Salt Lake Tribune | 1911-11-14 | Page 16 | Give Three Sides of Coal Situation

I BIKE THREE SIDES I OF C0ISITUJT1 j Retailers and Producers Blame Railroads for Lack of 1 ALLEGATION IS DENIED I Transportation Officials As- serf That Traffic Is Being 1 x Handled Without Delay. I Practically no change 'lias taken place j in the local coal situation, except that I the retailors deelnr.c the crisis has drawn I 'a. few days nearer. Dealers, producers and railroads seem to bovplaying a thrcc- R cornered game, from which it is hard 1 to determine the actual status. I The retailers assert that the supply on hand is so low as to warrant fear ot a coal famlno unless, conditions change. They place most of the responsibility fo such a situation upon the shoulders , of the railroads, declaring that cars and motive power are lacking to move the shipments to rnc market. From the railroads again comes the cry that they are handling shipments In standard time and with more easo than at any time during the rush of the fall transcontinental t raffle and beet and crop movements. They point out that The fault must lie with the retailers and producers, as nil coal ordered is being hauled to the market just as fast as It is loaded into cars. Producers Claim Shortage. The producers still claim that they receive re-ceive too few cars to load on orders and that as a result the mines cannot, be operated op-erated regularly. They also maintain that the orders given are about normal, and that if the dealers are short they should increase requisitions, fn the meantime the public is watching watch-ing for the outcome and cautiously ordering or-dering more coal by virtue of the mys-terlousness mys-terlousness of the game and also the cold snap. Prominent dealers yesterday said that the supply would last a comparatively few da vs. unless the railroads handled shipments faster. One dealer declared that of sixty- orders given within thirty da vs. onlv six carloads had been received. Another retailer asserted that the storage stor-age reserve was being drawn on tremendously, tremen-dously, and that a prolonged snap or stormy weather would menu trouble. Situation Not Unusual.' A leading wholesaler said that while the situation was serious. It was not far different dif-ferent fram that which usually onrolhs at (his time of the year. Railroad ofll-clals ofll-clals limit the -idea that they cannot handle shipments in satisfactory manner. So far as tho price of coal Is concerned. con-cerned. 1 1 io same rales exist as wore In force last winter. Dealers declare It hardlv prohnble that prices will he raised within the next few days unless tnc producers pro-ducers boost I hem upward or the railroads rail-roads increase freight rites. Just what the uncertain talk of pr.ce-raiscs has to do with the three-cornered game now on is no more ascertainable, than tho outcome out-come of the game itself-