Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 232, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1917 — Indiana Faces Serious Coal Shortage. [ARTICLE]

Indiana Faces Serious Coal Shortage.

Unless a coal administrator for Indiana is appointed withjn fortyeight hours by the Washington authorities, the state government will take action even to the seizure of the coal to relieve the acute shortage, E. I. Lewis, chairman of the public service commission, declared Thursday. The coal situation throughout the state is acute, according to reports received by the commission. Mr. Lewis has stated that the commission has received word that unless coal is provided the scUools of Lawrence county will be forced to close. Another report stated that there was practically no coal in Greencastle or Kokomo and that the mayors have appealed directly to Fuel Administrator Garfield for relief. In many of the smaller communities retail coal dealers have no coal because they have no contracts with mine operators they say and no chance of getting any. This is even in the coal mining district of the state. Mr. Lewis in his statement says: “If the government within the next forty-eight hours does not do so, the state government will have to sieze all coal. “We are not going to permit the schools of the state to close and the people to suffer from the lack of coal, and if the situation cannot be cleared up any other way, the state will see that enough coal is diverted to relieve suffering. “I do not know if there is any law authorizing the commission to act, but I do know that public necessity will override any technicalities.”