Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 84, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1918 — STATE NEWS ITEMS [ARTICLE]

STATE NEWS ITEMS

The Doings of Hoosierdom Reported by Wire. INDIANA PLANTS ARE AIDED Doctor Garfield’s Drastic Fuel Order Will Enable Plants at Gary, Hammond, Whiting and East Chicago to Procure Coal. Gary, Jan. 18—The drastic order of the federal fuel administration, closing all industries for five days, will aid, not cause chaos in the great steel and munition factories in the Calumet district, according to factory officials here. The plants in Gary, Hammond, Whiting, East Chicago and Indiana Harbor were hit hard by the recent blizzard and snowstorms and the shutting down of these plants will enable the companies to get fuel, which caused suspension of operations, and resume operations on a normal basis at the expiration of the fuel restriction period. Half of the 27,000 workers In the district are idle now and it is thought that about 4,000 men, railway workers and blast furnace employees, will be kept at work during the suspension period. It would take about five days to warm up blast furnaces again if they were curtailed.