534
��Popular Science Monthli/
��coal lands for little or nothing through some mischance or other, or because they have an especially favorable situation in some respect, generally set the prices for that region. The others, in order to dig in and get business, offer inducements, or endeavor to get the upper hand in some other way. In any case trouble results. Said George Otis Smith and C. E. Lesher, of the United States Geological Survey, in a paper before the American Mining Congress at Chicago some time ago:
"In the many years our coal indvistiy has been developing, rate structures have been built up that give to this and that producing district, differentials (in freight rates) over other districts — handicaps, as it were, that may be based on comparative lengths of haul, difference iu coal qualities or min- ing costs, or may merely be the survival of past practice, for which no reason now exists."
The italics in the quotation are ours. To one endeavoring to analyze existing opinion as to the coal situation in produc- ing regions, that expression would seem capable of summing many of the other factors. Though only about one-tenth of one per cent of our available coal lands are at present being worked, even with that small amount we have allowed an enormous, complicated and er- ratic producing and distribut- ing system to grow up. What sort of situation we would get ourselves into were we to start in on the other 99.9 per cent of our coal lands is indeed a subject for interested specula- tion. Coal men have written at length on such a contingency. But certainly the lack of order and system in our coal-produc- ing regions, and in contributing factors that would tend to sta- bilize producing, must all have a material effect on whether or not we are to continue to have annual "coal shortages."
Prospects for Betterment
Suppose we do have coal shortages every winter, and they are due to these and those reasons, what prospect is there for bettering the situation?
One outstanding remedy for coal shortages is at present
��commanding the attention of the whole country. This is the development and utilization of our waterpower resources. M. O. Leighton of the Geological Survey estimates that the country has between 36,000,000 and 66,000,000 horse- power at present running idle in rivers and mountain streams. The figure runs as high as 200,000,000 horsepower, if all practicable storage sites are included in the estimate. And the noteworthy aspect of the situation is that water- powers, once developed, are a permanent source of energy. On the other hand, when we take our coal out of the ground and burn it, it is gone forever. In the interests of our future fuel supplies we should at once start in to make good use of the part that is going to waste at present, to our great loss.
The reason our waterpowers have not been fully developed heretofore is that such restrictive legislation has been passed by Congress that men will not invest their money in plants. Franchises have been revocable by the Secretary of the
���,'c; i;ii.i.T«.....i U1..I rM.i.i«.,.„i
One of the huge terminal coal-handling plants,
hard-pressed this winter. This one is in New Jersey
�� �
