Evening star., 1925-07-25

soft coal. oil or gas. The operators
want reduced wages and increased
output-or either
IF any other policy is pursued. .
SAYS s. d. Mariner, chairman Of the
Anthracite Operators Conference, we
shall have repetition in the anthra-
cite industry of the conditions in the
bltuminoUS mines. When the
present wages in that industry were
agreed to, some e6 per cent Of all
bituminous coal was produced by
union miners and 33 per cent by non
union fields, Today. l am informed
that about 20 per cent of all bitum-
inous coal is produced by non-union
helds and only about so per cent in
the union fields, and that large union
operations are entirely shut down and
that more than 100000 union miners
are out Of their regular employment"
r
In England. according to the Ion
don Times, a September coal strike
is threatened, in spite OF the fact that
England is unable now to meet Eu-
ropean competition, because of ex-
cess cost of mining. The coal mine
owners offer tn continue the same
proportions in dividing the gross pro
ceeds of the sales of Coal-namely, ST
per cent to go to the miners and 13
per cent to the owners and handlers
This cooperative division of gross
proceeds is rejected by the miners.
who demand minimum wage regard
less OF whether il will stop the export
marketing of all products Of English
mines and so Curtail the demand for
their employment. Yet the leader of
the miners association excIaims: Five
hundred and eighty pits have closed
in the last IS months: 200, 600 miners
who want work are walking the roads
demented and demoralzed.
x =
There is an adage. a penny saved
is tuppence earned" At least, part
of the problem confronting the pub
lie and statesmen of America in CON
nection with fuel is the possibility of
better methods of using what we
have. In Logan County, w. Va. it
has been demonstrated that under
ordinary methods of producing power
1000 horsepower were used until,
some six or eight years ago. a central
electric station supplanted the old
steam outfit, and 500 horsepower did
the work which had required eight
times as much. A prominent consult
ing engineer, w. s. Murray. told the
Connecticut Chamber of Commerce
that the electrifying Of the New
Haven Railroad had demonstrated
that if all power in the region 100
miles from the Atlantic coast, from
Boston TO Washington, were electri-
fed, 1t could be produced with one
third of the present coal used, and at
saving of $500, 900, 900 a year. II
takes $4,000 tons of coal daily to sup
ply the machinery of New England
New York, Pennsylvania and New
Jersey. That means 500 cars daily
Yet. all the electric plants in Amer
lea. engaged in public service, use
only $4,000 tons of coal in a year
less than three days requirements of
the steam plants of these Eastern
States.
The worlds demand for coal has
doubled every 10 years throughout
the last century. Scientists estimate
that there is enough coal still in ex-
istence to last 5000 years, but thew
say little about its distribution and
accessibility. Practical estimates of
losses in handling and in inaccessf-
bility and thin veins make the actual
supply only a quarter of the above.
The United States has the greatest
supply and England the least. There
is no substitute for coal which is as
economic in power production. Water
falls (white coaD are only so per cent
as economical as coal. To utilize the
WlTuS, the storage batteries OIL elec-
trio power, requires such expensivet
installation as to be uneconomical, as
a general rule. Eventually, the solar
engine, operated with mirrors focusing
the suns heat, may become a success
full rival of the coal mine. After all,
there is no power on earth which is
not derived from the sun. Coal is
vegetation of ages past, which stored
up the sunbeams of its growth and
then became coal. So, if we learn to
utilize the sun heat of today, we shall
but be taking short cuts directly to
the universal source across the field of
the millenniums.
(copyright, 1925, By Paul Y. cOlfins1 I