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Show BE PATIENT. Becoming hysterical about the coal famine will accomplish no good result. Right-minded citizens will try to view it with sense and moderation. In the first place, Satl Lake is not the only city in the United States to suffer from a scarcity of fuel. The conditions that exist here are duplicated in many other cities of tho country. It will not do to fix the blame hastily upon the railroads, then draw deductions deduc-tions from what probably is a false ' premise. For months a car shortage has existed. The railways were in nowise to blame unless someone has finally dis-' covered that the railroads were the cause of the European war. If the railroads rail-roads caused the war, then they are to blame for the cur shortage, v We have more than enough cars in the country for all normal traffic, but the traffic produced by the war is abnormal, ab-normal, and, moreover, it is something that not even the wisest of railway managers could have foreseen three years ago. As soon as it became apparent ap-parent that freight shipments would outstrip facilities, the railroads began to place their orders for increased equipment. The car builders have been working night and day to fill these or ders, but are not able to keep pace with the demand. Amid this unprecedented coal shortage in Utah came weather conditions unparalleled un-paralleled in recent years. The blizzard bliz-zard paralyzed traffic. It was necessary neces-sary for the. railroads to choose what freight should be moved, and very sanely sane-ly they selected foodstuffs. We are not seeking to exculpate the railroads from any guilt of bad management. manage-ment. Investigation might reveal that here and there gross blunders were made by individual officials, but, on the whole, tho transportation system of the country is holding up wonderfully well under a strain which it never be-i be-i fore experienced in the same intensity. I Tho strain is by no means at an end. The next few days will require the highest skill and the hardest kind of ; work to disentangle tho snarl into which i transportation has fallen. Tho public should exercise patience and await results. re-sults. It is much better to fix the responsibility re-sponsibility when tJie facts are known than to take snap judgment in a fit of hysterics when the facts are still undo- . termincd. |