Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1918 — DR. GARFIELD EXPLAINS ORDER [ARTICLE]

DR. GARFIELD EXPLAINS ORDER

ADMINISTRATOR IN CLEAR, CONCISE WAY REASON FOR STEP. In order to clarify matters and to dissipate all false impressions, Fuel Administrator Garfield has issued a statement explaining hia shutdown. Mr. Garfield has made his statement in a clear, concise way and the following explanation should be read by all:

The most urgent thing to be done is to send to the American forces abroad and to the allies the food and war supplies which they vitally need. War munitions, food, manufactured articles of every description, lying in Atlantic ports in tens of thousands of tons, where literally hundreds of ships, loaded with war goods for our men and the allies, cannot take the seas because their bunkers are empty of coal. The coal to send them on their way is waiting behind the congested freight that has jammed all terminals. It is worse than useless to bend our energies to more maufacturing when what we have already manufactured lies at tidewater congesting terminal facilities, jamming the railroad yards and sidetracks for long distances back into the country. No power on earth can move this freight into the war-zone where 1t is needed until we supply the ships with fuel.

—o— the docks are cleared of the valuable freight for which our men and associates in the war now wait in vain, then again our energies and power may be turned to manufacturing, more efficient than ever, so that a steady and uninterupted stream of vital supplies may >e this nation’s answer to the allies’ “cry for help.” It has been excess of production, in our wartime speeding up, that Tas done so much to cause congestion on our railroads; that has filled the freight yards to overflowing; that has cluttered the docks of our Atlantic ports with goods waiting to go abroad. At tidewater the flood of freight has stopped. The ships were unable to complete the journey*from our factories to the war depots behind the 'firing line.

—o— Added to this has been difficulty of transporting coal for our own domestic needs. On top of these difficulties has come one of the most terribly severe winters we have known in years. The wheels were, choked and stopped; zero weather and snowbound trains; terminals congested; harbors with shipping . frozen in; rivers and canals unpayable—it was useless to continue manufacture and pile confusion on top of confusion. A clear line from the manufacturing establishments to the seaboard and beyondV' that was the imperative need. It was like soldiers marching to the front. The men in the foremost ranks must have room to move. * More than a shock was needed to make a way through that congestion at the terminals and on the docks so that, the aid so vitally needed by the allies could get through. ;

The incidental effect of this transportation situation on coal production has been disastrous. There is and always has been plenty of fuel, but it cannot be moved to those places where it is so badly needed while railroad lines and terminals are choked. Throughout the coal fields scores, even hundreds, of mines are lying idle because of railroad inability to supply the cars to carry away their product. Coal mines cannot operate without cars. Cars. cannot be supplied while the railroads are crippled by the present freight congestion, which keeps idle cars lying useless in the freight yards. In the last week the production of, coal has been disastrously reduced. Reports in some cases have shown 90 per cent of . the mines in certain fields closed completely for lack of cars. This is war. Whatever the cost we must pay so that in the face of the enemy there can never be the reproach that we held back from doing our full share. Those ships laden with our supplies of food foj men and food for guns must have coal and put to sea.