Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-10-30

the strike order, was given serious
consideration by the cabinet. The
general understanding is that the or
dinary police forces, State and To-
cal, will be used first, but troops Will
be ordered to the mines If necessary.
Government officials early to-day
endeaVored to obtain further re-
ports from coal operators regarding
announcement last night by Thomas
T.. Brewster, head of the coal op-
orators scale committee, that no at
tempt would be made to open the
mines Saturday in face of the strike
order. Confidential advices from
government agents in the@eoal ter
ritory had indicated that large
number of miners would not strike,
and it had been thought here the
mines would be open to receive the
old hands who wanted to stay on the
job.
Enough to Meet Needs
Officials familiar with the situa-
ton explained that Brewster prob
ably spoke only for the central COM
petitive field, embracing Illinois, In
diana, Ohio and Western Pennsyl-
vania, all union strongholds. The
annual output in that territory. is
approximately 1S0,000,000 tons. An
equal amount is turned out by non
union men, and the total soft coal
output is about 500,000.000 tons,
which gives some idea of decreased
production in event of closing of all
mines in the central field.
The current supply of coal from
nonunion mines is sufficient to meet
domestic demands and supply the
needs of railroads and public utili-
ties, Mr.. Lane said. New England
has stored away a two months sup
ply which will take care of all re-
quirements for that period.
To BE Divided
There is from 50,fi000,000 to
200,000,000 tons of nonunion mined
coal yearly and this would be- di-
vided as follows:
Railroad supply, 00,000.000 tons;
domestic, 50,000,00O, and public
utilities, 25,00O,000. This would
leave no coal for industries from the
source, and Mr.. Lane said they
would have to be taken care of
through curtailment of their con-
sumption.
Confiscates Transit Coal
The railroad administration to-day
ordered the confiscation of all coal
in transit when necessary to obtain
q reserve supply to keep the roads
in operation.
TO Restore Prices
In taking over such coal exemp-
tions will be made as far as possible
of coal destined to certain classes
of consignees based on the priority
list established by the fuel admin
iStration.
An executive order restoring max
imum prices for coal will be issued
by President Wilson, probably to-
day. officials would not say what
maximum had been determined on.
Director General Hines issued the
following statement:
'1n order to interfere as little as
possible with the normal course of
coal traffic, the Railroad Adminis-
tration, up to the present time, has
permitted coal to go to the iesig-
mated consignees. For the last two
weeks open-top equipment has been
devoted to coal, leading to the ex-
clusion of other classes Of traffic, and
the movement of such equipment
has been expedited so as to fac.H-
tate the maximum production of
coal. The result has been an excep-
tionally heavy coal production.
'tIt having become necessary,
however, to be prepared to insure
against all temporary contingencies,
that the transportation service be
protected, regional directors have
now been instructed to see that each
railroad shall accumulate neces-
sary reserve of coal when 1T Is not
already on hand, purchasing such
coal If possible and otherwise hold