Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1918 — Editors Call Coal Order A Serious Blunder [ARTICLE]

Editors Call Coal Order A Serious Blunder

The following telegram has been sent President Wilson by a number of New York publishers: We, the undersigned New York newspapers, earnestly represent that the order just issued by the fuel administrator is calamitous m v its character and unnecessary under the fast improving conditions. It will dislocate industry, throw millions out of work and improvensh families who depend upon daily wages. A five day interruption and ten Monday shut downs will wipe out their living margin. Why not order five working days of sixteen hours on coal deliveries and mine production, so bringing relief stead of destruction. The following editorial comment on Garfield’s order appears in the newspapers: . NEW YORK WORLD—The Coal order issued by Fuel Administrator Garfield last night is the greatest disaster that has befallen the United States in this war. Unless is n revoked forthwith by President Wilson it means the loss of lundreds of millions of dollars in wages and in p-o ducts and a de au-alization of industry that.can be nothing short. Ocalarnitous. We ' cannot imagine what Mr. Garfield was thinking of when he issued this order, nor ran we understand why President Wilson permitted him to issue it. The order in itself is a confession of

YORK TRIBUNE —The order is impossible for coherent enforcement. The attempt to enforce it will be overwhelmed by demands for interpretation. The fuel administration has lost its head. Dr. Garfield is in a panic and acts in headlong manner. Having failed to restore the natural rhythm of a wonderful delicate mechanism by poking priority orders into it, he proposes now to make it run by beating it on the curbstone. The mechanism will somehow survive, but fancy the effect that wiU be produced upon the minds of our partners in war and upon the enemy. NEW YORK HERALD —It is imposible to escape the conviction that somebody at Washington has bungled badly in the handling of the fuel problem. The order of the fuel administrator is a blow between the eyes of business. K 1S hoped that there will be serious reconsideration of the whole of this order NEW YORK TIMES —We hope the President will immediately reconsider and revoke Mr. Garfield s astounding order suspending the business of the country for five days from tomorrow and on every Monday for ten consecutive weeks. An invasion of the United States by German armies and the capture of cities could hardly be more calamitous in its effects upon our industries and our trade or upon the spirit of the nation. It is the worst possible preparation for the next Liberty Loan. Mr. Garfield is not the man for the fuel admmistratorSh pROVIDENCE JOURNAL—The order bears every evidence of panicstricken incompetency. Being, as it is, the culmination of months of stupidity and vacillation, it rouses instead of approval the grave doubt as to whether the same mentality that, has brought us to this pass can be depended on to make the most of a five-day respite from general coal consumption. ♦ * ♦ Here is an effort to rectify a succession of pathetic blunders by paralyzing the life of the United States. * Can the most practical and businesslike nation in the world risk a second exhibition of this character to its own humilation and the satisfaction ° f BALTIMORE AMERICAN—The order will startle and astound the country and, while there had been talk of the Monday holiday plan, no such extreme measure as this was ever dreamed of by the Amercian people If the administration has made a blunder it will be held strictlv responsible for that blunder. ST LOUIS GLOBE-DEMOCRAT Fuel Administrator Garfield s drastic order is a confession of incompetency* of administration since last August and also an indication of lack of courage and ability to deal with the situation in the future.