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Show COIL MINERS WORK -10 MEET SHORTAGE About 200 Cars Loaded for Shipment to This District. EMPTIES RETURNING Prospect Is That Present Conditions Will Soon Be Brought to an End. Despite the fact Unit yesterday Tva generally reeujinied as a holiday in labnr circles, the coal mines in tlic L'ar-bon L'ar-bon and Kmcry county fields worked practically all day in an effort to overcome over-come the fuel shortage in the iuter-inouutain iuter-inouutain country. While accurate re-ports re-ports were not available last nij,rht, officials of-ficials of the Denver 5: Rio tiranle railload estimated that the day's loading load-ing at the mines served by the Salt Lako division of the company would be in the neighborhood of i:u0 cars. Kcports from the railroad officials also indicated that there were empty ears on hand and on the way to the mines to insure almost a full day's loading load-ing today. The output at the mines, as well as the movement of empty equipment to the mines during the next few days, however, will depend larjely upon weather connitious. The railroad company is making no attempt to move empties to the mines that the officials believe can be handled bark under load in a reasonable time. Other than to move the .coal as vapidly as possible, it i sthe intention of the railroad just now tn avoid as much as possible the accumulation accu-mulation of cars under load along the line, which only tends to hinder, the movement of trains.. Many Cars on Way. The fuel shortage in Salt Lake continues con-tinues acute and some actual suffering for lack of fuel has been reported by retail coal dealers. The dealers are making everv effort to distribute the meager supply of coal received amonsr the persons who aro actually in need of fuel, and orders aro being accepted subject sub-ject to delay only. Assistant" (ieneral Manager F. R. Rockwell of the Denver & Bio Grande expressed the opinion last night that not more than liOO westbound loads of all kinds were on the Salt Lake division. Of this number he estimated that approximately ap-proximately -ino ears were loaded with coal. According to the morning reports of the various vards and stations yesterday, yes-terday, Mr. Rockwell declared that the total number of westbound loads between be-tween Helper and Salt Lake, including Helper yard and all kinds of loads, was about (if0. Of this number he estimated -that about 400 were laden with coal. During the day upward of 2nn ears were moved into Salt Lake, largely coal, and about the same number of cars were loaded at the mines. The report thnt the motive power of the Denver & Bio Grande was in poor condition and that the delay in tho movement of freight traffic. was largely due to the poor condition of the power was emphatically denied by Mr. Bock-well Bock-well last night. Coal Moving Fast. "Our power has never been in hotter shape in winter than it is at the present time," he" asserted. "Also the report that we are short of power is in error. We have all the power we can use at this time and it is in good shape. We have been operating under a heavy handicap han-dicap during the past two weeks, during the past week especially. Our traffic has been exceedingly heavy all winter, and we have had all we could do to keep it moving. The snow a little more than a week ago hindered vis greatly, and then came extremely cold weather between Thistle and Helper, making it almost impossible for trains to make anv war near running time over the mountain. The weather has moderated iu the district during the past few days, but still the temperature is sufficiently low to cause considerable trouble in the operation of freight trains. W e are doing everything in our power to avert a fuel famine, and expect to continue con-tinue our efforts along that line just as long as a fuel shortage is threatened. threat-ened. "However, the people of Salt Lake should take into consideration the fact that all the coal we are handling is not consigned to Salt Lake dealers. In fact, only a comparatively small percentage per-centage of the coal we handle is destined des-tined to Salt Lake. A great deal of if goes into southern Tdaho, Nevada and California, as well as to various towns throughout the stale of L:tah." |