The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-11-21
Ignite AND ELECTRICITY

Ignite AND ELECTRICITY
being worked out to utilize the great deposits Of Ignite for the pro-
IN Guf fhs di Gf cHenp fe ee fbe stat Ro ~f No s4ggH GaIo enormous possibilities
mined AG rsse1Ts o to G g9ye sH hi11;o experts +ent II North 'aai+1 Dakota k ta4t has So an u n
the present rate & Of production, which was 100000 tons last year,
use out Of this coal has been a problem in N this i state tai Ignite Liz V burns
ma1e s of e tc so as s2 fss 4: and oae 't tan Of i Ssrd eGs1' a sh; It It takes * s
comparatively cheap coal, the notion prevails that on account of
shipped from as far east as Pennsylvania.
1t occurs in such abundance in western North Dakota, is usual
and and c ches|ply' Il the principal problem connected with its use is
portation and you have opened up in this state an enormous source
lem Of f trans s9tS t; p'"f In P these p pi %sS eo %'i is c S1inss tn dir Pf9H1
into steam power and this steam power is changed into electrical
Of machinery directly from the coal bed to the steam team power W. plant
which 4 hI is placed as s. conveniently en- Y near as possible
Regina puts the cost Of $%1;e2o,ooo: This plant viii start out with
of towns and literally hundreds of enterprises Will electrical en-
ergy: The problem of producing cheap light, heat and power by
has been solved in England and in many localities in the eastern
states: There is no doubt about the immense success of such en-
H. N Nor Dakota is about to 60 extensively into the public owner
partisan league platform demands the public or state ownership Of
coal Mines ninssto Here ders;i i; a combination stssa of Q factors that opens Up qR the
noat the wi neq 1sH thor f at an early date dat o of "a great area area Of 2f isn its, de,
change the Whole life Of North Dakota. if private companies MES al af-
ter pocketing all their profits and competitive costs, can sell Ignite
better organized, non-competitve public system Of operation, pro-
duce Ignite for at the mine mouth? In great modern plants using
the best machinery, what can electricity be produced for, under
such circumstances?
The possibilities of this situation are stupendous. The neces-
siy of transporting great masses of bulky Ignite is done away
with. The power itself, the heat and the light that is in this coal
can be transported instead over transmission wires at practically a
nominal cost. Coal mined and burned near Minot, under these
circumstances, would light streets, heat houses and turn wheels in
Grand Forks at a small fraction of the cost of taking Ignite out
now and shipping it to Grand Forks and burning it here.
The greatest source of wealth, next to land, is power for the
operation of machinery and the production of heat and light.
North Dakota is one vast farm producing raw material and food.
Supply it with an abundance of cheap power and you have brought
and unlimited wealth. 1t would mean that industries would spring
up all over the state to work up our great mass of raw material in
to manufactured products. It would mean that we would soon de-
velop a rich and diversified life; that the farmer would have right
under his nose a great cash market for everything he could raise
and that life in this state would take on activity, variety and spice.
1t will not do to let this great opportunity slip by. A Nonpar-
tisan league government will soon sit at Bismarck. It is pledged
to the public ownership and operation of coal mines. 1t ought to
start out at once to investigate the possibilities in our big Ignite
fields to produce electricity cheaply for all the public and private
enterprises of North Dakota.-Grand Forks American.
A BELATED CONFESSION
Ont of the N0nnartisan 1eaouo movement thoro i-