Show STORY STOR Y OF COAL DROP UNFOUNDED jan 17 fuel administration officials expect a decrease in the price of bituminous coal and coke to result from an order today discontinuing maximum prices on thee these commodities and eliminating the zone astern of their distribution the order la Is effective feb 1 but does not cot affect anthracite coal the regulations rescinded by order include those governing purchasing hasine agenten commissions commiss lons and profit margins allowed wholesale and rebii dealers the fuel adminis tra tion announced however that these wire subject to reinstatement if price w wage axe labor production or other ther conditions which may arise re quire it reduction reductions in lut we demand for b t the result of the tha lending eliding of hostilities and the unusual ly mild weather this winter made it impossible to maintain existing maximum prices of ficiala said that the above story given out by the fuel administration does not cover the actual facts is proved by the following from the herald of sait lake like in announcing a suspension of the maximum prices on soft coal and coke the tte united states fuel expects a reduction in the price of fuel the prediction is hardly in sympathy with the past activity of this branch of the military arm of our government standing the fact that the prime duty of the fuel administration was to obtain an art even distribution of the american coal supply price fixing wa wap adopted as a means of keeping tte price of fuel within the range of the public burst the suspension ot of hostilities no ile doubt has ejected the demand foe for fuel but gordly to the point in dilated by the fuel administration if the removal of government re restrictions to on coal ia Is to result in a general decline in the price it becomes bec otnes ap parent that the public publia has paid heavy toll as a result of this policy perhaps no other element in the cost of places a greater burden on the public than the high price of coal coa A decline is to be wished for arid and to that end the public will hope that the predictions of the fuel administration d arc are well founded on the other hand it would tee ceci in that the public ian can hope for na ni immediate readjustment of prices un ie less it develops thai the feiel administration has bees beor the contributor tri butor to rising price prices As jet yet the lost ost of production has not been affected by the end of the war the fuel administration was designed largely to prohibit profiteering if it there has been no profiteering then the public has no grounds to hope for a cie cecline cline until the cost of production has also do declined the promise of the fuel ad ministration Is i more or less an indictment of itself or else it Is is ill III founded |