New-York tribune., 1922-08-22
Strict Control
OF Fuel Is Aim
OF Legislature
G o m m mission Expects to
Gain Power TO Fix Price
When Special Session rs
Called on August 28
6-Day Supply for Ferries
1. n. z. Gets Extension i'm
Increase of Service Be-
cause of Faulty Product


/ The formal call for an extraordinary
session of the State Legislature on
August 2S, in connection with the
threatened shortage of coal, was is
sued yesterday by Governor Miller. 1t
! is expected that emergency measures
4 viii be enacted at the special session,
which will give the Governors Coal
Commission power to fix coal prices
and control fuel distribution through
out the state.
Meanwhile the Transit Commission
announced last night that, since en- in
jvestigation by Professor Charles e.
Lucke, OF Columbia University, had
shown that not more than 90 per cent
efficiency has been obtained in the In
/ terborough Rapid Transit Company's
boilers with the Welsh coal 1t has been
forced to use, the 10 per cent reduction
/ in the eompany's services, which the
commission authorized several days
ago, would be extended a few days.
Professor Lucke. after preliminary
survey, reported yesterday that the cut
in service was justified by the condi-
| tionsa
Whalen Gets Faulty Coal
Sufficient coal is on hand to run the
municipal ferries for six days, accord
4 ing to statement made by Grover A.
| Whalen, Commissioner Of Plants and
Structures, yesterday.
1 We. have received about fifty offers
of coal, but the quality is very poor and
1 the prices high" said Commissioner
Whalen. 'We did buy one barge load,
but before we buy any more we will
1 subject the offers to q careful inves-
/ tigation. One lot offered, we learned,
had been sold eight times, and an in
vestigation disclosed that it consists
Of nothing but coal dust.
The prices asked averaged about
/ SIS ton. For the time being the cur
tailment of service ON the Staten
/ Island and the Grand Street ferries
1 to Broadway, Brooklyn, will continue"
/ Commissioner Whalen indicated tnat
the municipality expects that the fuel
shortage will last throughout the win
4 ter, because the mines, even if worked
at full capacity, will not be able
| before spring to make up the de-
j ficiency created by the long inactivity
=
Plants and Structures is planning to
commence open market bargaining for
1 it's supplies on Thursday, when it is
said, the city chemists will have re-
ported on the quality of the various
lots offered.
No Progress Reported
No progress was reported yesterday
at the local Offices Of the Governors
coal commission in the work of Sc
curing fuel for this@city. The min
ing Of one lot of 100000 tons for
which a requisition has been honored
has begun in the fields of West Vir-
! ginia, it was said, but no estimate of
| the length of time it would take to
get this shipment out of the ground
and to New York via tdewater was
available 1t was said that the New
York Edison Company began the use
of British coal in some of its power
houses yesterday, but that as yet it
fhad not been determined whether the
lighting company would have the
same. difficulty with the mating" of
the foreign fuel as the I. R. T. has had
The prospect for sufficient supply
4 of anthracite coal appears to be hope
less, it is declared in an analysis of
the coal outlook issued yesterday by
the Standard Statistics Company. Inc
1T is within the bounds Of possibility
that; sufficient quantity of bitumi-
nous coal and coke may be mined
and distributed, provided sthe most IA
vornbie of circumstances continuously
obtain" says the statement, "but the
situation is not to be CONTEMPLATED
with satisfaction"
/ Industry To Be Hampered
s'It seems most probable that indus.
try as q whole will be somewhat ham.
pered by inability to obtain sufficient
quantities of bituminous coal with
sufficient promptness, and that in nu.
melous local cases, especially in the
Northwest, rather drastic curtailmen,
OF industry will be necessary"
40 prevent an anthracite shortage
the report points out, monthly pro,
duetion will have to be 10 per cen,
above the previous maximum and 4e
per cent above the previous MONTH,
average. Bituminous production fol
the last eight months of the year will
have to average 1S per cent above the
monthly average for the last nine
years. while sufficient coke will be pro.
duced II production runs 12 per cent
kaboye the average, but 10 per cent be-
low the maximum, though coke pro.
aaulon VIII depend entirely upon the
amount of coal delivered at the coke
ovens.
Other factors that cannot yet be es-
tinated, it is said, may materially
alter these estimates in an unfavor-
able sense. Such, for instance, are
the amount produced for the month
OF August, the efficiency of the distri-
button system when once operation is
resumed and the amount of time il
will take to recondition the mines that
have been out of use.
EHort to Stop Spread