The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-14

sance and also permit the use of iig-
 nite, cuim, slack, and inferior coaIs-
 in fact, so far as power production py
 reciprocal engines is concerned, tne
 although the development of supsti,
 tutes Is still in it's Infancy. The con
 sumption of coal in snlelting is necas-
 sarily large of late the loss Is reduced
 oy using the furnace gases for power.
 and by making by-products: yet the
 chief saving must He in economy m
 the. use of metals. Much Of our coKe. making is still extravagant: some ovens
 without deiay--if necessary uDoep State regulation. since the people have some right both in the preservation or purity of the air they breathe.
 Next to imperfect combustion .h. cnief waste, of coal arises in mining.
 The early colliers saw no value in coal nI,lsrs m .ne ground, ,d any more than early
 stream; to them coal acquired value
 only through the labor of mining if, just as to the miller the stream ac- duced by the labor of 6ulldias San, and mill So the coal taken out in the British and German colIierles was d sort of treasure trowe: that left in the in early American mining the coal mined merely yielded return for la Dor. and the pillars and slack and poor coal left In the ground were nobody's before coal lands were thought to have any other value than as wood lands or farm lands. Thus the Incredibly wastefuf methods were natural enough; if labor could be saved and profit gain ed by taking out but third or a half of the richest part of the seam, leaving the rest to be rendered inaccessible by caving. so be It. No one thought of 1t the ground Is recognized as part, and great part, of the value of coal lands, seif-interest impels the operator to take out all he can. and leads the miner. to work close to floor and roof Bad results may sometimes follow, as In the anthracite region where the entire forest growth has been stripped and both land and streams ruined to timber the mines. and in those terrible acci- dents when in removing the pillars of coal the miners are buried. Coal min ing cries out for expert knowledge whereby the full yield may be obtained wise police regulation whereby life may be protected against ignorance and cu-
 Substitute Other Power.
 The most promising check on coal consumption Is the substitution of oth- CT power. Naturalists tell us that coal IS reservoir of solar energy stored up III d8ct past anu EnAt the same lB pAIL~ ly true also of other chemically com plex substances, including ores. The sun motor still runs: It's rays render the. globe habitable, and may yet be ensn. ss tsrSps '0fr m furnaces--as in the Portuguese priests hellophore at the St. Louis Exposition with It's temperature of 5000 F., in which cube of iron evaporated like a snowbali in Bessemer converter. The sun helps to raise the tides, which some day will be harnessed; and still more 1t raises vapor from the streams and rivers which pR'i t is sstima. ted may some day yield over 3e.0o0.0o0 n orse power-or more than all now produced from fuel by all our engines combined. Dr. Pritchett Is responsl- bie for the statement that on clear day. when well above the horizon. the sun delivers upon each square acre of the earth's surface exposed to its rays working continuously. Thus. there Is abundance of power lying around us. if we only knew how to harness 1t. It Is only within the past decade that ter power generally available for driv- ing machinery. for smelling, and for moving trains and has at the same time created a new market for copper: cd. of using solar energy (for such wa ter Is as the product of sun -heat) will soon affect the constantly increasing drain on our coal. And just as the woods and the ores and the mineral fuels have become sources of wealth and power within our memory. so will become the running waters within a few yearsi
 NO practical man can study our mineral supplies without seeing that they are melting away under our na- tionai growth at a geometricaliy in creasing rate, and without realizing that unless the loss is checked his descendants must suffer; nor can he consider ways of preserving the supp ply without realizing the need Of now possess. 1t has not resources alone that gave this country its pros perity, but inventive skill and indus trial enterprise applied to it's re-
 "Individualiy we have been both and foren1inded; nationally we have been forehanded chiefly of John smith and Walter Raleigh, but nationally we are not yet fore So far as our mineral wealth prudent foresight, coupled with cease less research in order that new min erals may be discovered, new alloys produced, new compounds Of common reproducing devices developed. The most careful inventory of the family sh ould be made. I plead for and next may be saved from want but especially I urge research into and over Nature in order that two blades may be made to grow where one grew before that the golden grain may be made to replace woody grass. that crude rocks may be made to yield fine metals.
 Conservation Is q Duty.
 T urge on the Executives here as- sembled as our greatest need today the need for better and more praetic- true than now that knowledge Is power" The States have done much. the Federal Government has done much. individual men have done much for research; in the. history of this never before. and thereby the mater ials and forces of Nature have been brought under control as no man dreamed when the nation was found- ed. Yet if our career of prosperity basis of completer control of national sources of material and power than we have thus far exercised. con- trol to be gained only by research.
 Tn conclusion, MT. President. and Governors of our States, 1t seems to
 First, conservation of forests. for no forests, no long navgable rivers; no rivers. no cheap transportation.
 Second. to systemize our water on the hands of the Reclamation. Ser vice. which has already proved itself highly capable by its admirable work. Cheap water transportation for heavy freights brings many advantages and means great saving Of our ore sup plies. Railroads require much steel. water does not.
 Third. Conservation of soil. More than a thousand millions of tons of