"Fuel economy is being given intensive study in connection with steam plants and industrial uses. An organization is already in existence, provided with engineers and inspectors who will visit every one of the two hundred and fifty thousand steam-producing plants in the country with a view to the improvement both of equipment and firing practice. This is expected to save twenty million tons of coal. "The economical use of power in factories will be in the hands of organized shop committees. The power loads of the public utilities throughout the country are being studied with a view to readjustments which will result in large saving. "In many cities the isolated power plants which use an extravagant amount of coal in proportion to the power produced will be urged to obtain more economical power from large producing stations. "The introduction of 'skip-stop' schedules on all the street railways is expected to save a million tons of coal. The consolidation of ice plants will yield a still larger tonnage. Unnecessary outdoor lighting, including advertising signs and display illumination, will be reduced. Hotels, office buildings, apartment houses, and public buildings are being asked to join in rigid economy of light and heat. "Every American citizen will be asked to clean his furnace, keep it in repair, and study economical firing. Instructions prepared by the highest authority will be furnished by the Fuel Administration. "If every one joins in this movement, from the owner of an industrial plant to the householder with his furnace and cook stove, if indoor and outdoor lighting is reduced to the amount absolutely needed, if houses are not overheated, the furnace dampers properly adjusted, and the ashes sifted, it will be possible to save from fifty to seventy-five million tons of coal without serious inconvenience to the American people." DIFFICULTIES OF FUEL CONTROL Some conception of the difficulties involved in the work of fuel control was set forth officially in a paper published by the Fuel Administration called _Fuel Problems in War Time_. The production of coal, it pointed out, stands on a different basis from that of any other major industry of the country. The differences are illustrated in the following paragraphs: "As an illustration, consider the cotton crop with its millions of bales. Every bale of cotton raised in the country last year amounted to no more than the coal moved in one and one-third days. Or take the wheat crop for comparison. We hear of the immense preparations made during the fall months for moving the wheat crop; yet the weight of America's enormous wheat crop of 1917 is equaled by the coal mined and transported every eight days.