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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