The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-03-12
THE REAL FACTS.
 ABOUT GARFIELD
 STATEDBY cREEL
Fifth Message of the Government to the American ople-Ill-Informed Critics Condemn Fuel Admnistrator-An Able Man With
 Master Organizing Capabilities.


 page in the stream of traffic.
 The critics who compute the value of the coal saved and compare it with the sum of wages and the value Of manufactures lost by the closing or der are making point that is be- side the issue. The factories would have closed for want of coal in any case, and the wages would have been lost. The closing order was not an order designed primarily to save coal, but to cure the freight congestion so as to free the coal already stalled Tn railroad sidings and return the empty cars to coal mines that were smut down for the lack of cars at their | tipples.
 The order was advised by the Super War Council as an urgent war meas ure. It was supported by the Direc- tor General of the Railroads. It was issued by MT. Garfield because, un- der the Lever act, he was the only official who could issue it. It was successful. And the critics who have been clamoring against it are as in genuous and as well informed as the editors who announce that MT. Gar field has mo knowledge of coal min ing or coal distribution. and no exc Cutive experience whatever"
 The problems of the Fuel Admins tration are not merely problems Tn business management. They are not merely efficiency problems that call only for executive ability. They are the same human problems that have taxed the wisdom of the governments
 
 few years of war. And the man who solves them has to have more than an experience in coal production and coal distribution.
 When MT. Garfield was appointed Fuel Administrator, the production of coal was at it's lowest ebb because of strikes and lockouts at the mines. There were" he says, two ways to proceed. Government, under plea of war necessity, might have used force. I do not deny that, in times like these, force must be used in last resort to carry out the programs of govern ment. But there was a better way in | this instance, and the Fuel Admins tration relied upon it. Operators and mine workers were brought togeth- CT. The ideal set up by President Wilson was recalled to their minds.
 Our dependence upon coal for the prosecution of the war was explained. It was firmly, insisted that in the present crisis there should be neither union or non-union; that for the per iod of the war all controversy be- tween the operators and mine work CTS must cease. The appeal was heed ed and production steadily rose until winter set in, in spite of the fact that, as some thought, government had laid a blighting hand on legitimate profits. It was a practical illustra- tion of the potency of the new idea ~of freedom, a demonstration of the efficiency of democracy and the con sciousness of common purpose"
 It is now complained that by re-
 stricting profits the Fuel Admins
 tration discouraged production. It is argued that if the mine owner had been allowed to make greater profits
 he would have been so eager to in crease his tonnage that there would
 have been an abundant supply of
 coal. But the governments of other countries have found that the labor CT will not work periodically to SUD-
 
 CT is taking advantage of that need in order to profiteer. Labor will be loyal and unselfish only when the em- t ployer of labor is loyal and unsel- ] fish. It is necessary to prevent the t employer from profiteering before employee can be prevented from prof r iteering. Without price fixing at the r mines, there would have been strikes ] I1T, shortage. The Fuel Administrator t policy discouraged the profiteering . of capital and the profiteering of la.
 bor. His critics who argue that the l Irice of coal should not have beer |. fixed are willing to have the mine l owner profiteer. but they suggest nc | way to make miners work loyalty fol = such an employer. MT. Garfield. I policy has obtained an unselfish CO S operation from both.
 l What remains of the fuel problem S is almost wholly a problem of trans = portation. Most of the coal mines O n the country are located in what tn, :. military people might call difficul = terrain. The usual mine of the grea e Pennsylvania and West Virginia coa = fields is located well up on one side n of a narrow mountain valley. At tn f bottom of the valley there is usuall, h just room enough for a river and
 railroad. There are no considerabl t fat spaces on which coal could b. e stacked up.
 d The nations coal must be kep e moving along the railroads as a city $ water supply is kept moving througl n the water mains. The best assur e ance of a satisfactory supply of coa IS for next winter lies in an adjustmen e of the machinery of transportation t t. the needs of consumers-an adjust j. ment so foresighted ana so eonpre = hensive that the coal will flow da > by day from mine to furnace wit ,t the absolute minimum of carriag n and of delay.
 1t It is to secure such an adjustmen Ie that the new zone plan for bitumin al ous coal has been perfected and adop ,r ted. This is the plan sponsored. ori r. ginaHy by MT. F. s. Peabody of tn If Coal Production Committee of tn IS Council of National Defense, an ,e amended somewhat to square wit T. the transportation experts of MT. Mo os Adoo's railros& administration B +this plan every considerable coal fiel in in the country is assigned a definitel 70 bounded district to which shipment IS from it, except under exceptional cil r. cumstances will be confined. Thes le districts occasionally overlap-a pal e. ticular city may be in two or thre re districts instead of in one alone, san n- gets it's coal from two or three fielc of instead of from one. In the West tn se districts are arranged with referenc " solely to securing the shortest DOS ,s lril,Ie I,n,fi f,r.- nM nnni .o-.-...-., "