El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-05-06

gins at the Yellow sea and runs across
China for a distance of 1900 miles. That
wall would be a grain of sand or al
best a single brick compared with the
mighty wall that might be made Of I'm
Gle Sans coal We shall estimate the
amount at only 1000 billions of tons,
taking only the workable and accessi-
bic coal into the calculation. If that
coal were out of the ground and laid up
in solid masonry it would make wall
one-taird of a mile high and a mile
thick, reaching from New York to San
Francisco. Or suppose it be 500 feet
thick. which is more than three times
the width Of Pennsylvania avenue in
Washington or that of any of tho
largest streets Of our cities, and make
the wall three times as high as the
Washington monument. We shall be-
gin the construction at Boston and ex-s
tend the wall westward. How far do
you think it would go? Would 1t reach
across the Pacffic2 Yes It would ex-
tend from Boston to Shanghai in China
and from there over the whole OF Asia
and Europe. until it met the Atlantic
ocean on the west coast of France. II
would go on clear across that ocean to
Boston, and there would be hundreds %
millions OF tons yet to spare.
But the Chinese wall was a useless
attempt at defence to shut out the Tar
tars. This is a great industrial wall,
which means the keeping our factories
busy and our houses warm for three or
four thousand years of the ages to
come.
This estimate of how long our coal
will last is not DR.. Smiths I tried to
get him to tell, but he hedged. Said
ne:
"As reported by Mr. Parker. the sur
vey coal statistician. the total produc-
ton of coal in the United States up to
date has been over eight billion tons,
which. with the waste involved in min
ing, represents an exhaustion of about
twelve billion tons This is less than
one-half Of I percent of the coal now
known to exist. and it leaves US more
than SO percent of our workable coal
in the ground. The amount as I have
said, is about two thousand billion tons
which means four thousand times the
amount we are row using each year.
plus so percent added as waste"
A Million and Half Tons Daily.
How much coal 90 we use every
YEAR,
Our highest production was that of
1897. when We used 48O,00eo00 short !
tons. That was about million and /
half tons every day. We are now using ]
a little less, but it would take more I
than 100000 trains of 80 cars each to I
carry the coal that we are annually /
mining, and the combined length of I
those trains would be between $4,000 I
and 10000 miles. They would make a
solid train of coal reaching two and (
times around the globe at the
equator
But Mr.. Director said I, eff we use
less than 5o0,000.000 tons a year, would
not those 1000 billions last US 1000
years?"
It don't want to talk about years."
said the head of the geological survey,
but If any one wants to prophesy he
ian use those figures Is basis Keep
ing in mind the fact that the increase
IN consumption of our coal has been
amount used has exceeded the total
previous consumption since we began
20 mine coal I mean to say that the
for the 10 years ending
Nth last year was greater than the
otal consumption during the last CEN
ury. If such a ratio of increase should
continue which is impossible, the life
# our coal fields would be compare.
lively short"
Where the Coal Lies.
Can you tell me just where our
great coal fields are. Mr.. Directorg'
aid ].
They are to be found in all but IA
tates of the union They extend from
northern Pennsylvania to Oregon. and
rom Canada to southernmost Texas.
Eou can get the best idea of them from
map made for the survey by Dr. ! :
campbell a couple of years or so ago.
Here the director sent for a man Of