The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-10-14

the worlds coal supply is Il
Il favoiite and by no means an
unentcrtainng thesis with
amateur and professional economists.
Fifty years ago Jevons wrote a bril-
liant monograph in which he estimated
the depletion of the coal measures of
Great Britain in a century. lie point
cd out quite legitmately that with the
enormous increase in manufacturing
activity then in full blast, the supply of
domestic coal for its purpose would be
used up in England and Scotland in the
time he had specified. and that Great
Britain. if she were to hold the lead in
industrial supremacy would have to
rely for fuel upon the United States.
Jevons' logical faculty of deduction and
prescience in generalization almost
amounted to genius. He was not an
economical theorist like John Stewart
Mill nor an incomprehensible eXpound-
er of what Carlyle calls the dismasal
science Political economy is a sci
ence, and very fascinating one If stu
dents of its laws could find their appli-
cation worked out effectively any
where. 1t is essentially a science of
text books and the lecture room. No
man of his generation knew that better
that Jevons, and what makes his writ
inss so interesting TO the man in the
street Is the fact that he sought to find
practical application for his theories in
the meaning of the Industrial life in
l., ,.l, l.,
innate of the coal supply of Great Bri-
tain is perhaps on the whole not far
astray. At the present rate of con-
sumption, fifty years will witness prob
ably its practical exhaustion. But 9TH
er things being equal, this fact, STU
rendous as its consummation must be,
will not mean the industrial paralysis
of England. AS long as the transmll-
tation of coal remains the basis of en-
erSS, force, or power, SO long, of course,
Will it retain its Importance. But the
waste OF the energy of coal has been
and is enormous. 1t is infinitely more
important to mankind that this waste
should stop than that fresh coal fields
should be discovered. Whether an
Englishman, American or genius of any
other nationality is likely to find a
rival to coal in the atmosphere, in the
sea or some other element, until that
discovery is made as it will be some
day, the enlightened policy of all ma
tions should aim not merely at the
conservation of coal in its mineral bulk
but in its potential energy.
1t is morally certain that the un-
known coal fields of the world are inn
measurably greater than those that
have been discovered or are known to
exist without being explored. We
leave out of this computation that
which lies under the sea, which, for all
practical purposes, might as We'll oc-
cupy strata of the moon. We know,
for instance, that the coal beds of
China can and may supply the world
with fuel. Russia, Asiatic and Euro
pean, Is immensely rich in coal which
the improvldent and lazy Muscovite al
lows TO remain untouched while he
burns down his forests. India also con-
talns immense coal fields, not OF an en-
callent quality, but serviceable. Then
comes South Africa. The coal meas
ures of the Transvaal are practically
ineNhauStiblc, and probably this is so
In Rhodesia. Equatorial Africa is rich
in all kinds of minerals and if outcrop-
pings are any criterion of its resources,
especially so in coal. Coal has been
found on the surface within the Arctic
circle at places hundreds of miles dis
tant, but within an area of continuous
geological strata, In fact, coal at one
time covered the earth like the glacial
ma1tfe. The ice melted away ana the
coal would have been denuded away. as
II was, for instance, in Ireland, but for
tunately geological evolution or rather
conynlsion made for it casket in
which it lay until man in his inquisltlve
way domesticated it, so to speak. We
have heard lately great deal about
the difficulty and danger of coal min
Ing. We have no desire to minimize
either, But it is certain that If nature
had not thrown these difficulties in our
way We should have no coal To burn
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