[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood =Harry A. Garfield= As Fuel Administrator during the war he issued orders for coal conservation of a most startling character. Factories east of the Mississippi were ordered shut down for five days beginning January 18, 1918. Monday was decreed a holiday for ten weeks "on which offices, factories and stores must use only such fuel as is necessary to prevent damage."] THE GOVERNMENT'S EXPLANATION From Fuel Administrator Garfield's explanation of the necessity of the order the following passage is taken: "The most urgent thing to be done is to send to the American forces abroad and to the Allies the food and war supplies which they vitally need. War munitions, food, manufactured articles of every description, lie at our Atlantic ports in tens of thousands of tons, while literally hundreds of ships, waiting, loaded with war goods for our men and the Allies, can not take the seas because their bunkers are empty of coal. The coal to send them on their way is waiting behind the congested freight that has jammed all the terminals. "It is worse than useless to bend our energies to more manufacturing when what we have already manufactured lies at tidewater, congesting terminal facilities, jamming the railroad yards and side tracks for a long distance back into the country. No power on earth can move this freight into the war zone, where it is needed, until we supply the ships with fuel. "Once the docks are cleared of the valuable freight for which our men and associates in the war now wait in vain, then again our energies and power may be turned to manufacturing, more efficient than ever; so that a steady and uninterrupted stream of vital supplies may be this nation's answer to the Allies' cry for help.... "This is war. Whatever the cost, we must pay it, so that in the face of the enemy there can never be the reproach that we held back from doing our full share. Those ships, laden with our supplies of food for men and food for guns, must have coal and put to sea." GARFIELD'S PLAN FOR FUEL ECONOMY, 1918--19 After the trying experiences of the winter of 1918, the Fuel Administration began to prepare in the following summer for another prospective shortage in coal supply. Fortunately the following winter was remarkably mild throughout the country. But the plans outlined by the Fuel Administration are more than useful as a matter of record. They may be used as a model under other conditions of fuel shortage. The following passage from the Fuel Administration _Bulletin_ illustrates the plan of campaign: