September 2, 192





RECORD    .^ND    GUIDE





293







Safeguarding New York in Coal Crisis

How much anthracite coal will be available for the
winter months still remains uncertain, and the anxiety
of consumers increases with each passing da}-. Wliile
the Washington authorities are bending their efforts
to bring about a resumption of mining on a large scale,
it is foreseen that, no matter how successful these
efforts may ultimatel}- prove, a serious shortage in the
supply must be expected. Governor Miller has gone
into the situation thoroughly and is convinced that a
real emergency exists. For this reason the Governor
has lirought about the enactment of a special law at
Albany calculated to afford the people of New "S'ork
State as square a deal as possible in the distribution of
such supplies of coal as may be allotted to this ?tate
by the Federal authorities.

Acting on the Governor's recommendation, the Leg¬
islature at Albany early this week passed unanimously
a drastic measure to safeguard the interests of the Ein-
pire State until such time as the mining and hauling
and distribution of coal again becomes normal. Under
the Governor's plan, the State Coal Administrator ap¬
pointed liy him will have the powers of a dictator and
will have the financial backing of the state up to $10,-
000,000 in his operations. With a revolving fund of
this size, the new Coal Administrator will be able to
exert a powerful influence in the purchase and dis¬
tribution of the coal. Under other powers with which
he has been clothed by the Legislature he should be
able to protect the public against undue hoarding of
coal and against profiteering.

The celerity with which Governor Miller has acted
in this emergency, and the promptness and unanimity
with which his program has been accepted by the Leg¬
islature, is the most encouraging development thus far
in the situation. Notice has been served that, insofar
as the State Government is able to act in the matter,
it means business. The members of the Legislature
did well to reject the suggestion that control of the
coal supply be placed in the hands of municipal com¬
missions. That plan, had it been adopted, would have
defeated its own purpose. It was far wiser to put the
whole business on a state-wide basis, and there is no
reason to assume but that each section of the state
will receive fair and just treatment under the plan
adopted.

It was, perhaps, too much to expect that the State
Legislature could assemble without a display of that
modern malady best described as "landlorditis." .Sen¬
ator Lockwood, as its chief victim, displayed symp-
toins of a new attack by expressing the fear that the
Governor's emergency coal plan might break down
that part of his precious housing emergency laws which
requires landlords to keep apartment houses heated.
Very properly the other members of the Legislature
paid little attention to Senator Lockwood's fears on
this point.   Its absurdity was cleared up later by Gov¬





ernor Miller himself, who pointed out that the emer¬
gency housing laws make it a penal offense for a land¬
lord to refuse "willfully" to supply heat, hot water and
elevator service. Obviously, as the Governor declared,
if the landlord cannot get coal he is not "willfully" de¬
priving his tenant of that service. Nor is there any
justification for the assumption that in the coal emer¬
gency New York landlords will fail to make every effort
to keep their buildings as warm and habitable as pos¬
sible under the circumstances.





Hurdles Ahead of Hylan's Plan

When the Mayor of New York announces his pur¬
pose to spend $600,000,000 on extensions of the city's
transit lines the fact becomes of more than passing in¬
terest to taxpayers as well as strap-hangers. Regard¬
less of its merits or defects, it is inevitable that there
will be wide discussion of Mayor Hylan's program be¬
cause of the official source from which it emanates.
In the natural course of events the Mayor's plan will
be submitted to the Board of Estimate and .Apportion¬
ment, a public hearing will be held, and the Mayor may
be able to command enough support in the Board to
have his plan, approved. It is difficult to see, however,
what further progress the Hylan plan can make. There
is no blinking the fact that under the law as it stands
the authority in this matter is lodged in the Transit
Commission of which George McAneny is Chairman.

Some parts of Mayor Hylan's statement announcing
his plan are obviously political in their effect. If it
were the Mayor's intention to throw the rapid-transit
question further into politics than it already is he hardly
could have adopted a more effective method.

The extension of the city's transit fiacilities has been
neglected all too long and the average citizen is not
apt to forget that no recent progress toward better
conditions was made until the Legislature and the Gov¬
ernor last year created the State Transit Commission
and gave it power to tackle the problem in earnest.
And until the law is changed New York must look to
the McAneny Commission for whatever extensions and
improvements are made in the city's transit facilities.





Bricklaying Here and in the West

A study of bricklaying efficiency was recently made
in San Francisco by a member of the staff of the In¬
dustrial Association of that city. This study involved
the work of an American Plan crew of four bricklay¬
ers, two of whom were mechanics of first-class ability
and two of second-rate calibre, under tlie supervision
of an experienced foreman, who was also in sympathy
with the American Plan. The job was a seventeen-
inch wall of a four-story apartment house, made of
San Jose common brick, with concave joints, and an
inside finish. The work was observed at regular in¬
tervals for an entire week and it was found that an