U.S. Fuel Administration--North Carolina Office Papers, WWI USFANC

Papers of the North Carolina Fuel Administration, 1917-1919. The United States Fuel Administration was established by executive order of President Woodrow Wilson on August 23, 1917, in accordance with the Food and Fuel Control Act passed by Congress two weeks prior. Wilson appointed Harry A. Garfield to lead the agency and to select state administrators. On September 28, Garfield named A. W. McAlister of Greensboro, president of the Southern Life and Trust Company, to direct the North Carolina Fuel Administration. McAlister organized the agency in his Greensboro office; assembled a staff, including C. Leroy Shuping as executive secretary; and appointed a five-man advisory committee, consisting of E. K. Graham, J. S. Holmes, B. W. Kilgore, Clarence Poe, and A. W. Scales. Three-member fuel committees were appointed in each county and in many of the larger towns. In the summer of 1918, Charles E. Waddell of Asheville was appointed director of the Conservation Division. When McAlister resigned in favor of R. C. Norfleet of Winston-Salem, effective July 1, 1918, he and James A. Gray joined the advisory committee. Thereafter, the office of the state fuel administrator was situated in Winston-Salem.

The primary motive of the federal, state, and local fuel administrators was the conservation of coal and other fuels for consumption by military concerns. The federal authority set and enforced prices on coal, established priorities for coal shipments, and approved exceptions to restrictions in response to local emergencies. It also initiated special programs, such as Gasless Sundays and Heatless Mondays, to encourage conservation. The state authority communicated these decisions to the local committees and presented county and municipal concerns to the federal administration. It negotiated with district representatives of the U.S. Fuel Administration and railroads operating in the state for the delivery of carloads of coal to satisfy emergency conditions of North Carolina municipalities and industrial concerns: there were two large-scale diversions of coal shipments to North Carolina during the winter of 1918. The state board also encouraged the use of firewood instead of coal for home-heating purposes and set prices on cords of wood. On January 31, 1919, all restrictions on the use of coal and other fuels that had been imposed by the federal fuel administration were removed, and by the end of March, the state office terminated its activities.