COLLEGES AND COAL

Since moderate regulation has failed to check the coal consumption sufficiently, drastic action is resorted to. Whether the University is directly affected, we do not yet know. Some branches certainly will be, and it is quite possible that the entire College may have holidays thrust upon it. In such an event we expect a long weekend, fewer classes, and a confused schedule. The inconvenience created would certainly be considerable, yet necessity may be greater. Harmful as such action is, however, it seems the lesser of two evils. If we are forced to suspend work temporarily, we do so that more disastrous restrictions can be avoided.

Although we shall readily respond to any request of the Administration, yet we do not approve the latest measure. Holidays are often welcome, but five in succession and then ten more, on a week, are excessive. To cut the knot into which railroads and fuel have been tied Mr. Garfield demands that all business cease. Without heeding, or else deliberately disregarding the counsel of local administrators, the central head has wildly adopted this scheme. Suddenness intensifies the radicalism or the more, made, apparently, in a desperate attempt to wipe out the ever-increasing fuel difficulties. Though an effort to remedy a grievous situation, it is rather a confession of inability to cope with the problem by other means. Because the Government regulator has failed to arrange a satisfactory coal schedule he must now upset business. In haste and by sensational means, he tries to bring about in a short while what he has been unable to accomplish in several months. Instead of accommodating the supply of coal to the industries, he must now accommodate the industries to the supply of coal. Those are the obvious facts which point to errors of management rather than of supply.

That the measure is a desperate one becomes all the more evident as one considers its effects. In the first place, any bill that throws labor out of employment causes disturbance. Men who depend for, their livelihood on their daily work suffer from the closing of factories. In idleness for several days, they naturally blame someone for their misfortune. The fuel regulator and the Administration behind him are very likely to be the object of their criticism. Through the checking of industry, the Government runs the risk of losing the workman's hearty support. Not only internal, but also external discontent may be easily aroused. The United States considers itself valuable to the Allies, because of its resources, yet these are worthless if we cannot develop them for our allies. By confusing railroads with coal and then taking a vacation to straighten them out, we are showing ourselves more a hindrance than a help.