96 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURXAL 



The situation became so acute by June, 

 1917, that Congress passed a resolution 

 asking the Federal Trade Commission 

 to make an investigation. This Com- 

 mission found the difficulties to be due 

 more to a lack of cars for transporta- 

 tion and to a shortage of labor than to 

 the incapacity of the mines to produce 

 the necessary amount of coal. The 

 shortage of cars was made even worse 

 by the withdrawal of boats in the At- 

 lantic coast trade from coal transporta- 

 tion, which necessitated shipping coal 

 by rail to the northeastern part of the 

 United States to a greater extent than 

 usual. 



jSTotwithstanding the fact that the 

 estimates made of the amount of coal 

 needed during the year ending June 

 30, 1917, as compared with the previous 

 vear, indicated an increase of about ten 

 per cent, when it came time to make 

 contracts in the early summer of 1917, 

 the prices of coal had increased for 

 large consumers by one hundred to one 

 hundred and fifty per cent, and for 

 small consumers by two hundred to 

 four hundred per cent; indeed, in the 

 early summer of 1917, contracts for 

 many thousands of tons of industrial 

 coal were made for the country con- 

 tiguous to the interior basins at a rate 

 three to four times that which had been 

 paid the year before. 



The fact that coal is basal to all the 

 industry of the country (with the pos- 

 sible exception of agriculture) and its 

 greatly enhancing price, together with 

 the difficulties of transportation, led the 

 Commission to make sweeping recom- 

 mendations June 19, 1917: 



"First, That the production and distribu- 

 tion of coal and coke be conducted through 

 a pool in the hands of a government agency ; 

 that the producers of various grades of fuel 

 be paid their full cost of production plus a 

 uniform profit per ton, and 



"Second, That the transportation agencies 

 of the United States, both rail and water, 

 be similarly pooled and operated on gov- 

 ernment account, under the direction of the 

 President, and that all such means of trans- 

 portation be operated as a unit, the owning 

 corporations being paid a just and fair 



compensation which would cover normal net 

 profit, upkeep, and betterments." i 



The coal situation continued to become 

 more and more acute; and during the 

 discussion of the Food iVdministration 

 bill in Congress, it became so clear that 

 drastic action was necessary regarding 

 fuel, that the Senate inserted a section 

 giving the President the sweeping pow- 

 ers concerning coaP suggested by the 

 Commission. He might do either of the 

 things which the commission recom- 

 mended, or he could make any prices 

 and regulations which he regarded as 

 necessary, even to becoming the exclu- 

 sive dealer in coal in the United States. 

 This bill became a law on August 10. 



The President appointed as Fuel Ad- 

 ministrator, Harry A. Garfield, presi- 

 dent of Williams College — and thus be- 

 gan the work of the Fuel Administra- 

 tion of the United States.^ 



On August 21, however, and on 

 August 23, before the Fuel Adminis- 

 trator was appointed, the President re- 

 lieved the general alarm among the 

 people of the country by proclamations 

 fixing the prices of anthracite coal and 

 bituminous coal respectively. The 

 proclamation regarding bituminous coal 

 made $2.00 the basic price in those dis- 

 tricts where most cheaply produced — 

 whereas it had leaped to $3.50, to $-1.00, 

 to $5.00, and even to $6.00 a ton, sale 

 price at the mines. 



These lower prices could not go fully 



^ Report of the Federal Trade Commission on 

 Anthracite and Bituminous Coal, June 20, 1917, 

 Washington, D. C, pp. 20 and 21. 



- Act of Congress, approved August 10, 1917, 

 entitled "An Act to provide further for the na- 

 tional security and defense by encouraging the 

 production, conserving the supply, and controlling 

 the distribution of food products and fuel. " 



^ The organization of the Fuel Administration 

 comprises the organization of the forces at W'ash- 

 ington and the organization in the several states. 

 Following the plan of the Food Administration, 

 there has been appointed in each of the states a 

 Federal Fuel Administrator. Through local com- 

 mittees he has complete supervision of local dis- 

 tribution, and in this connection is charged with 

 seeing that the rulings of the President and of the 

 Fuel Administration with relation to prices are 

 observed. The most important duty of the State 

 Fuel Administrators is to see that the supplv of 

 fuel in their states is equitably distributed at fair 

 prices. 



