The Alaska daily empire., 1914-09-22
AMERICAN COAL
 AND POSSIBILITIES


 Hon. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior. makes the pertinent ob- seryatlon that while the United States leads the world on coal.mining, the six European nations now at war hap. pen to be the six next largest coal mining countries, producing together more than one-half of the coal mined on the globe.
 It follows necessarily that interfer- ence with the mining and commerce of those nations must increase the de- mand for American coal, at least in the neutral countries.
 In this connection bulletin of the Geological Survey written by George Otis Smith, is timely. He shows that the exports of coal from the United States have never been large enough to arect the production materially. They amounted to 2O,OOO,OOO short tons in 1912 and 2S,2OOOOO tons in 1913, or less than 4 per cent. of the total output of the mines fin each of those years.
 It is pointed out that exportation of American coal to South American countries, which has already begun, must be of advantage both in estab, fishing trade relations and in insur- ing balance of trade in favor of the United States,
 Secretary Lane has stated that Coal is our one resource about which there need be no present anxiety"
 In 1908 Campbell estimated that American reserves of easly accessible anthacite and bituminous coal were 1, 1,166,527, ,OOO 900 tons and that nearly half as much more of the same grades was accessible with difficulty, besides incompatible tonnage of sub.bitumin- ous coal and Ignite
 Five years later an estimate was made by the same geologist, in the light of better data. His figures reached a total of 1,5OO,OOOOOOOOO short tons in the United States, ex- elusive of Alaska. Te showed that North America possesses nearly two. thirds of the coal supply of the world; and that the United States alone has reserves exceeding those of any other continent, and nearly double those of Europe.
 Summarizing the situation, the Dl- rector of the Geological Survey says:
 Until the present war broke out, Great Britain was the only country that exported coal in considerable quantity. but Great Britain is already beginning to feel the pinch of poverty in her coal supplies, and it is highly probable that when peace is once more established she will place restrictions upon her exports of coal.
 Tn 1913 the exports of coal from Great Britain amounted to Sz,2OO,OOO short tons, and the bunker trade called for 2S,555,2SS short tons more,
 Tn the same year the exports from the United States amounted to a little over 25,OOO,OOO short tons, and the total bunker trade at the principal ports-New York, Philadelphia, Bal. timore and Hampton Roads-was only 7,5OO,OOO tons, indicating that most of the transatlantic liners, the majority of which are English, have been carry ing from the other side a sufficient quantity of coal for the round trip"
 In all this discussion there is no mention whatever of the coal fields of Washington and the Pacific North west, and only the barest allusion to the Alaska deposits.
 Probably the time is at hand, in the new order of things, when this part of the world will develop its coal resources in a manner to command at- tention to this resource as one of first