The Pulaskian., 1920-01-09
HOW COAL SUPPLY WAS CARED
 FOR DURING STRIKE OF MINERS

I.plete control over the distribution of coal mined and over supplies of coal in storage and on wheels on the rail- roads when the miners stopped work. The committee had back of 1t all the power of the fuel administration un- der the Lever act. There was no prece- dent to go by. Being bound by no precedents, it could go ahead in common-sense way and that is exactly what it did.
 Harry B. Spencer, director of divi- sion of purchases of the railroad ad- ministration. formerly vice president of the Southern railroad, and a man of iopg experience in dealing with coal questions, was given the unenviable job of handling the situation as chair man of the central coal committed Be fore the strike actually began, he had his assistants all picked, his plans all made his orders written and every thing prepared to take charge. There fore, the evening of October 31 Dr. Harry A. Garfield, the fuel administra- tor, who had rendered his resignation months before, but whose resignation had not been accepted and whose pow CTS had only been suspended, not an- nulled, was called back into service and issued an order re-establishing control over the distribution of coal, making the director general of rail- roads his agent. and re-establishing the priority orders in effect during the war. At the same time, and to pre- vent profteering. the fuel administra- tor issued orders re-establishing the government maximum prices on bitu- minous coal. The day the strike began MT. Spencer put his organization into effect throughout the country, and from then on the problem was one of distributing coal and looking after the constantly decreasing stock of the country.
 On the Job Every Day.
 The committee remained in practi- cally continuous session every day of the strike, including Sundays, and as rapidly as telegrams and letters came l in. took immediate action.
 Back of this committee and cooper ating closely with it have been re gional and district local coal con- mittees, picked in advance of the strike and established immediately after the strike began. On these re- gional and local coal committees has fallen very large share of the bur den of handling the coal distribution problems from day to day, and it is to | the credit of these committees that they have had a minimum of clashes with state or local authorities when l it is appreciated that on these com mittees fell many of the duties exer- cised by the fuel administration through the war and when it is appre- ciated that these committees always were limited in what they could do by the stocks of coal, on hand, it will be realized that their work was of the most difficult character.
 One of the chief difficulties in the situation was the fact that conditions throughout the United States were so widely different that It was apparent
 
 with all sections of the country alike. Therefore a great deal of responsible ity was left with the regional directors of railroads and with the regional and local coal committees. However. some general principles were laid down i'm mediately which were followed in general way throughout the coal strike. The preliminary rule was laid down that no coal should be given to any consumer who had a reserve supply, and that coal should only be given to meet emergency needs.
 Get Reports Daily.
 In order to avoid long distance com munication, the rule vas set up that persons desiring coal should make ap- plication on the road ordinarily SUD- plying them with coal and in order that the central coal committee should be kept constantly supplied with in- formation machinery was set up under which each railroad should promptly report to the central coal committee and to the regional coal committee the hidAlOs tiliC, AONoIAOi dllu lGlCpllOllG du- dress of the representative of that rail- road in whom the whole coal question would be centered for that railroad.
 Summed up, the result of the handling of the coal supply of the na- tion by the government has been that with q mobile supply at the beginning of the strike of 22,000,000 tons of coal at the disposal of the entire country. and production which never reached 90 per cent of normal, with cold wealth CT existing in most parts of the coun- try during part of the strike, and blizzards in some parts of the couu- try throughout most of the strike, the nation was able to last out six weeks with very little actual lack of coal by hOuEphOldarc with pro oticolI,, o1l ...-,.