Evening star., 1922-05-28

| WI future? What of power
| v for the future? These SIM
pie questions draw aside
the curtain on the biggest and most
vital problems that the United States
as a nation is facing. They open up
for the statesmen a new era in Amer
| ican history.
| The present troubled situation with
regard to the coal supply. which has
shaken the entire industrial struc-
ture Of the country, the recent fight
in Congress over the naval oil re-
| serves. and the impending gigantic
water-power developments bring
THESE questions sharply to the public
kmind.
Insistently asked by enlarging
groups of the people, they will force
| Congress to enact legislation of tre-
/! being organized. and the question Of
| conservation against control of profits
| looms asa vital issue. Within a few
years what now sounds like very
| radical legislation will be enacted.
according to the best Judgment OF
dustry who have given closest
| thought to the national storehouse.
| Cnited States In Rich
In EnerEy Resources.
! mo other country has one -fftieth
Part of the total energy resources of
Read Of the United States bureau Of
mines recently announced. after re-
\ ducing to terms of potential energy
| the estimated coal, petroleum and
water-power resources Of the princi-
pal nations. But the United States
| has been drawing heavily on these
| energy resources. as emphasized by
DR.. H. Foster Balm. director of the
l bureau of mines.
| The Indian was the first conserva-
| tionist-by non-use. In the same
| area today Americans support ap-
proximately 125,000.000 people. and
| every individual has more than any
red man had before the white man
| is sustained by intensive use of ma
| terial resources such as no other ma
| tion has achieved. But it is charac-
| teristic of America to substitute me
chanical for animal energy at every
! possible opportunity. We are draw
| ing heavily and with increasing drain
| upon our resources.
! Two and three hundred years ago
| the people were content to spread IN
| enlarging. waves over the country.
but in the last hundred years they
| have done new things and drawn
heavily, and more heavily. on the re-
sources Roosevelt saw this coming
and fourteen years ago called the
I FIRST great national conservation con-
! gress: but then it was largely
! theory. and without the nation having
F! any reliable inventory of its prop
\ erty.
People Waking to Fact
That Limit Exists.
The public today appreciates. as it
! did not then, that there is limit to
| our supply of gas. oil. coal. etc.
The world war, throwing heavy de-
mands upon our industries and COM
pelling economic efficiency. forced
careful studies to be made regarding
our national resources; and it is on
4 basis of these that the new national
] policy is to be founded. The war
| also brought the engineering profes-
/ sion to the fore.
| Our national stock-taking empha :
sized that there is an enormous waste
| in our industries. much Of which is
| preventable. Conditions have been
somewhat improved in consequence.
| Gas wells are no longer generally
turned loose to blow into the air even
f! in fields remote from development,
| nor are hambeau burned to no pur-
pose save the lighting Of country
| barnyard Highly intelligent study is
devoted to the preservation OF OH
sands from encroachment by water.
Panel mining permits much more
+; complete recovery in coal mines:
| Such technical improvements have
resulted not only in improving re-
covery. but in actual profit: House
Leader Mondell boasts that in Wyo-
ming $4,000 expended in conserva, ,
ton work on certain groups OF oil
wells resulted in increasing the yield
Ito the extent of more than 100000.
with large incidental benefits to the
entire field. This shows that the en-
eineer may be the best conservation
ist by conserving while he uses with
profit.
Metals and Fuels on
A Different Basis.
| DR.. Balm stresses that most min
eral and, metal mining can continue,
since there is no necessarily large
dissipation of our resourees-the
minerals are not lost-on the prin-
cipal that a dollar won today and
set to work is worth more than the
j dollar that will be paid in twenty or
fifty years.
! Rut with fuels the situation is diff
/; ferent. Fuel once burned is gone. 1t
/ is most precious resource for neat