| OCR Text |
Show Action Imperative, Fuel Administrator Says, to Assure Movement of Coal and Food in Face of Prolonged Strain on Railroads, Due to Storms. SHORTER ROUTES BEING LAID OUT Atlantic Coast Cities and Central States Are Facing Serious Situation Situa-tion Because of Retarded Re-tarded Train Movements. Move-ments. WASHINGTON", Jan. 22. An 'urgeut recommendation that an embargo be declared de-clared for a few days on acceptance by the railroads of any freight except oal and food was submitted lo Director Gen-oral Gen-oral MeAdoo tonight by the fuel administration. admin-istration. This action is imperative, Adminhslia-tor Adminhslia-tor Garfield paid, to assure, adequate movement of fuel during the balance of the week, when the general tran.-iporta -t ion situation east of the Mississippi threatens to become worse daily owing to the prolonged strain on railroads of deep snows and intensely cold weather. Tonight the five-day period of Industrial Indus-trial suspension ended, and with the resumption re-sumption of ma nu fad utini; tomorrow railroad officials looked for a new flood of t ra f fie, w h 1 eh the ra i I roa d s can no t handle until normal weather is 'TaMrod. Director General MeAdoo was not inclined in-clined to look with favor on the embnr&o proposal. Tie held that under government govern-ment operation and consecpient pooling of facilities and shorMiaul routing the railroads rail-roads would he ahl? to char all freight without priority and without cnihaJ'oc, Coal, and fornl already have preference over Ah other, clashes "nf freight.,- he pointed out. Mr. MeAdoo promised, however, to study clesely Dr. Garfield's figures blowing blow-ing how coal production had been curtailed cur-tailed in recent wcekn and lo take, whatever what-ever action seemed best. To Shorten Routes. Meanwhile . ho and Dr. Gartield pot about devising a scheme by which fuel is on Id he fraiiHportcd from mines to con -punters over the shortest possible rou'.es. I'.y this niej ns ii lb planned lo save many t lion sain miles of needless haul-inf-'. a nd devoto locomot i vos and la bor thus conserved to I ra re-port Ing greater quant i 1 1 ps to regions w here t h coa 1 shortage, threatens lo become more .-tout'. A committee of the officials from I lei railroads and I lie !u-l administration ill work out a plan which may be based on a division the east into districts, each of whi'-h is to iiet its m;ij mainly fmm a dcslpnated minlnsr area. Howard Kill-ott, Kill-ott, pmnidont 'f ihe New Driven, and A-G. A-G. GuthHin. an "ftt'ial of the intejf?iate commerce omm'ssion's car service bureau, bu-reau, will represent the railroad administration admin-istration oil The committee. The nee spit - for f-oinc new method of dealing with the '-oal transportation problem prob-lem was emphasized by scores of report I hat wia.t her condi t ions were as bad or worgn iii;m at any time since, the uupre-ee-dpnted period of cold and stormy wea t her which si a rted 1 o weeks aco. 1 Fea vy snow t hrouhout. New York a nd New ICrmlaud, in renm;, I va nia , West Yit-Kitiia Yit-Kitiia and elsewhere, made traftic. movement move-ment extremely slow, and cut the 8Upply of empty a. rs t o c a I mi nes fa r Vie 1 o w even 1 he la t e subnorma 1 supply. Ships Bunkered. , The. bright phase of the situation was a leporl of Fuel Administrator Garfield that ships were being bunkered more rapidly than last week, and that coal wa.s c-oiiii; in Hijj'iicient quantities to domestic uonsumera. These were, the main purposes of the industrial curtailment order of five da.-H aero. Dr. Garfield said, and consequently the result of the industrial tusp'eusion was satisfactory. In a statement summarizing the results (Continued on Page Two.) GARFIELD ASKS FDR FREIGHT EMBARGOES (Continued from Page One.) of his fuel ciirta ilment order, Dr. Gar field suit: Our reports show that the prime purpose sought to be accomplished hy the regulation. Hie bunkering of ships, and the supplvlug of domestic consumers mid public utilities with coal, have been greatly pervert. Co.'.U officials of the fuel administration admin-istration in all purls of the east reported re-ported that conrunirrs on the preferred pre-ferred list in the industrial curtailment curtail-ment oroVr were being given the full benefit of the coal moving into the consuming territory. Way Is Cleared. As a result of the patriotic co-op-eratiou of American industry, capital capi-tal and labor, the way has been cleared for the prompt bunkering of ships which long were tied up at Atlantic At-lantic pons, waiting to carry vitally needed supplies to the. American forces abroad and to the nations associated as-sociated with the United States in the war. Furl administration officials called attention at-tention to Ih .fact that coal will continue to move first to household users, public utilities, public Institutions and ships, since that part of the curtailment order or-der creatine a preferential list remains in force until revoked. Tt was1 evident that the fuel administration adminis-tration was disappointed in that the order or-der did not relieve railroad congestion as much as hoped for. Weather conditions were blamed for this, but-it was clear also that fuel administration officials felt that a general embargo against the receipt re-ceipt of freight during the five-day Closing Clos-ing period would have helped materially in this respect- During the past twenty-four hours temperature has ranged from 20 below in Ohio to from 2 below to 12 above in the Pittsburg district: 4 below in central cen-tral Pennsvlva.nia; 13 above at St. Louts and Chicago; 22 above at Buffalo, and 10 to 21 above in. New York and New England. "Heavy snows through the mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia and east to tidewaler," said the report, "caused difficulties in operation of switches and interlocking, with slower train movements." move-ments." Movement Increased. The movement into New England yesterday yes-terday w-as about 2200 cars, an increase of 200 over the preceding day. At Chicago Chi-cago the yards are slowly being cleared of snow, but they had not yet recovered from the effects of the. cumulative storms of the past ten days. Dressed beef, livestock live-stock and perishables were moving east freely, and the delivery of boxcars to western roads was reported increasing. Yesterday 2700 cars of coal, 20 per cent less than normal, were received at Chicago. Chi-cago. Tn Ohio and Indiana trains moved with light tonnage, the movement, being about 60 per cent of normal. At Pittsburg Pitts-burg there has been a .reduction in the accumulation of easlbound freight, but movement Is still very slow. Everywhere, according to reports, the shortage of labor, skilled and unskilled, was becoming more pronounced, men refusing re-fusing to work when the weather is cold. Locomotives were much less effective under low temperatures. Director General McAdoo announced during the day that about seven new engines en-gines are being delivered daily to eastern east-ern lines by manufacturers, and that this number will be doubled in a few weeks. A number of passenger trains wens temporarily withdrawn from service by individual railroads, but the. action was not general or under orders of the railroad" rail-road" administration. The director general gen-eral explained that The general movement to cut down unnecessary sleeping car service was not intended to cripple, traffic traf-fic lo the Pacific coast. Predict Success. Reporting on bunkering of ships in New York harbor. Mr. Pmilh reported1 today that twenty-four received coal yesterday yes-terday and that eighty-one were awaiting coal this morning. "If we can keep up the pace for a few days longer," be' said, "we will have the situation well in hand." One thousand men at the shipbuilding plant of the Suhmarlne Boat company, Newark. N. .1.. are out of work, awaiting await-ing arrival of material delayed by freight : congestion. In the memorandum sent to Director General McAdoo suggesting the embargo Dr. Carficld referred to the one-day em-barir.i em-barir.i on all freight except food and fuel, declared yesterday hy tile Pennsylvania lines east of Pittshuri:. and. suggested that similar action should be taken for several days, particularly on the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore &" Ohio and the Philadelphia Philadel-phia & Heading, the worst congested trunk lines leading to the seaboard. War munitions and supplies, he said, might be exempted. "Such an embargo would be especially effective if it could follow immediately tiie five davs covered by le .lamiarv 17 order." said the memorandum. This would make an embargo effective tomorrow. tomor-row. Efforts Neutralized. During the last two months of 1IU7, the administrator declared, increasingly acute car shortage on the Pennsylvania and Ballimore & Ohio" neutralized every effort for increased production at the mines: empty cars were not al the mine and con-:estion was so great that loaded cars did not reach their consignees. "While the railroads were operated separately, although on a co-operative plan." he added, "they seemed to have found it impossible to remedy this situation, situa-tion, and since a director general of railroads rail-roads has been appointed we have bad nothing but unprecedentedly severe weather, almost nullifying his efforts." During the five weeks ending January . it was explained, coal production lost because of car shortage amounted to 1!) per cent. ,10 per cent, J4 per cent, 24 per cent and f per cent, respectively. Conditions Con-ditions were worst on the Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania. The fuel administrator today reported better movement of empty cars to mines ' in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other fields, although the railroad administration administra-tion reports were less hopeful. |
