The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-01-31
STATE PUBL HEAD
 SAYS FEW PLACES
 HAVE COAL SUPPLY
Shore Line Trolley Co., Faces Crisis With Only AS Hours Supply in Its Bins-Break in Severe Cold Spell Only Hope for Immediate Relief, Administrator Says

worse shape than the others" Wind sor Locks, Pennington, New London and other places along the Sound and Manchester, he mentioned as among the communities hardest hit.
 "Is there any relief in sight" MT. Russell was asked.
 There is none," he replied, "ex- cept such as the weather man may send-''
 Asked about efforts to overcome the situation, MT. Russell said that a plan had been worked out for secur- ing emergency tide-water coal at Belle Dock, New Haven, for distribu- t1on by rail to points in Connectt- l cut where it is most needed, but that the Fuel Administration in Washing ton had made the carving out of this plan impossibIe.''
 After having our plan approved by the president of the New Haven road. we wired Washington requesting an order for loading barges at the piers Tn New York and unloading them at Belle Dock, New Haven, into coal cars Tor delivery to retail dealers in in- l terior Connecticut points badly in need of coal" MT. Russell said. '"The reply was this wire" and he tossed | to the reporter the following tele- gram from the fuel administration at Washington:
 With weather conditions which have prevailed, docks at New York and Philadelphia are being taxed to the utmost to do what they have been l is 1 tonnage through for movement to in- | terior Connecticut towns via Belle l Dock, New Haven. They are now working in shifts of 10 hours each, and are even then unable to supply New York, Brooklyn and your Con | necticut coast communities
 Already we have succeeded sev- 1 eral times in keeping some of the largest plants in the state from clos ing down." MT. Russell went on, 'tby | diverting cars on the rails to them. In number of instances also we have kept electric light companies and trolley companies from closing down by following this method We also have had to divert cars on the rails for relief to domestic consumers
 
 ''The mayor of one large Connecti- cut city said to me in a telephone con- yersation this morning that if it were not for the existence of the fuel ad- n2inistration, he believed that average househ elders would now be paying | $20 ton for coal. In the present conditions if coal were $2o a ton in Connecticut, I haven't the slightest idea that Connecticut would be re- ceiving any more coal than it is at | the present time. It would merely be a case of higher price and no more coal
 We have been successful several | times in diverting a sufficient supply of coal to the Old Soldiers Home at Groton and several other state insti- tutions which were entirely out. of | fuel, to keep the inmates from suf- fering.
 More or less has been printed about the Storrow emergency coal which is supposed to come into New England. This is an additional supply of 500 cars day of all-rai1 coal. Of the theoretical 500 cars a day, the first l 200 cars were to be delivered each day to the railroads of New England for their own use in keeping the loco motives running. My understanding is that up to the present time there has not been hardly enough of this coal received to meet the railroads demands for 200 cars day.
 "In the anthracite situation our principal aim has been to bring about as far as possible an absolutely equal division of coal among consumers in need and for this reason it has seem ed necessary to put into force the emergency check of requiring writ ten statements as to coal on hand and limiting the maximum sold to any in- dividual. While this undoubtedly has caused much inconvenience to pur- chasers, we have the satisfaction of feeling that it has resulted in a fairer distribution than would have been possible under any other sys- tenn.
 "In some places like Waterbury, the fuel committee has actually been seizing coal originally intended for factories and diverting it to domestic use. The local fuel administrator in .I Waterbury seized seven cars in this manner on the 18th, 18th and 18th of this month and has continued to do it where it has been necessary. This coal is turned over to the dealers and distributed for domestic use where it is imperatively needed under the local fuel administrators order. We have authorized our local chair men all over thes tate to do this wherever it is imperative, and al- though we cannot tell just how many cars have been so diverted, we know it is a considerable number"