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The Fuel Administration

    The fuel situation became very serious in Switzerland county and Attorney George B. Hall, of Vevay, was appointed Federal Fuel Administrator for the county. In the early winter of 1917-1918 the supply of coal at every yard in the county was exhausted.

    Starting in the first week of December, 1917, the county experienced the longest cold spell ever known. The government thermometer kept by Miss Frederica Boerner, dropped down to 24 degrees below zero, and for weeks the temperature changed but little. On December 10, 1917, the Ohio river became gorged with ice and remained frozen over for sixty-three days. On the day before the river gorged a towboat was lying at the river front in Vevay unloading three barges of coal for Vevay dealers. Learning that heavy ice was coming from above the boat's crew hurriedly left for the Kentucky river harbor taking the coal with them. Arriving there the coal was confiscated by the Carroll county Fuel Administrator.

    On the night of December 7, 1917, eighteen inches of snow fell in the county. A few days later another snow fell on top of this one, and on January 15, 1918, 24 inches more of snow fell. In all parts of the county people were without coal and the snow being two feet deep on a level made it almost impossible for farmers to fell trees to cut into stove wood.

    People suffered from the cold. In many instances two families combined their fuel and lived under the same roof. At this time Fuel Administrator Hall granted a requistion to the city council of Vevay for the purchasing of a car of coal which was to be delivered at Madison. Forty-one tons were shipped to Madison and then came the problem of getting it to Vevay. Because the roads were covered with about two feet of snow it was impossible for teamsters to make the round trip from Vevay in one day, and thus the expense of getting the coal to Vevay amounted to 24 cents per bushel. City council conducted the sale of the persons actually in need. The city charged 48 cents per bushel for the coal, which was actual cost, and an additional charge of 2 1/2 cents per bushel was made for delivery, making the actual cost to the consumer 50 1/2 cents per bushel. Persons who had the coal carried in after it had been dumped on the sidewalk, paid an additional 2 1/2 cents per bushel for the carrying, and thus their coal cost 53 cents per bushel.

    During the fuel shortage, wood was sold in Vevay as high as $6.50 per rank of eight feet long and four feet high. In a store during the serverly cold weather a rank of wood lasted only from two to three days.

    On Monday, January 21, 1918, Administrator Hall saw to the obeying of a government order closing all places of business except public utilities, offices of county officials and stores handling foodstuffs, on Mondays. This was deemed necessary because of the shortage of coal. The order was to the effect that all places of business except those noted above should be closed each Monday for ten weeks. The penalty for a violation of the order was a fine of $5,000 or one year's imprisonment. In Switzerland county most of the people willingly obeyed the order and Mr. Hall had but little difficulty in carrying out his instructions.

    There being no relief in sight and the cost of wood being almost prohibitive, Administrator Hall advised Vevay merchants to close their stores earlier each day. Accordingly, on Tuesday, January 22, they entered into an agreement to close their stores each week day at 5 p.m. On Saturday the hour for closing was 6 p.m.

    In a further effort to cause people to conserve fuel Administrator Hall got school children to tag the coal shovels in various communities. On January 30, the children called at stores and private residences and tied on tags which contained appeals to persons using the coal shovels to do so sparingly and thus aid Uncle Sam in winning the war. On one side of each tag were the words, "Save a shovelful of coal a day for Uncle Sam."

    On Monday, February 4, 1918, city council ordered the Vevay electric light plant closed each night at 10 o'clock and the lights not to be turned on again of mornings. The order went into effect on the following day.

    On February 18, after the ice in the Ohio had run out, the fuel situation became more acute than ever and Fuel Administrator Hall ordered two barges of coal sent from Cincinnati. The coal did not arrive according to plans and Mr. Hall then took the matter up with the State Fuel Administrator. He secured an order on a Cincinnati dealer for eleven barges to be sent to Patriot, Florence, Markland and Vevay. The coal did not arrive, however, until late in the summer of 1918.

    During the summer there was a shortage of gasoline for use of the American army in France, and a government request was made in August calling upon all automobile owners to not drive their cars on Sundays. The request was not a drastic one, but each automobile owner's patriotism was appealed to. He was told that gasoline was badly needed to carry ammunition and food to the American soldiers on the firing line, and Fuel Administrator Hall was informed that it was absolutely necessary for the citizens of the United States to save 8,000,000 gallons of gasoline. The govenment's request provided that cars could be used to go to church, if there was no other means of a family getting to church, but it did not provide that a man could drive to the home of a relative or friend on pleasure.

    For the first two weeks after the request was made a number of Switzerland county people paid no attention to it whatever. In all the small towns, however, groups of boys and girls gathered on Sundays and whenever a car passed they called "Slacker," in an effort to shame the driver. When a certain few persistently refused to pay any attention to the government's request other persons who were more patriotic threw mud, sticks and stones at the cars. This practically put a stop to the using of automobiles on Sunday for pleasure only.

    There was one instance where a certain young man had been calling on a young woman. He continued calling each Sunday night in his car, long after the government request was made. Another person whom it is unnecessary to name called on Fuel Administrator Hall and asked what the penalty would be if he painted that young man's car yellow on the following Sunday night. Mr. Hall replied, "Well, I'll just chip in with you and go buy the paint and the brush, and Sunday night when he comes we'll go up and paint the car together." The paint was purchased, but the young man by that time had seen the light, for when the next Sunday came he left his car at home.