WWI - Fuel Supplies - McLean County Illinois Genealogy & History

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WWI
Fuel Supplies
McLean County, Illinois
(Transcribed by: Teri Moncelle Colglazier)

In the summer of 1917, the government clearly saw that the problem, of the nation's fuel supply was to be one of the big ones. On October 31, 1917, the fuel committee for McLean county was appointed by J. E. Williams, federal fuel administrator for Illinois. This committee began work November 1, being one of the first organized in the state. The personnel was Mayor E. E. Jones, chairman; Spencer Ewing, secretary, and Elaida Dickinson.
The local fuel administration had to deal with the public and with the fuel dealers. In treating with the dealers, one of the first tasks related to prices on coal, and in this the committee had to establish a margin of profit for retail dealers of the county. This was done by a method which was afterward adopted over the entire state.
Then there was the question of properly distributing the supplies of fuel available and of enforcing upon the people the necessity of conserving their supplies. One of the first tasks confronting the local fuel administrator was to educate the people in the necessity of laying in their supplies of coal before the winter began. The old careless way of buying coal for domestic use a few tons at a time, because it could be obtained on short notice, must give way to prudent foresight in getting one's supply into the cellar in the summer and autumn. This campaign had its results. By the end of November a larger percentage of the winter's domestic requirements were in the cellar than had ever been the case before.
On November 23, 1917, the local fuel committee submitted a report of its work in fixing coal prices up to that time.
The following were the prices quoted:
Delivered prices Per Ton
Southern Ill. Coal $5.75
Central Illinois Coal 5.25
McLean County Coal Mine 5.20
Scale prices Per Ton
Southern Ill., Coal $5.00
Central Illinois Coal 4.50
McLean County Coal Mine 4.45
Anthracite coal, all sizes delivered 10.00
The fuel administration could not proceed far with its work until it had some information from each community of the county for its guidance. Therefore a survey was made by addressing to all coal dealers of the county a letter in which the desired facts were sought.
With the desired information on hand, the committee assigned to each dealer his allotments of coal from time to time from the supplies available for this county.
Along with the problem of distributing the coal supplies, came that of urging the conservation of fuel on the part of the consumers. There were many angles to this problem. J. E. Lockwood was appointed as chairman of the conservation committee, in Bloomington, and he devoted much time to seeing that the orders of the national fuel administration were complied with.
In order to save fuel at the electric power plants, so-called "lightless nights" were established. Two nights of the week, Thursday and Sunday, no street lights were permitted except those ab- solutely necessary for public safety. No electric advertising signs were permitted, and all lights at entrances were out except necessary for safety. This order continued in force until the following April, and was generally and willingly observed.
Restrictions on the use of fuel became more drastic from time to time during the late fall and early winter of 1917-18. The climax was readied when the order was issued for the closing of all manufacturing plants except those making food supplies for a period of five days, from January 18 to 22 inclusive of 1918. At the same time the order was issued that all retail stores except food stores should be closed one day each week for a period of five weeks. Monday was chosen as closing day.
Another angle of the fuel conservation order was its effect upon the railroads. The Alton road in January, 1918, annulled more than half of its passenger trains, and other roads running thru the county took similar action to a certain extent. This released many passenger engines for freight service and helped the movement of needed goods and war supplies.
All the public schools of Bloomington were closed by order of the board on January 15, and remained closed until February 4. This was done because coal enough to heat the buildings could not be obtained. The school children therefore had an unexpected mid-winter vacation, which they enjoyed.
The severity of the weather in this winter of 1917-18 was one of the factors aggravating the coal shortage. For twenty-eight consecutive days, from December 28 to January 25, the temperature was below zero at some part of each day. Then as a climax of the weather and fuel situation, the hardest storm of the winter struck the county on January 6. A twenty-four hour snowfall, driven by a fierce winter gale, made conditions such that traffic was impossible. Street car lines were put out of business in the city and taxicab service much crippled. Many trains on the railroads were hours behind time, or abandoned altogether.
It took several days for the people of the city and country to dig themselves out from under the snow. In Bloomington the weight on the big barn of the Bloomington Delivery system, located on North Madison street, was so great as to crush in the roof and caused the company a loss of $10,000. Country roads were impassable and traffic in the country was more than ever restricted. After the people had spent nearly a week digging themselves out from under the snow, a second edition of the storm came upon the land, and the conditions were again almost as bad as it was at the beginning of the storm. All this made the supplying of the fuel needs of the communities more difficult than it had been previously. Many of the smaller places in the county got down to the state where there was not a ton of coal in the hands of the dealers. About the middle of January reports of such conditions came from Towanda, Arrowsmith, Saybrook, Glenavon, Bellflower, Mon- arch, Covell and Meadows. Appeals came from these towns to the county fuel committee asking for relief, and these were passed on to the state committee.
Every town in McLean county suffered more or less severely by the extraordinary weather on top of the fuel shortage, especially after the second blizzard of January 11.
McLean ran out of bread, and the schools were closed for several days.
Many business houses in Carlock closed on account of lack of heat. Cobs and wood were much used. There was no church service on Sunday, the 13th.
Heyworth was in fair shape for fuel and other supplies.
The Lexington basket-ball team played at Heyworth on the night of the second blizzard, and could not get home for two days afterward.
Chenoa could get no bakers' bread and no milk for two days. No Sunday papers were delivered.
Cooksville was practically marooned, and everything stopped.
At Stanford Frank Hilpert attached a snow plow to an automobile and cleared some of the streets.
Ellsworth got two cars of coal just before the blizzard, but could get no bread for two days.
At Lexington most of the stores closed at 6 o'clock Saturday night, and there was no church on Sunday.
Col. Brown, an auctioneer, who had held a sale at Arrowsmith, could find no way to get back to Bloomington, so he started and walked, tak- ing ten hours for the trip.
Leroy dismissed its schools and business was almost at a standstill.
At Saybrook many farmers turned out and scooped roadways to the town to get supplies.
When the local fuel administrators made a tour of the city on the first night that the "lightless" order went into effect, they expressed themselves much pleased with its general observance. They counted only eight lights in the business district that should not have been burning.
The big blizzard struck the city and county on the first Sunday of what had been planned as "go to church month," January. Con- sequently, the campaign got a bad start, for most of the churches were almost deserted on that Sunday. Many churches abandoned their ser- vices for the day.
The second edition of the blizzard was accompanied by temperature of 10 below zero, and was pronounced the worst storm in nineteen years. For a few days delivery of fuel became impossible. In many cases where families ran out of coal, they doubled up with other families, two or more living in one house.
In the midst of this crucial shortage of fuel, many expedients were resorted to, to tide over until relief came.
Churches in Bloomington and other towns combined their services and held meetings in one church, or abandoned all services on Sunday except one.
The county automobile men abandoned their usual winter show for lack of heat for a building to hold it. Commercial florists had to shut down parts of their green- houses, and only heated the parts absolutely necessary to prevent serious loss.
A big midwinter concert planned by the Amateur Musical Club in Bloomington was abandoned.
In Leroy, the men of the Christian church organized a huge wood-chopping bee, went to the timber owned by one of their members and spent a day chopping wood for use in the church to save coal. The necessity was made a gala occasion, with a noon dinner for the choppers.
The Normal university was closed tor several days on account of the impossibility of getting fuel.
With the work of the strenuous winter of 1917-18 past, Mayor Jones resigned from the chairmanship of the local fuel committee, and Spencer Ewing, who had served as secretary, was named in his place. His work in charge of the local situation continued thru the spring of 1918, and plans were outlined for a campaign among the people for the next season which would prevent the fuel shortage of the previous winter.
On May 1, 1918. Mr. Ewing was called to Chicago as director of state requirements in the Illinois office of the U. S. fuel administration. He served in that capacity until August 1 of that year, being in charge of fuel distribution for the state of Illinois outside of Chicago. Later he was made deputy fuel administrator for the state of Illinois, succeeding Eaymond E. Durham. Mr. Ewing 's work in his new position operated through eleven different departments and Bertram A. Franklin was named as head of the McLean county fuel administration when Mr. Ewing was called to Chicago. He continued the work until and after the close of the war, for the signing of the armistice did not end the existence of the fuel administration. Mr. Franklin finally received his instructions in January, 1919, to close his office on February 1, which was accordingly done, and the fuel administration past out of existence.
In the summer of 1918, the government fuel administration took a hand in regulating the consumption of gasoline as well as coal. In August an order was issued that no pleasure cars could be used Sundays and all garages closed after 6 o'clock in the evenings. This brought about a situation which had its comic as well as serious side. No cars were permitted on the streets or roads except those on errands of necessity or mercy, on penalty of the driver being arrested. In consequence, people returned to primitive means of vehicle driving; all old time buggies and horses were gotten out of their hiding places, and the roads and streets on Sundays looked like scenes of the '60 's instead of 1918. Young people got plenty of amusement out of the situation. The rule was pretty generally lived up to for the several weeks in which it remained in effect. Consumption of gasoline the country over was thereby reduced hundreds of millions of gallons.
How a practicing attorney took up the work of handling the fuel problems of a community, tells the story of the war work done by Spencer Ewing of Bloomington. His was one of the cases which demonstrated that patriotic ardor will enable a man to adapt himself to the performance of tasks which in ordinary times would be considered well-nigh impossible.
When the conservation of fuel became one of the vital questions of home policy in the war, Illinois along with other states was asked to appoint local fuel committees for the various communities. The committee in Bloomington was appointed by J. E. Williams, Federal Fuel Administrator for Illinois on October 31, 1917. The committee in this county was among the first in the state, and began work on November 1. The personnel was Mayor E. E. Jones, chairman, Spencer Ewing, secretary, and Elaida Dickinson.
Although this line of work was utterly foreign to Mr. Ewing 's professional training, he set out with enthusiasm and devotion. The first work of the committee was to fix the margin for retail dealers in McLean county. This was done by a method which was afterward adopted over the entire state. Mr. Ewing served as secretary through the winter of 1917-18, and when Mayor Jones asked to be relieved of the chairmanship, Mr. Ewing was appointed chairman on April 1, 1918. A month later Mr. Ewing was called to Chicago as Director of State Requirements in the office of the State Fuel Administrator, of the U. S. Fuel Administration. He served in that capacity until August 1, having charge of the fuel distribution of the state outside of Chicago.
About August 1, with the appointment of Raymond E. Durham as Federal Fuel Administrator, Mr. Ewing was made Deputy State Fuel Administrator, for the state of Illinois outside of Cook county. He served in that capacity until the first of April, 1919. He had charge of the administrative end of the Fuel Admin- istration in the state, with particular regard for the distribution and allot- ment of domestic and industrial coal, penalties for violations of orders, and industrial and labor disputes. This work was accomplished by means of eleven departments and 110 employes.
[McLean County, Illinois, in the World War, 1917-1918; by Edward E. Pierson & Jacob Louis Hasbrouck c 1921]

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