The Furnace Front

"I'm not God. I can't make anthracite that's not there. And I can't produce miners." Fuel Boss Harold L. Ickes made these modest admissions last week as he plunged into a new Washington feud, and as thousands of Americans got colder & colder, with no coal in sight.

When the October coal strike caved in, the coal consumers hoped for the best. Long before last week they were shaking numb fists at John Lewis, Harold Ickes or their coal dealers. In the East there was little anthracite for householders. The 1944 prediction was...

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