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Show THE NO-COAL MENACE. ii'n" i 1 1 1 ., The President's appeal, "To All Engaged in Coal Mining," Min-ing," is, like most of his public utterances, admirable in I sentiment and in phrase. It is, if possible, even more earnest and forceful than usual, there being not a single "May I not?" in it from address to signature. Yet'some-how, Yet'some-how, it rerrinds us of the little boy's sermon to his audi ence of chairs and toys: "All men, be good!" For ,after all, t is nothing but an amiable appeal, when, unless all reports belie the situation, something more than words is needed. The best coal producing season sea-son of the year is waning toward its close, and production produc-tion is far behind prospective and almost certain needs. We are told, not by alarmists but by the President himself, him-self, not to mention innumerable other authorities, that the existing scarcity of coal is creating the most serious danger that confronts, us. . The prosecution of the war is imperilled, and the American- people in their homes are threatened with suffering and woe. Certainly "such a condition calls not only for words but for acts.. The miners, to whom the President makes his appeal, declare most positively that the scarcity of coal is not their fault .There may be a scarcity in the markets, but there is none at the mines. The country would be flooded flood-ed with coal, beyond its fullest needst if only the cars were provided for getting it out of the mines' and to the markets! On the other hand the transportation people, who are already under government control, declare that there is an abundance of cars, and that cars are lying around empty, everywhere, waiting for the miners to fill them with coal. Now here, we submit, is a discrepandcy which calls for correction. Nothing could be more pertinent, or more interesting for the coal-consuming public to know, than which if either of these statements is correct, and what is being done not said, but done to remedy the fault. If the coal situation is as thd President describes it, and we fear it is, it seems to us that the time has arrived for something more than words; for some strenuous action as has hitherto been applied in emergencies not nearly so grave as this. N. A. Review's War Weekly. |