Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-02-25
SAVING THE WOOD.
President and Governor to Have
 Interesting Conference.


 As the time approaches for the pro- posed conference of the governors or the various states with President Roosevelt on the conservation of the natural resources of the United states, there comes more serious realiza- tion on the part of the people of the problems to be discussed.
 The Engineering Record of New York, in recent issue, shows the gravity of one phase of the situation in an editorial under the caption, "The Conservation of Fuel
 The editorial in part is as follows:
 "With the domestic coal. supply dwindling at the rate of 4OOOOO,0O0 tons per year and the foreign supply disappearing at an equivalent rate, the problem of fuel supply takes on more than an academic interest. It is all very well, profanely to inquire what pOsterity has done for us that we should forbear skinning the eartlls resources on its account, but from the present outlook this matter has ceased to involve waiting for poster ity. It has reached point where there may be trouble within the life time of children now alive. If the coal consumption of the country ln- creases at anything like the present rate it will probaly not be more than quarter of century before the calamity of far dearer fuel will be upon us. It is not that the supply will be exhausted by then, but that scarcity, long transportation and deep mining will cooperate so to enhance the price of coal as to completely modify present conditions. The coal famine of few years since shows the disastrous result of even d slight shortage in forcing up the price. What would be the industrial situation with steam coal at ten dollars and up wards per ton permanently? It is not pleasant thing to contemplate and yet such is the situation which con fronts Us in the not distant future. It will not be long before most of the remaining coal will be low grade bituminous or Ignite. A large part of the fields yet remaining untouched are in fact, the meanest kind of liz nite, entirely unsuited for transpor- tation.
 ''There is not enough wood left to cut any figure in the industrial sit- uation. Of peat. good, bad and in different. there is large amount, but thus far all attempts to get it in- to utilizable shape on large scale hydraulic power available at Teason- idly taken up. Even if ten million able cost of utilization is, being rap horsepower were in good shape for profitable development, it would at I rough approximation relieve the pres ent coal consumption by only some thing like 10 per cent while that con- sumption has risen 30 per cent in less than five years. Hydraulic power, then, valuable as it is, can be regard ed only as small auxiliary.
 Heating is terribly serious mat ter in our northern climate, and if one relies on electrical heating the outlook is bad since the whole power of Niagara could not keep even New York city from freezing to de1th. When 1t comes to heating, in fact, there is not enought hydraulic power to be worth serious consideration. Fuel gas, however, can be made to help out very effectively and may come to be our chief reliance. The present outlook is grave, and it is time to be up and doing. Each year. with its increase of ' fuel con sumption, brings down the current estimate of the endurance of the supply. Not long ago it was five hundred years, then two hundred and now practical exhaustion of thc available supply seems a bare century of. with serious increase of cost looming up in the near future. It is about time to start tue fight to preserve the existing status of things lest the pressure on in- dustry bring disaster. Even now there is a tendency to shift activity southward into a milder climate. Before things come to serious pass 1t is we'll to try the virtues of power transmission from the mines.