756





l?E( ORD   AND   GUIDE





June 15,





,191^





Next Winter's Coal Supply—Just What to Expect

Program of Distribution of Anthracite Authorized by the United
States Fuel Administration—New  York's  Portion   Increased





REAL ESTATE MEN will be particularly interested
in the announcements of the plans of the United
States Fuel Administration for the regulation of
the coal supply for the coming Winter. Private indi¬
viduals and owners of apartment houses in this city, as
well as owners and managers of office buildings, are more
interested in the anthracite supply than in the amount of
bituminous coal in sight.

The Anthracite Committee of the Federal Fuel Ad¬
ministration, composed of Joseph B, Dickson, S. D. Warri-
ner and W, J. Richards, has sent out a statement of the
program, through the secretary, William T. Grier. Be¬
fore doing this a close study of the situation as to pro¬
duction and distribution of anthracite was made and the
definite plan for the control of the problem until next
Spring was laid before Dr. Garfield and approved by him.

In the statement is the following:

"Certain basic conditions must be correctly understood.
They stand as stern facts. We are in war times. In con¬
sequence, anthracite and fuel of all kinds are in such de¬
mand as never before. They are new demands of im¬
perative kind for anthracite. At the same time the war,
directly through the army draft and in less direct but even
larger ways, has drawn down the anthracite mine-workers
army from 177,000 to now about 145,000 in number.
There is going on a further reduction in the force, which,
already down to a point where it restricts the production
of coal, is most threatening.

"The present coal year started with absolutely no car¬
ried over stocks of anthracite. Consequently the de¬
mands, to the utmost extent that they can be supplied,
have got to be met out of the current production. With
labor short, as it is, it will be difficult to get out materially
more coal than the maximum amount which was shipped
last year and which then proved to be insufficient to meet
every need throughout the country.

"The anthracite industry is working how with full
knowledge that every ton of coal that can be produced
between now and next spring will be needed. It recognizes
an urgent necessity not only to get out the greatest amount
of anthracite, but to exert every effort and to utilize every
process to increase to the maximum the quantity which
can be used in domestic consumption. To accomplish this,
it is necessary to recover and carry into the product, all
coal that can be used in domestic service. It is highly im¬
portant, and, under the circumstances, necessary, if the
American people are to have sufficient anthracite next
Winter, that the available labor power shall be increased
both in volume and effectiveness.

"As the problem presents itself it is actually a case of
cutting the coat to suit the cloth. It is also a matter of
give and take between anthracite and bituminous. The
war and its requirements compels this and demands con¬
servation and sacrifices in use of coal as they are being
made by the American people now in every way.

"It should be understood everywhere and by all that,
anthracite must be used carefully, that its waste or need¬
less use by some will entail a shortage and suffering for
others.

"The Anthracite Committee has gone over the whole
problem of fuel supply and distribution in conference
with the U. S. Fuel Administrator. Those in charge of
the bituminous distribution, who have an equally difficult
problem, have also been consulted. Both must be worked
out together to best uphold the public interest. To meet
the war needs compels use of very considerable anthracite
in place of bituminous. This has been arranged through
undertakings to substitute bituminous wherever it can be
used.

"Upon such basis of cooperation, which entails not only
readjustments in the country's fuel supply as between sec¬
tions and uses, but a new balance as between anthracite
and bituminous, domestic sizes of anthracite will be dis¬
tributed during the coal year, which runs until April 1
next. This distribution and arrangement has the ap¬
proval of Dr. Garfield, United States Fuel Administrator.
The following allotments will be made under it:

"1.  It is closely figured that a total of 54,345,783 tons





of anthracite of domestic sizes will be available for dis¬
tribution to consumers during the period. Such amount
will be an increase of 2,668,323 tons, or more than 5 per
cent, over the actual distribution for the coal year 1916-
1917.

"2. Distribution to New England and Atlantic States
will be very materially increased to meet the greater re¬
quirements of their expanded population. It is to be noted
that the_ greater needs in these States for domestic fuel
are not in full proportion to the larger population, for the
reason that the average number of people per house, par¬
ticularly among industrial workers, has increased so that
the additional houses to be warmed are not as many as
might be expected.

"3. Government requisitions for anthracite to be sup¬
plied the army and navy, and to war industries and utili-*
ties which require it, will be fully met.

"4, To make possible such necessary increased distribu¬
tion upon Government orders and through those sections
of the country where the people are dependent upon an¬
thracite for heating and cooking there is no alternative but
to curtail shipments to other States and to bar anthracite
entirely from many more where it has been used but in
which bituminous and other fuels can be procured and
substituted.

"Comparing with the coal year 1916-17 the above works
out as follows:

Tons.

Increased production  ................................    2.668,323

Curtailment  in  distribution..........................    2,202,288

Gain from barred sections...........................       765,931

Total  gained   ....................................    5,636,542

Less Army and Navy................................       600,000

New   balance   available..........................    5,036,542

"Such available freed balance is allotted to increase the
distribution of domestic anthracite among the New Eng¬
land and Atlantic States. It enables an increase of 1,-
497,621 tons, or 17 per cent., in the total amount to go to
New England, and of 3,538,921 tons, or 13 per cent., in the
amount for the Atlantic States.

"Fuel Administrators of the six New England States
figured the probable demand of 10,699,400 tons for domes¬
tic requirements. The allotment made by the Anthracite
Committee is 10,331,000 tons of domestic sizes for all pur¬
poses.

"Fuel Administrators of the Atlantic States—New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland.
Virginia and the District of Columbia—asked for a total
of 33,413,621 tons for domestic requirements. To the
Atlantic States the allotments by the Committee total
31,417,154 tons of domestic sizes for all purposes.

"Such increased allotments to New England and the
Atlantic States are made with regard to their necessities—
the larger population which the war has concentrated in
such sections, their essential dependence upon anthracite,
and the virtual impossibility of getting bituminous for
their needs. Shipments to the full amounts of the allot¬
ments are dependent upon the expected output of domestic
sizes being reached.

"It must be understood that these allotments to New
England and the Atlantic States represent absolutely the
maximum amounts which can be given without grave in¬
justice to people elsewhere in the United States and
Canada who require anthracite in substantial amounts.

"The Anthracite Committee states further that should it
be possible to gain any anthracite out of the nearly 2,500,-
000 tons used by the railroads for fuel, or to expand the
total production above the 54,345,783 tons of domestic coal
estimated as the output for the year, such gained coal will
be distributed to increase the allotments as now fixed for
the Central and Northwest States, which, as it stands, are
called upon to make large sacrifice from their accustomed
pre-war supply of anthracite."

Compared with the actual distribution for the coal year
1916-17, both by States and groups of States, the allot¬
ment of domestic anthracite for all purposes for the cur-
(Continued on Page 757)