Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 296, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1919 — MOST SWEEPING REDUCTION IN NATION’S HISTORY. [ARTICLE]

MOST SWEEPING REDUCTION IN NATION’S HISTORY.

Washington, Dec. 9.—Railroad travellers were brought face to face today with the most severe curtailment in passenger gervice that the nation ever has known. While on many of the eastern roads service was reduced sharply yesterday, it was not until today that the orders of the railroad administration began to be felt in other parte of the country. In still other sections many trains made their last trips tonight. Railroad administration officials estimated from informal reports Received from regional directors that approximately 200,000 train miles will have been cut from the passenger schedules each day before the end of the week. The saving of fuel, based on this esthete reduction in service, was placed at about 15,000 tons a day. All of this reduction is necessary, officials said, to check the drain on the nation’s rapidly dwindling' coal reserves. When the strike began the railroad administration’s central coal committee had supervision over approximately 22,000,000 tons of coal. In the meantime, however, production has not reached fifty percent of normal on any day. The railroads’ needs have been supplied, as have the so-called “essential industries, from which it may be determined that officials consider that the reserve stock is running low. An independent basket ball team from the city played the high school team at the school gymnasium Tuesday evening and were rewarded for their trOubJe with a 28 to 17 defeat. . , - - -