Fuel Administration
FUEL ADMINISTRATION
FUEL ADMINISTRATION, a World War I agency instituted 23 August 1917 under authority of the Lever Act. The agency exercised control over the production, distribution, and price of coal and oil. Its main activities were to (1) stimulate an increase in the production of fuel; (2) encourage voluntary economy in the private consumption of fuel; (3) restrict consumption by industries not essential to winning the war; (4) regulate the distribution of coal through a zoning system; and (5) check the inordinate rise of fuel prices by fixing maximum prices within each zone. Characteristic of its methods for inducing voluntary conservation was its appeal to people residing east of the Mississippi River to observe "gasless Sundays." The Fuel Administration ceased to function on 30 June 1919.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Garfield, Harry A. Final Report of the United States Fuel Administrator, 1917–1919. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1921.
Harries, Meirion, and Susie Harries. The Last Days of Innocence: America At War, 1917–1918. New York: Random House, 1997.
Cynthia R.Poe