The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-05
Encouraging Side of
 the Near Coal Famine

Encouraging Side of
 the Near Coal Famine TN many Alabama towns, where 0 public utilities have latterly sus- pended or are threatened by the in- ability to secure coal, there is doasb- less wonder that such a state of af- fairs could exist in a coal-prod1cing region.
 Pennsylvanians, Ohioans and other eastern and western communities are asking the same question. The answer is the car shortage. Albertville has had it's water SUD- ply cut off. Gainesville reports the imminent suspension of public dtili- ties. State institutions and some in- dustries are in dire need of coal. All on account of the car famine and con- gestion.
 It is one of the anomalies of the age. With all the inroads made on uses of coal by hydroelectricity and fuel oil, there is not enough coal to go around in the hot summer months. Inasmuch as the railroads nave built very few cars in the past sev- eral years, no great relief is in the immediate future. Alabamians are to congratulate themselves that they have as much hydroelectricity as is now available, and that an unlimited supply is in the foreground. They are to congratu- late themselves that their Inland waterways near the state of equip ment wheXe they shall be permanently se1viceable.
 It is good to have these little set backs now and then. They cause reo- pie to think and get things straight in their minds. * * # T think Indians make an ideal mo- ton picture audience" Mary Pickford told New York newspaper man, be cause they are not thinking about the money they have just lost on the stock market, and the squaws are not won dering how they can copy the leading ladys dress" In other words. the mo- lie red man at the movies registers close attention. It is customary in many hotels, par ticularly among travelling gentlemen. stuff he sells before they pay him for it. If rigor mortis does not ensue forthwith the money changes hands and the hellboy blithely hunts another customer. preferably a travelling gen. tleman.
 | Irv. Cobb recalls the time when 1t was customary to open political con- ventions with a corkscrew. Nowadays ! it is still possible to obtain refresh ments, but they are not dispensed with the lavish hospitality of bygone era. *. T. #
 Thomas Hardy quit writing novels to become a poet. Thomas should have stuck to fatalistic fiction. He's many | 4 lap ahead of Amy Lowell. to be sure but he cultivates a somewhat formal muse.
 1 An advertiser in The Age Herald wants to do houseworlz for refined. rich people" She probably has in mind people who got rich before the war and have acquired at least a superficial polish,
 If the truth were only kpown Elm ma Goldman, having come in close contact with sovietism as 1t Is, and not as it Is said to be by its propa- gardists. may be sick of the whole business.
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 The mayor of Scranton, Pa., says tn town has been receiving too much UT favorable publicity for its alleged ''wetness'' and the bootlegger is now persona non grata ! # X * Ambassador Davis says he will have to be conscripted for the presidency He needn't worry. The "conscript fathers" are not looking in his direc- tion.
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 The dove of peace feels downheart- ed every time a new superdreadnaught slips into the sea