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FUEL

The 1,640,150 oil-burning homes on the eastern seaboard will get enough oil this winter. There will be enough oil, in fact, so that the nearly 200,000 citizens who patriotically converted from oil to coal--and then found there was not enough coal, either--will soon be allowed to convert back to oil again.

The expense of reconversion (average cost per unit: $35) will pay off in comfort. For coal users will not be able to keep warm this winter unless 1) the weather is mild; 2 ) they spread the thin supply skillfully. The prospects:

Fuel Oil is up because of better transportation distribution (chiefly pipelines). Production has caught up with military needs. If all the former oil users reconvert this winter, oilmen can supply the extra oil which will be needed, but only 30% are expected to reconvert.

Coal, the No. 1 U.S. heating fuel, is getting scarcer every day, although production is up nearly 6% over last year. The reason for the scarcity is increased demand and lack of manpower. Old men are working the mines; when they quit or die, almost no younger men are available. This means that eastern and southern homes will get 10% less coal this year than last. But better distribution may help coal burners to get by.

Wood, used for heat on farms and in scattered rural areas where anyone can get it, is not a general problem, except in thickly populated western Washington, half of which uses wood for fuel. With many lumbermen now working in war plants at higher pay, the area was 200,000 cords short this year. To persuade farmers and amateur woodsmen to make up the difference, the Government offered a subsidy of $2.50 a cord to anyone who would work in the forests. In eastern cities and suburbs, where householders use fireplaces for supplementary heat, wood was scarce and expensive. And householders whose trees were blown down in last month's hurricane were the victims of a new racket: for a high hourly fee, the snooty racketeers would deign to cut up the trees blocking the driveways. Then, for a bargain price, the victim was allowed to buy back his own wood--green and noninflammable until next winter.

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