New-York tribune., 1918-07-09
Nine Tons of Clean Fuel
Equal to Ten of That
Sold Last Winter
---------
Dirty Product Has
Been Eliminated
Non.War Industries To Be
Hardest Hit by Garfield
Ruling
Rv Theodore Nj. knappen

through process 'A i"'ioH'''e' '"
nine tons do what ten tons used
:. ao which is the latest idea for say
~ all possihle coal. they know what
,o.ssvation IS Last winter there
,rers times when they got no coal at
~ That is restriction. The former,
. consistently practised everywhere
.,.l is consumed. undoubtedly will
.revent the latter Nine tons instead
=. ION everywhere means comfort and
i. normal business life so far as IT
: nosssible in war any longer to men
ion normality.
The Importance Of every ton saved
,.n be appreciated from the fact that
:, some of the non-war Industries -
rh;ch are the ones that will bear the
brunt of restriction-eVery ton Of coal
.llocated 10 them means enough to
sssn a hundred people employed q
,sr You can visualize your individual
.osl cooperation even more than you
esp your food cooperation.
Chance for Public Saving
Won can put nine tons OF coal INTO
rour bin instead OF ten and. with man
scement. be perfectly happy and COM
fortable, and yet YOU can pat yourselt
an the back and congratulate yourself
,or having provided days employ
nent for one hundred persons, thus
ensbling them 20 earn, say, four hun
In a general way. there are 40
Sorts OF conservation. One }S conser-
vation at the mines. the other is con-
.ervation It the furnaces. The former
means conservation Of coal and trans
nortation by mining clean coal; the
after means making every pound OF
coal 90 as far as it ought to go.
Let US LOOK into this conservation
al the mines The way the mines
wasted labor. trans portation and the
substance Of the consumer last year
was scandal 1t was d riot OF eN-
,ravacance IL the presence OF want.
Lest these be considered too harsh
words. let me quote Floyd ". Parsons.
an eminent coal trade Journalist, who
wrote in "Coe Age" last February:
ut is unfortunate that there can ne
10 powerful government or any great
industry without its traitors. OTTER
such enemies are fanatics Who be
Ieye they are right. while all others
are wrong.
Judas in Coal Industry
The anarchist who plants 4 bomb
% correct a seeming injustice risks
Lis neck and is an honest gentleman
compared to that Judas in the coal in
oustry who to-day is allowing the
shipment OF dirty coal, accepting rec
ord prices for a product that he
couldn't possibly sell in normal times.
For every additional per cent of i'm
purities in the nations annual coal
production the railroads must haul
more than FIVE million tons of useless
waste"
So great was this waste last year
mat some authorities calculate that If
ne coal had only the same percentage
OF impurities as IN normal times
there would have been no coal
troubles at all, except in localities
aere and there where for a time the
railways didn't haul even dirty coal.
The increased percentage OF lmpuri-
les over pre-war times was estimated
70 be 5 per cent, and it was said that
ZACH per cent of impurity reduced the
efficiency of the real coal with 1t LIS
per cent more According to these per
centages. the railways did about
100000 tons of useless hauling last
Year Last year, of all years!
SO.o0OOOO Tons Waste
0mitting the secondary effects OF
poor coal. it appears to be conceded
that at least 100000 tons of super
ruous rock and dirt, or about 100000
carloads, were hauled and paid for
.tn+
That is half of this years forecast
Shortage. Part of this enormity was
due to greed, part 10 haste in mining
and part 20 new mines, especially
wagon mines working in Outcrop and
Door quality veins. The number OF
new coal mires opened in 1917 was
about 9,O0o. Most Of them were boom
snowbirds' and most of these were
wagon mines. The whole 5000 of them
produced little coal, but lot of dirt,
and were chiefly nuisances. They con-
sumed energy and dawdled with cars
mat could have been put to better use
IN the established mines, TO say moth
ing of their success in adding to the
amount of dirt hauled by the railways.
The fuel administration was a long
Nme in appreciating the gravity of
sumoerlng the railways and choking
ne furnaces with "coalless coal" All
'nough the abominable quality of much
VI tne coal was notorious in 1917, and
was even worse in the winter
y, 1918, the double waste continued
almost unchecked until recently.
Slow in Stopping 1t
:, ASIDE from some local measures where
sne offences were especially fragrant
~ ~ punitive measures were taken until
sID She latter part of May. On May %
tG.saSssihcation standards were estab-
h"hed and inferior coal was penalized
~ price reduction of so cents a
IS ;S'i under warning of closing the mine
~ persisted in turning out coal with
w. eieater percentage of impurity than
le,s permissible prior to January /
osu about this same time operators were
sil.. ile'eu price premium for exception
cns, @ good good cleaning and preparing of
m;no.l min, lhese orders apply only to btu
,bs. ,b"ous coal. Perhaps it is thought
,ba a' anthracite operators will not have
s,er me rtemerity ever again to ship such
hsa.; as people had to burn in domestic
"'ss.ihg plants in New York last winter.
ses.;. now, on paper at least, eff
sese. sse.iye measures have been taken to
hs hs'u nenceforth the awful wastes of
Gs. Gss mines last year. Assuming that
Of Will be effective for the last half
ltnSomne me calendar year, they will save
ys.s ysvoooo tons of coal and in the coal
or n eedndine April l 22,600,000 tons
la.tV V'ooo'oo0 tons in full year. The
Of '.s amount is about half the volume
tha, 'ai that must be saved to avoid
= 80 degree of restriction that will