Fuel supply is SO vital to
the prosecution OF the raj that we
shall have to close up some Of the
su%perfluous coal burning concerns.
even If it works them a great tempo.
rary harm.
The skip-stop traction system now
In use in most American cities will es-
tablish another big saving. Perhaps
100000 IONS Of coal will thereby be
saved for other use Altogether we
something like $4,000, 900 Of coal by
readjusting the running Of our bus-
mess and households.
But 100000 tons will not be
enough. We must save more. There
is a margin Of something like 15,000,-
900 tons which we must get some-
how. It remains to be seen whether
the ingenuity and patriotism Of the
American people will provide this vi
tally necessary margin.
WOMAN WINS MEDAL.
London, July 16.-The first prize
medal in the British ~intercounty COM