The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-13
NO CoAI rAxrNr.

i
 It appears now that those timid persons who have been shivering over the prospect of an early exhaustion of the coal supply got scared too soon We all know that of late there have been many estimates and figures brought forward to shov that 1t will be but a little while before all the coal in the world will have been mined and burned, and then what would people do? Some prognosti- eators have gone so far as to say that | there are people now living who would see the day when no coal could be had
 But. according to The New Bed logical Survey has taken a hand in predicting on this subject of the coal supply and has e more encouraging word to speak. In its view two hun. drsd and twenty-five generations of people oan come and go before the product of our coal mines is exhaust ed. Seven thousand three hundred and sixty-nine years is the exact fig. ure. arrived at by mathematical cal culation in this way: The original coal supply of the United States is | estimated to have been three thous- and and seventy-six billion short tons of which the total amount mined up to the close of 1908 had been about seven and . quarter billions of tons of usable coal. involving a mine ex- haustion. including the waste in min- ing and preparation, of nearly twelve billion tons. This is a sizable figure. but in reality it represents but two. fifths of one per cent. of the original supply. In the single year of 1908 the total coal production of the country was four hundred and fifteen and two-thirds millions of tons.
 If these figures and estimates are to be relied on 1t will be about the year a277, or something more than seven thousand years. before we will be in danger of freezing. so far as lack of coal fuel is concerned. and as all of us know. a great many things may happen in seven thousand years. Mankind may discover not merely one but many ways to keep warm with out coal. As to that matter we don't know what new devices for produc- ing heat may be invented or discover ed in the meantime. However that may be. it is pretty sure that mos: of us will not be here to need coal in s277.
 The enormous variance between the estimates and calculations of differ ent alleged authorities show the diff ficulty of arriving at any just con- clusion on a matter of this sort AZ we have said. there have been those who have predicted an early coal fam ine--so early, in fact. that the pres ent century would not end before the ming with what they term the "visible supply" of coal in existence, caiculat- ing from the amount annually used. and arguing that the demand would increase. they figured out to their own apparent satisfaction that we would soon be a coalless community Apparently they took no thought Of the possibility of immense supplies yet undiscovered. nor did they take inte consideration the new devices so constantly coming into use for produc- ing power and motion without fuel.
 And so 1t has come about that there Is such a wide variance in calcula- tions on this subject that one never knows what to rely on or whom to be- lieve. This new calculation puts the end much farther ahead than any we have noticed. If that Is correct. na- tions may rise and flourish and fall, new worlds may be discovered, new substitutes for coal be found long be- fore the end of the coal supply. And If, at the end of this latest period that has been fixed there should still be coal supplies in plenty the people of that remote period-if there shall be any on earth at that time-may read of the fears and apprehensions of those of the present and wonder what manner of people they were to be frightened so easily Let us cheer up. There will be coal to burn long after we are forgotten.