St. Johnsbury Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-1920, 1920-09-29
Coal Shortage Worse
Ever Known

ANSl AANONN IL
The coal shortage in Northeastern
Vermont is the most acute that has
ever been known and unless there is
Il remarkable change in the next few
weeks, this section faces situation
which ma bring unusual suffering
during the winter mnoths. Should
Northeastern Vermont have such a
winter as it experienced last year the
shortage of fuel will be so acute that
the extent of suffering is appalling
to estimate.
"There will be no rationing OF
coal in St. Johnsbury", said prom
inent coal dealer today. "There is
no coal to ration"
So far as could be learned by the
Caledonian- Record today there j.
not enough coal OF domestic sizes in
Northeastern Vermont to give con-
sumers more than single lump
apiece. Any plan of rationing three
tons to customer as ordered in Mas
there is no stock of coal on hand and
| Sachusetts is impossible because
none in sight so far as actual trans
portation receipts show.
At the office of the f. T. and H.
X. Idle Co. TODAY it was stated that
thev received their last carload of
domestic size coal on August l. The
company is filling orders taken the
middle of last April. 1t has hundreds
OF untitled orders which were taken
ir May, June and July, and those
! that have been pouring in since that
time.
"The situation is the most serious
we have ever KNOWN" said Mr. Idle
today. 1--WE have had scores of tele-
phone calls as Il result of the story in
YOUR newspaper regarding rationing
of coal in Massachusetts asking when
the customer was to receive the 3-ton
| allotment. We have no coal on hand
and don't know when we will ret any
more. In Massachusetts the regulate
our daylight saving. They tell the
Vermont farmer he should get up in
the middle Of the night to start his
milking. Now it is expected they will
regulate our coal surnly when they
get all the coal they need. We have
no commission in this state to ration
our coal. We are receivin" nractical-
w no assistance in getting an coal.
We have exhausted everv resource to
get coal hut without results. We
await what seems most critical stu
ation."
A. r. Menut of the firm Of Menut
Parks said today:
""The situation is the worst have
! ever known. We are filling our orders
in half ton and 500 pound lots and
are hundred of orders behind. We
have no coal in sight and only the
promise of "etting some. These pro-
misses have been made repeatedly for
months. We were told that we would
get regular monthly allotments. We
got ~ractical'-- no coal in August and
then the men went out on vacation
and we have received none in Sept
ember. We have not been BUYING any
independent coal because of the pro-
mise of regular monthly allotments
from our regular dealers. I bought
carload of Independent coal the
other day at SIS ton at the mine
and with freight rates this will come
to $21 ton delivered here.
"The situation is made doubly bad
by the lack of wood. Owing to the
high prices of S25 and S28 paid for
pulp wood no wood for domestic use
is being cut. There is practically no
wood on the markct.
"The situation looks very serious
and l am afraid that unless it is
greatly improved there will be Sc
rious suffering this winter"
Officials of the Davis Coal and
Transfer COMPANY of Newport de-
clared today that the situation in that
citv is becoming very serious, the
shortage is so acute. This concern
has onlv small ruantity of coal of
domestic sizes on hand and onlv one
car load has been billed in.
Up until three weeks ago the Davis
people had been supplying all the de-
manrs of it's customers but since then
they have been able onlv to "iust
keep their customers agoing." The
outlook is not verv bright, they say,
and there is no telling when it will be-
possible to get in good supply.