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Show comkce holds roads blameless Producers and Dealers Say Grand Jury Could Not Relieve Coal Shortage. As a result of inve.tiatiou conference confer-ence ye-t-rd:i v, o-fij. lug the entire afternoon, in tin: of lice of 1 an B. S'liie)d, attorney cue nil of Utah, consider;! con-sider;! bio iiiforrna t ion was leathered, v liieli will he u vai !a bin l or any letris-lative letris-lative committee or oilier iuinresLed hody. It was stated at the dose of the meeting, however, that a rami jury i it et i eal ion of the coal situat ton wai imnrubahio at this time. The meeting was attended y all producers pro-ducers and hy all dealers, save the I'taii f'uel company, which sent no representative. represen-tative. The producers and dealers met separately with James II. AVolfe, deputy attorney general, and Wilson McCarthy, district attorney of fSalt Lako county. 1. li. J'! vans, deputy district attorney, also wiiH in fit tendance. A stenographic rennet of the? evidence adduced was taken. While the press was not admitted, thn stale n.nd district officials united in an in for ma 1 ora 1 state men t given at the conclusion of the sessions. 1 1 was paid to ho t lie consensus of opinion of producers and of the dealers (hat the. producers had the coal and the lalior. and the dealers the demand and i acuities i or del ivory, t he Jjenvrr cc I i to Urnnde railroad did not have the cars, round houses, engines, switching facilities and like equipment to handle han-dle the present situation, which it was admitted was unusual because of the severity of the weather. Jt was also admitted that coal deliveries de-liveries by the railroad were up to those of past years. The local dealers were unanimous in their statement that they did not think the railroad was discriminating in any j manner. In fact, the statement was , made that the railroad was handling : cars' as quickly as could be expected with the limited equipment.. 1 - Kspecial earn was taken to emphasize, empha-size, that no blame could possibly be attached to the oflicials of the railroad in Denver or in Salt Lake; that they were eager and straining every point t o cope wit h the situation, but that the directors far removed from Utah i-ondi tions were in need of being convinced con-vinced of the wants of Utah in the distribution dis-tribution of coal under present conditions. condi-tions. The coal dealers stated that, despite all reports to the contrary, they have little or no coal on baud. They' stated that the situation is bad at the' present time because the supply of those persons per-sons who put in early stocks is now reaching the vanishing point in many instances. Mr. Wolfo stated that the situation is such that the remedy, in his opinion, evidently lies in compelling a change in policy and the addition of adequate equipment in the future. Both Mr. Wolfe and District Attorney McCarthy stated that there seemed to be no immediate im-mediate remedy that could be made effective, ef-fective, as no power exists to compel action along tho Jines which might prove beneficial. Jt was stated that the information brought forth indicates that a legislative legisla-tive committee to investigate the problem prob-lem might prove very valuable and that the facts might aid in showing the need for an effective public utilities bill. One of the producers suggested that in any public utilities bill a clause be inserted similar to the commodities clause under which the interstate commerce com-merce commission acts, namely, that railroad companies be prohibited from owning coal mines. It was pointed out by one producer that, while the Utah mines had been running less than full time, in Colorado mines served by the Denver & Rio Grande had been operated at full time. The inference was added to this statement state-ment that Colorado had a public utilities utili-ties commission. Representatives of coal companies also complained over the methods of distributing cars, whereby a large number num-ber is used to take coke from Sunny-side Sunny-side to the Anaconda, Mont., smelter. Many points were cleared up and many false mmors and much street talk aud gossip were killed as a result of the conferences, accordi"- to State Attorney Wolfe. |