The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-08-10
THE FUEL SITUATION.

The vast increase in the population of the state
in the western and intermountain country, the de
velopment of metal mining and smelling q seal
unprecedented and the addition of manufacture
to the district have combined to create greater dc
land for fuel than was considered probable n few
gears ago when the railroads opened up mines tt
supply their own needs principally. This increased
demand is not from Utah alone, but extends very
generally from the Mississippi river to the western
provinces of Canada At the time, the devel
opent of coal deposits has not kept pace with the
gro, tn of the demand for fuel consequently even
now, in midsummer the outlook is far from reas-
surfing. Salt Lake dealers report orders beyond
their ability to supply It may be that great deal
| of the present demand is intended to supply the
needs of the coming winter, and that when cold
weather comes the nsistent demand will have been
sati fed, but if this is not true then the coming
winter will prove a serious one for the people of the
city and the rapid and steady growth of Salt Lake
will receive a serious setback by the untoward coal
situation.
Assurances are given by the department of the
interior that there are millions of acres of unde-
veloped coal land in the west which is all very com
forting when the thermometer is ranging up in the
nineties, but IN the regions where coal is being
mined, there is reported shortage of miners,
shortage of cars, q shortage of everything except
coal and for its not being delivered to con-
sumers. 1t has been suggested that the lack of
coal is a deliberate attempt to bolster up the mar
ket price Miners wages have been increased 10
'rnts ton, while coal has gone up so cents a ton
at the mines. Yet the coal barons are not satisfied
and accused of limiting the coal output for no
other purpose than to raise the price How true
these accusations may be Of course we cannot say
But the fact remains that there is right now an
unsatisfed demand for fuel, which makes the out
look for the coming season of cold more serious
than it was last winter and the winter before
While considering the fuel situation, and the
necessity for artificial heat throughout nearly half
the year which our present civilization demands.
1t IS well to consider other means than coal and
wood to supply that heat, While light and heat
may be distributed throughout a vast area over
WIRE In the shape of electricity to the most super
fetal observer our present method of heating by
stoves or furnaces hot water plants with all the
smoke and SCOT and ashes which accompany them
aust appear very crude indeed. 1t has been said
that man is the only animal with sense enough to
ouild fire, but there has been mighty little adj
comparatively speaking, in heating
modern houses the methods of the earliest fire
builders who had the whole outdoors for home |
nd the wood of the forest for fuel Fire was then,
IS now, the great heat producer, and all the dis
comforts of fire, and the danger of the element
etting the upper hand, still remain to afflct hui
nanity.
Electricity may be generated without fuel III
his intermountain country, and electricity may
erve to keep US warm or cool according as we use
to propel fans or convert it into heat. There is
luch water power wasted in the hills which sooner
r later will be developed to supply heat, light and
over on a scale that is little dreamed of today
erhaps the shortage in coal will hasten the devei-
pment of this water power. If it does the short
ge will prove not an unmixed evil. But until the
ork is at least commenced and electric heaters
ave become efficient and economical we would not
rye anybody to delay getting in a coal supply.
18th all the inconvenience of coal it is heap bet
r than going without heat when the snow falls
fast as the thermometer and the wind sings
round the chimney tops or soughs through the
ees The development of electricity for heating
ld cooking purposes from the water in the hills
i'll furnish a wonderful example of what can be
one in the conservation of natural forces to the
Sc of man, but in the meantime we will continue
poke the fire if we can get the coal to build it.