New Britain herald., 1918-01-22
COMMUNICATED.
THE FACTS IN THE CASE.
second Largest Coal Dealer in Amcri- ca Shows Why Garfield Order
 Was Necessary.
To the Editor of the Herald:

To the Editor of the Herald:
 The following letter was in Satur- days Hartford Times. 1 think it hits
 the nail on the head and is too good l to let go by:
 "Have YOU noticed who is shriclling the loudest against the Garfield clos
 ing order? It is the protiteer whose 1 plant has been operating overtime, and constantly being enlarged. ever 1 since the start of the European war: | the man who has made the huge profits by selling war materials to the l countries of Europe first and now to | your Uncle sam.
 "He at least should have the de- cency to remain quiet just now. In ordinary times the managers of these plants would close them for a week. ten days or two weeks. to take inven- tory, about the first of the year, and there was nothing said then about "A German victory as the manager of one plant (not located in Hartford. but in Hartford countvt was quoted as saying in your paper the night be- fore last.
 'The industries of the country speeded up at the cry of the admins tratlon, and the various allied war 1 bodies and state councils of defense. They doubled and trebled their prod ucts. The railroads could not keep up with the pace. Were it the good old summer time, no harm would be done. The people would not need coal from the mines to supply the heat needed for the maintenance of the human system. But we are having one of the old-fashioned winters which sentiment talists liked to talk about and of 1HTIoi oiro I,o year. A blizzard in the central west parafyzed all movements of trains from that section for a week. Thou sands of loaded coal cars stand on sfdings held back by thousands of 1 other cars loaded with non- essentials 1 or at any rate with goods which are not needed fmperatively. Absolutely, l there is no question about the wis., | dom of the shut down order' Along with that the statement of F. S. Landstreet, vice president of the | second largest coal company in the 1 United States is interesting. It shows | that those members of the trade who 1 had come in contact with Dr. Garfield, | the Federal Fuel Administrator, had l generally been impressed by his abil- 1 ity. I hope some of the superintend- 1 ents in this town will sit up and take
 
 the nation are not all centered under l their hats. MT. Landstreet said that an averag@ of 100000 coal miners have been idle every day of the last 1 six months in the bituminous regions because of the failure of the railroads i to furnish cars. He. said that the failure of the railroads in the last six months had reduced the coal-pToduc- ing capacity of the United States by | 40 per cent
 MT. Landstreet, who is connected with the Consolidation Coal Co.,, Inc, 1 presents these interesting facts which 1 should serve to enlightcn all fair minded men:
 | 'The present shortage of bitunin- l ous coal began to be evidenced in Oc-
 tober 1916, and has gradually be- ! come worse ever since. This cOm- 1 pany is the second largest coal pro- ] ducer in the United States, mining on an average of 14Oo0, ,00O tons annually
 of bituminous coal. Our actual rec l ords show that for the last six months there has been approximately ! only 60 per cent of railroad cars fur
 nished, that the miners employed were capable of loading; 1t further l shows that an average of $500 min CTS have been idle during that period. l While the same men were not idle continually during that period, there l was an average of that many idle every day.
 ''As this company, although being 1 the second largest producer m the country, only produces a httle over | 2 1-2 per cent. of the entire prodnc- 1 ton, and as the conditions shown by 1 this company are typical of the con-
 ditions prevailing in the entire bitum- ! nous region, it is easy to see that there l has been at least an average of fO0,-
 900 mners idle every day for the last 1 six months.
 'gThis answers two questions very
 effectually: First, that any price fix
 ing retarded production, for, although
 some mines may have been closed
 down, the mines actually operating l were not getting sufficient equipment to operate over 60 per cent of the l time.
 l 'It further shows that any idleness on the part of labor in industries, for l the period of five days covered by the l recent order, will not to any extent 1 equal the continuous idleness Of the l miners or the loss of earnings on the
 part of these men over the last six | months, and I give this period for the l reason that it was more extreme then than for the previous twelve months
 q think the City of New York ] should hesitate before making any criticism on the question of supply of l anthracite coal for the needs of the l city when it is a well known fact that, 1 while the country at large was famll-
 jar with the probable shortage during this Winter and that prior to the l opening of extreme weather there was 1 a large amount of anthracite coal l standing in New Jersey practically Tn