The Washington times., 1922-08-08


KELLER, its chairman, is
making bad beginning in taking
4 control of the distribution of coal
in the District of Columbia.
This matter of winter coal sup
ply is entirely too important to the
general public to be considered in
secret conferences between the Pub
lie Utilities Commission and the
coal dealers. The people of the
District should be let in on every
phase of the situation. The news
papers should be allowed the fullest
information, and nothing but trou-
BILE will follow the attempt Of Col.
Keller to put the blinkers on.
We beg to offer bit Of kindly
advice to the coal dealers of Wash
ington. 1t is-DoN'T AGREE TO
ANY SECRET SESSION. STUFF
regarding coal supplies and the
distribution of coal. Whether right
or wrong, the people have strong
prejudices and suspicious as to the
coal business, all the way from the
mines to the coal bins. These
prejudices are not going to be
allayed one whit by secret proceed
ings. Insist upon wide-open, day.
light consideration of this subject.
Lay your hands upon the table for
every man and woman to see.
1t is not believable that reputable
men in the coal business in this city
would attempt to profiteer upon,
the consumers in the emergency
that looms up, and there is every
reason to believe that the dealers
are anxious to serve the public in a
manner that will gain confidence.
The coal dealers have before them
an opportunity to eradicate some
of the i'll feeling engendered in
past years and to gain the good
will of consumers.
This secret session stuff ism I going
to help to restore confidence. And
when the emergency is over and the
distribution of coal again becomes
normal it will not be the Public
Utilities Commission that will have
to deal with public opinion. Men
of the type of Colonel Keller, trained
as army officers, accustomed to
feeling that what they say and do
is final, will care little what the
public thinks. Engineer Commits
sioners of the District do not get
their assignments from the public,
and the history of some of them is
that they do not give a rap what
Washington people want, think, or
feel. -.
If there is ill feeling coming out
of the local coal situation, the
brunt of it will have to be borne
by coal dealers, men who know the
value of good will and strive hard
to attain and hold that invaluable
asset. These men should have
nothing to conceal, and naturally
want to be on the level with the
public.
Private sessions of the Public
Utilities Commission in the estab-,
lishment of policies governing the
distribution of coal may be all
right. but when those policies are
agreed upon they should be
promptly made public and not
withheld at the pleasure of any
official. The people of the District
are not yet under military form
of government, despite the fact that
it approaches that at times.
The people of Washington are
intelligent and enlightened enough
to be kept apprised of develop
ments. They are not children, and
they are not going to be favorably
impressed by KU KLUX KLAN
methods of handling the commodity
so necessary in their homes and
their business.
When Congress put PUBLIC"
in the Utilities Commission it did
not mean PRIVATE"
1t is agreed that things of
strictly competitive nature between
respective dealers do not belong
to the public. Nobody asks or
wants that. But there are broader
and bigger things the public is
entitled to know all about.