Arizona republican., 1908-10-17
$l7O,OOO,OOO YEARLY
 NEW YORK'S COAL BILL
Thirty Million Tons of Fuel to Heat metropolis-The City Supporting Conservation Movement.

| SOHoCl NdNlOii lfSNCHNCh"
 New York, Oct. 12.-Special Cor
 respondence of the Republican.-New | York feels more than merely curious l interest in the oft-repeated predic
 ton that the coal mines of the cOun- | try will be exhausted in another hun 1 dred years, for the reason that this
 city is the greatest coal consumer in | the world According to statistics re- | gently collected the metropolis uses over 25,000,000 tons annually and re- 1 quires the services of 50,000 men to
 keep itself warmed and lighted. More than S150,0O0,O00 is invested in the business of supplying the city's resi- dents with coal, and no less than 1000 | coal barges and 150 tugs are kept 1 busy in transporting it about New 1 York harbor. These coal bargeS | average in capacity from $50 to l,50O | tons apiece, and in them there is al
 ways afloat about the city more than
 a million and a half tons of coal.
 Every day there is loaded into barges
 in the harbor of New York more coal | than is used in a whole year through
 out the Empire of China. Last year
 
 | 2S,440,OOO tons of coal, and this year
 the total promises to run well above l 3O,O0O,OO0 tons. Averaging factories
 and small consumers at a price of | four dollars for each ton, New York
 will spend during the coming winter | s12O 1000, 900 to keep itself warm. The l city government alone will use nearly | 100000 tons, and whatever claim d. cleanliness is to be attributed to the fact that three-quarters of the coal shipped from its docks is anthracite. Where the whole tremendous amount
 goes may be guessed from the fact
 that the large hotels use 100 tons a day each, the largest steamships 1000
 tons a day and department stores each 50 tons daily. Altogether Fa-
 ther Knickerbocker, with the 3O,OOO,-
 900 tons of coal which he burns an
 nually, is anything but glad to see
 the approach of winter.
 As a result of startling possibili-
 ties contained in the threatened ex-
 haustion not only of coal, but of lumber and other products of which
 is uses enormuos quantities, New
 York is taking a keen interest in the work Of the newly organized Conser- vatiOn League of America. That this interest is not confined to any single class is indicated by the fact that both Gustave Schwab, president of the National Council of Commerce and well known as a capitalist, and John Mitchell, have been enrolled as vice presidents of the league. An other resident of New York who is taking an active part in the new movement for the preservation of the cOuntry's natural wealth is Andrew
 Carnegie. who has summed up the situation in two terse sentences. Conservation of forests is needed" he says. for no forests, no navigable rivers, no rivers, no cheap transpOr- tation. Conservation of the soil is paramount (mOre than a thousand million of tons of the best is swept to the sea every year and lost) for less soil, less crops; less crops, less commerce, less wealth. To check such waste the Conservation League has announced that, backed by some of the most powerful organizations in the country, such as the American Federation of Labor, the National Civic Federation, the Farmers Ma tiOnal Congress and others, as well as general public sentiment, it will endeavor to secure from every candi- date for congress before election day a statement as to his attitude re- garding the conservation movement, to the end that the next national leg islature may contain as many men as possible pledged to legislation safeguarding natural resources and conserving them for the greatest benefit of the whole nation.