Evening star., 1943-01-07
Oil Cut May
Limit Activities
At Churches
Civil Defense Units,
Troining Glasses
May Be Hit

Oil-heated churches in the Metro
politan Area, which have already
curtailed their activities to save
heat. face virtual Ssation OF all
weekday meetings as the result OF
the new cut in fuel oil rations fol
non-residential users, 1t was learned
today.
Even before the latest reduction
some churches had confined their
services and other activities to Sun
days because of the heat problem
Others had been forced to close
their buildings on certain evenings
of the week.
DR.. Frederick E. Reisig, executive
secretary of the Washington Fed
Grafton of Churches. indicated the
newest cut in OF, was bound to have
detrimental effect on many of the
churches which depend on oil for
neat. Church attendance, he said
has suffered already because of
transportation difficulties. The cut
IN oil rations combined with new
restrictions on the use of gasoline
would reduce church activities even
further, he said. ...
Used in War Activities.
DR.. Reisig pointed out that many
church buildings are being used for
activities directly connected with the
war.
Civilian defense groups, Red Cross
units and servicemen's recreational
activities use the buildings many
nights during the week. Some
churches have even provided Sleep
ing quarters for visiting servicemen.
Unless some provisions are made to
provide sufficient oil, DR.. Reisig said,
these activities will have to be lin
tied.
Few theaters will be affected by
the new cut in oil. Most of the show
houses in the city are already con-
verted to the use of coal. Only one
downtown theater was found to be
using Oil, and officials there were
not certain as to what effect the new
order would have on its operations.
The necessity for the OPA's orders
banning pleasure driving and cut
ting oil rations for non-residential
conditions was reflected in the short
age OF existing supplies of gasoline
and fuel oil in Washington.
The gasoline situation was said to
be precarious and the supply of fuel
Oil was reported to be still very low.
Lester Scott, director of the oil
heating division of the Merchants
and Manufacturers Association held
out some hope that the supply
situation would be eased within a
few days. He said methods of in
creasing the flow of oil into the Dis
trict, were being worked out.
Laxity Charged.
Mr., Scott charged that some re-
lief IN this direction might have
been provided earlier had it not been
for the laxity of the Supply and
Distribution Committee, a group set
up by Petroleum Administrator
1ckes to deal with fuel oil prob
lens.
The plan to ease the pressure here,
according to Mr. Scott, contemplates
bringing full trains of so tank
cars into the District and unloading
them at single point. This, he
said, should take about eight hours.
Under the present setup, he ex-
planned, tank cars come into the
District in smaller groups and are
then required to dump their loads
at various points scattered through
out the area. This method, Mr..
Scott said, ties the tank cars up
for several days-sometimes for as
long as week
Railway Speedup Needed.
Along with this new system. Mr
Scott pointed out, some method of
getting the oil to the dealers must
be worked out. 1t has been pro-
posed that shuttle system be
devised, whereby trucks are kept in
constant service making deliveries
TO the dealers bulk plants on a
scheduled basis.
According to Mr.. Scott. some
dealers were out of Oil today and
others had just enough to keep
them going on curtailed basis.
Yesterday Mr.. Scott criticized
Renah Camalier, fuel Oil consultant
to the District OPA director, for his
failure to work out some solution to
the oil distribution problem here.