CHAPTER XXVIIITHE MANAGEMENT OF FUEL
In the world war fuel fought, and food, and steel, as well as men. Fuel quickly became as much of a fighting necessity as were the munitions which could not be made without it and the food for whose transportation it was necessary. It was a war of manufactures, of applied science, and the foundations of both are laid in fuel. And therefore fuel, which means chiefly coal, had to be mobilized for war and its production and distribution so managed that its potency could be applied where needed and when needed without unnecessary detriment to civilian welfare. During the first months of our participation in the war and for nearly a year previous there had been a menacing coal situation in which the increasing demand for coal, inadequate transportation and storage facilities and other causes had combined to send prices to four and even five times their former level and to cause uneasiness and dissatisfaction among consumers and in the ranks of both labor and capital. As soon as Congress gave the necessary authority, in August, 1917, the President fixed schedules of provisional prices and appointed a Fuel Administrator for the United States.
Before the Fuel Administration was created there had unfortunately been published unauthorized andunwarranted assurance of prospective better conditions in the coal situation which had led many to postpone their usual summer and autumn purchases. When the winter set in, at an unusually early date, with its unprecedentedly long continued and bitter cold and frequent storms, this delay on the part of so many buyers added much to the universal difficulties and discomforts. To all the usual demand for coal and the extraordinary demand due to the unwonted weather, there were added the large and increasing fuel needs for war manufacture, for the bunkering of ships, for the heating of the many cantonments and camps, each a goodly sized city in itself, and other war activities. And with all this increased demand, there were fewer workers in the mines, for many had joined the fighting forces or gone to work in munition factories, and transportation facilities were disorganized by the strain upon them and disabled by storms and zero weather. This was the situation with which the Fuel Administration was contending three months after it began its work.
The total coal production of the country during 1917 amounted to 651,402,000 net tons, of which approximately 100,000,000 tons were anthracite and the rest bituminous. This was an increase over all previous production records of more than 60,000,000 tons, but it did not meet the ever increasing demands of the war machine, whose requirements for bituminous coal for 1918 went above this amount by nearly 100,000,000 tons. It was necessary to stir production in the mines to utmost endeavor, to facilitate that production by prompt and adequate distribution and to induce such fuel saving among consumers as would supplement production sufficiently to meet war needs.
Not only was there a decrease of many thousands in the number of men employed in the production of coal, but also in many mines efficiency was lessened by the hatreds and suspicions of the different racial representatives—Magyar, Pole, Italian, Slovak, Jugo-Slav, with their animosities bred in the bone, brought with them from Europe and fanned into fresh activity by the war. Each furbished up anew his old grudge and carried it on his shoulder, where it quickly received the knocking it challenged, and old racial battles were fought over again while the mining of coal was laid aside.
To better conditions and stimulate effort a Production Bureau was formed in the Fuel Administration whose representatives were sent to every mine. There they worked with and through a committee composed of mine operators and mine workers. The Bureau bent its energies incessantly to the influencing of mine operators and managers to establish such conditions and methods as would keep the miners satisfied and busy and of the miners to put forth their utmost efforts. Its representatives dealt tactfully with the racial hatreds, using the foreign language newspapers read by each group and also dealing with individual men in person, allaying suspicions, and showing each group what the success of the Allied and American armies would mean for its people in Europe. Officials of the United Mine Workers toured the mining regions, addressing the workers, informing the men on the questions involved in the war and urging them to do their best. Other speakers, including men returned from army service in France, went up and down through the mining regions, holding meetings, talking to the workers. ThePresident’s proclamation addressed to all engaged in coal mining and appeals from other men of influence among them were distributed everywhere.
The result was a hearty response from the mining men. They dealt amicably with the production committees, they kept the peace with their racial enemies, they agreed to forego holidays and the usual laying off for funeral days, they worked even on Labor Day, they plunged into the increased production program with enthusiasm, they worked more efficiently and many old men who had quit active work on account of age voluntarily took up again the pick and shovel. The average number of days worked by each miner in the bituminous fields was increased over that of the previous year by twelve and by twenty-five over that of 1916. From week to week during the summer and fall of 1918, until November, the weekly production of coal showed an increase in the neighborhood of a million tons over the same week in the previous year. During the half-year period from the first of April to the end of September more coal was mined than ever before in any half year in the history of the American coal industry. In that time the bituminous production was twelve per cent greater than in the corresponding period in 1917, which had itself established a record.
As important as increased production in the mines was the rapid distribution of coal as soon as it was brought to the surface. Coal is not commercially produced until it is distributed, for coal dumped at the mine mouth or lying in cars on railroad switches is of no more use to the consumer than that still underground. It was mainly the efficient work of the Railroad Administration that brought orderand successful achievement into this phase of the war coal situation. The manner in which it relieved the freight congestion which had paralyzed traffic during the last months of 1917 is described in the chapter on “Running the Railroads.” By the prompt actions it took it released the tied-up trains of coal, sent them to their destination and made possible the swift, economical and steady service of all cars available for the carrying of coal from mines to consumers’ bins.
But so much in excess of possible production was the amount of coal that was urgently necessary for war making purposes that only a great and general program of coal saving would prevent the slacking of our war effort. The Fuel Administrator turned at once to the American people, confident that, if they understood the need, they would voluntarily endeavor to meet it. Articles explaining the situation and showing why it was necessary for consumers to save in the neighborhood of fifty million tons of coal during the next few months in newspapers and magazines, all of which throughout the country cordially coöperated with the Fuel Administration, brought the responsibility of the continuing of the nation’s prosecution of the war straight to the feet of every individual user of coal, gas and electricity. Widely circulated leaflets urged conservation of coal and posters that met the eye at every turn emphasized their message. Instructions were published in periodicals of every sort for the economical but equally efficient use of coal in manufacturing and domestic furnaces, in kitchen ranges and household stoves. To save each day at least one shovelful of coal was laid upon the conscience of every consumer.
So-called “lightless nights” were established on which was forbidden the use of electricity, gas, oil, or coal for the illumination or display of windows, advertisements or signs and street lighting was reduced to the minimum necessary for safety. In order to aid in the conserving of coal by reducing the amount of artificial light necessary, the daylight saving measure was passed by Congress and the clocks moved ahead for an hour from the end of March to the end of October. Non-war industries had their consumption of coal curtailed.
In January, 1918, the public east of the Mississippi River was asked to observe a series of so-called “heatless days” in which there should be no consumption of fuel except for absolutely necessary uses. The purpose was to make possible the bunkering of two hundred and fifty ships at eastern ports laden with food and war materials for Europe, but unable to move for lack of coal. There was dire need of their cargoes in France. The United States Government had been told that the Western Allies could not continue their war effort unless these cargoes were delivered on the other side of the Atlantic in the quickest possible time. For a five-day period in January and for each following Monday for several weeks the Fuel Administration asked commerce and industry to forego as far as possible the burning of coal in order that it might give priority for deliveries of coal to the waiting ships and to the newly established Railroad Administration, struggling with ice-covered tracks, frozen engines and storm-tied trains, a little time in which to relieve the congestion of cars and set in motion long lines of stalled coal trains. The “heatless day” period was loyally observed and bythe day after it ended every one of the two hundred and fifty ships had bunkered and was speeding across the ocean to deliver its sorely needed cargo. There had also been accumulated a stock of coal for the equally necessary bunkering of the other ships that came and went in a steady stream to supply the demands of war.
For all these measures the response of the public was immediate and willing. Manufacturers of nonessentials voluntarily offered to curtail operation if by so doing they could aid the nation’s war effort. Domestic consumers reduced their lights and watched their furnaces and stoves as they had never done before, and everywhere any attempt on the part of merchants, corporations or private individuals to use light or fuel in excess of the Fuel Administration’s requests and rules was frowned down by the public.
The Oil Division of the Fuel Administration played so important a part in the final success of the Allied and Associated nations that if it was true, as a British authority declared, that “we floated to victory on a sea of oil,” the credit belongs largely to the men who directed the American oil supply, for the Western front was dependent almost wholly upon oil from America. There was a constantly increasing production of crude oil, which was speeded by all possible methods, and the proportion of gasoline extracted was continually being increased. Oil-burning vessels in the British, French, Italian and American navies needed the oil and the Motor Transport Services of all the armies needed immense and rapidly increasing quantities of gasoline. Oil production was increased in 1918 to 344,000,000 barrels, which was 50,000,000 barrels more than it had been in 1914.To provide transportation a fleet of oil tankers was built and when the war closed over half the gross tonnage of tankers in service was American.
Gasoline this country sent across the ocean in an ever increasing flood which grew in 1917 by a million and a half of barrels over the previous year and in 1918 amounted to 13,312,000 barrels, an increase of more than 9,000 barrels per day over that sent in the previous year. But so sharp grew the need for it at the front in the summer of 1918 that restriction had to be put upon its use at home. The Allied forces warned by cable that without increased and early deliveries of gasoline their plans were likely to collapse. Marshal Foch’s cablegram said bluntly, “If you don’t keep up your petroleum supply we shall lose the war.” Immediate saving of gasoline was the only answer to the necessity and the Fuel Administration asked the people living east of the Mississippi River to forego the use of motor-propelled vehicles, except for specified necessary purposes, on Sundays. Compliance was voluntary and for military reasons the public could not be told how dire was the necessity.
But so immediate and universal was the response that from every section reports showed that Sunday motoring was almost wholly abandoned, the reduction being from 75 to 99 per cent. During the nearly two months that the restriction continued it was estimated that a saving had been made of approximately 1,000,000 barrels of gasoline, of which more than 500,000 barrels, ten shiploads, had been sent overseas.
A comprehensive plan was worked out by the Fuel Administration for the saving of fuel by conservationof light and power which enlisted the aid of a force of engineers and of other departments of the Government. A study was made by inspectors and engineers of conditions in large manufacturing concerns and in public utilities plants all over the country which brought about, by the willing coöperation of their managers, such rearrangements of machinery and appliances, elimination of duplicating plants and of unnecessary expenses as resulted in important savings, ranging from ten to thirty per cent in the amount of coal consumed, without interfering with the output. The Fuel Administration urged the generation of electric energy from water power instead of steam wherever possible, and enough plants made the change to effect a considerable saving in coal consumption.
A zone system for the distribution of bituminous coal providing for the supply of each section of the country from the nearest mines, put into operation by the Fuel and Railroad Administrations together, eliminated approximately 160,000,000 car miles and affected more than half of the total distribution of bituminous coal. The overcoming of this waste in transportation made possible the swifter and steadier use of rolling stock, thus speeding deliveries and more quickly returning cars and engines to the mines for new loads, and made more effective the railroad consumption of coal, which amounts to about twenty-five per cent of the coal production of the country.
The organization of the Fuel Administration stretched out in a network that touched every community. The fuel administrator of each state, working under the national organization, had under him administrators and local committees for cities andcounties whose duty it was to keep in constant touch with the supplies and the needs of their own localities. Upon their reports the state administrator apportioned the supply to be allowed each locality and upon their investigations into business costs were based the maximum local retail prices of coal to be charged. The fixing of local retail prices was in addition to the regulation of prices at the mines and violators of either, whether mine operators, jobbers or retailers, were made to refund their excess profits and were then turned over to the Department of Justice for prosecution. Each of the several divisions of the work of the Fuel Administration, in addition to that of fuel distribution, such as conservation, production and oil, was organized by districts or specialized bureaus for intensive and effective work.
Economies urged by the Fuel Administration resulted in the saving during the first half of 1918 of 12,700,000 tons of coal. Although the coal mining industry lost 100,000 or more workers to other war industries and to the fighting forces, the speeding program of the Fuel Administration resulted in a production of bituminous coal during 1918 of 585,883,000 tons, setting a new high record and exceeding the production of the previous year by 34,000,000 tons. Notwithstanding the enormous and constantly growing increase there had been throughout the preceding eighteen months in the consumption of coal for war purposes, at the end of hostilities the country faced the approaching winter with stocks of coal on hand greatly in excess of previous years.