The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-03-12
|RICHDALE SEES | GAS INCREASES
Summer Motorists to Ben.
 eft; More Heating Oil Also Forecast

Providence, R. l., March l2.-CUP) Substantial increases in gasoline for summer motoring and an "e0 per cent of normal supply of heating oil next winter were forecast today by Chairman J. c. Richdale of the New England Councils liquid fuel committee.
 Speaking at the councils roth quarterly meeting, Richdale said he was optimistic about the future.
 Most people I come in contact with want to know whether they will be allowed to drive this summer and whether they should convert their furnaces to coal before next winter" he said.
 Tt would be my guess that rec striction on pleasure driving will and should be lifted as soon as the present emergency is behind Us, It was purely an emergency measure and only justiflable as such. The value of the coupons should not be increased until our inventories have been somewhat restored.
 "As for domestic heating oil T think It Is perfectly possible to have 30 per cent of our normal gallonage of heating oil and Q substantial in. crease In gasoline for civilian use. With the economies we have learned this past year, these quantities would seem quite luxurious"
 Chairman Saul Wallen of the New England regional war labor board said that a disastrous runaway in. flation was prevented by the federal government early wage StabiliSation policy.
 Wallen urged council members to aid his board in its wage stabiliSa- ton program by careful preparation of their stabilization cases that come up for consideration.
 To meet present emergency de- mands on supplies of gas, Vice Pres- ident Hall M. Henry of the New England Gas Association urged O continuation of conservation meas. ures by industrial and home con. sumers.
 with both the companies and the gas consumers doing their full part" he said, there IS every reason to re- lieve that gas will be available in the future for those users and to those customers that are now being served plus those that will be per. mitted to be served under the nanu. factured gas limitation order"
 Richard L. Bowditch, chairman of the councils committee on solid fuel supply, said that lat ell costs, coal must not be ratloned in New Eng land"
 "If there is inSufflc!ent anthracite to 90 around" he said, "bituminous coal must be used instead. If there Is 1nsufacient tranSportatic ticn--Ynain- ly by that I mean water. borne transportation--to take care of the situation, then we must get more transportation immediately.
 'T'o ration or allocate coal in New England will cause the unbalancing of the mine out.put and cause ra- tioning and allocation of coal throughout the country. This will harm the war effort generally and Cbuo4 CVLloJSEhHVAOH " ULlS puDltC' In this section of the country where oil has been ratloned, to consider the rationing of coal would be disaS. trouS ."
 Bowditch said that the 1o4S sup. ply depends on three things-"wlll there Do enough production at the mines? Will there be transportation available to meet our requirements? Is rationing necessary" President Edward s. French of the Boston and Maine and Maine Central Railroads, chairman of the councils committee of railroad pres- idents, said that New England's railroads in the past year have car- rted the greatst volume of trafiic in their history.
 All this was done, he said, in spite of the impossibility of obtaining new coaches, shortages of motive power and manpower and the difti- culty of getting new material for maintenance.