Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-24

Continued From First Page)
line. There is also no doubt In my
mind that this same commission would
Hood, of smoky procliVlries, cease his
emanations from Government owned
and operated cninneys.
Lack of Supply.
''Ndr. Hood has at times alleged that
there was not available a uniform and
steady supply of anthracite, and has
accordingly recommended changes to
oil and the more smoky bituminous
coal. That these allegations are in
the main, without foundation, I think
nobody will deny. There have &C.
casionally in the past been times of
scarcity when reserves we're low and
fears ran high. and yet this has hap
pened IN the case of practically every
commodity at one time or another in
the economic history of the country"
Beauty of Former City.
GAS I knew Washington. the city, in
earlier, quiet days. which Mark Sullivan
depicts in his delightful book, Our
Times" Coyle said. cit was pre-
eminently a city which all the world
admired fer its beautiful ree-bordered
SN1EGiS anu AVENUES anu lIlG 1dlI due
sky of heaven, which was never obscured
by smoke. Today. the mechanical i'm
provements that one might note have
been extended miles in every direction
unfortunately, along with the
trees and streams of another day has
gone also that pure. clear air of another
day, that so entirely. distinguished
Washington from any Industrial city
which We of Pennsylvania know.
f~ - II zf-~
air as compared with. the pure, clean
air of the original hills and valleys?
An attempt to count the cost of any
item that Is said to be part of civil
ization's progress is almost an impos-
sibility, but to count the waste that is
involved is not so entirely impossible.
and after all, If any item be costly, our
question Shout be. not how much. but
is 1t worth the cost? Is the smoke that
has been put into the air of Washing
ton worth the cost? If not, why not
discontinue it?
In beginning to count its cost, we
find it recognized that every black
srnudge from burning fuel put into the
air is in itself sign of wasted heat
through imperfect combustion. We find
that the cost but begins at this point,
and after that particle Of smoke drifts on
to help obscure the sky, 1t lands in my
lungs, or on your coat collar, or on the
housewives muslin curtains, or through
the window to the damaSk chairs be-
yond, or into the corners and hooks
of marble frieze and pillar. smudging
and blackening beauties that of a right
ought TO be Washingtons heritage.
Anthracite Privately Used.
'The people of the District of Co
iumbia, whose pride in this city is very
veal olu-o4-c
holders very largely use anthracite and
do not add at all to the smoke nuisance.
It is fact that in burning anthra-
cite, it IS practically impossible for any
one to make smoke. In burning btu
minous, even of the best grades, it re-
quires considerable care and attention
and very real intelligence to prevent
some smoke escaping from the CHM
ney. In burning oil, not even the most
Intelligent and continuous care can
prevent very considerable amount of
smoke escaping from the chimney.
why should 1t happen that in the
District of Columbia it should be the
operators of certain hotels, apartments
and Office buildings and the Federal
Government buildings who are the most
consistent and fragrant offenders against
all ideas of decency, and in fact against
all laws made by the Congress on this
subject Of smoke.
Secretary Wilbur of the Interior De-
parJment whose sound economic argli-
ment in favor of wise conservation has
appealed to all people, has indicated as
an economic crime the use of fuel oil
for the generation Of steam. If. this be
a true label, then those responsible for
Its installation in the State, War and
Navy Building are certainly guilty of
the crime. Fuel oil should be used in
its most effective manner and that Ger
tainly is not for burning it to generate
steam from its heat ..
Ordinance Against Home.
''For many years in the District Of
Columbia there has been an ordinance
on the statute books prohibiting any
house holder from causing black smoke
TO be emitted from his chimney. The
biggest householder of all in the Dis
trict, the Federal Government itself.
Is the worst offender of all against that
statute. We see in this statute a case
Of what happens by notification. Null
LITIGATION, after all. means the tEfowing
on OF all restraints and the excuses.
the orgies of smoke which have followed
the throwing off of all restraint through
notification of the smoke ordinance
are daily a horrible example for the
people of the District of Columbia.
Here in Washington, and in the
Middle Atlantic and the New England
States, we lie, from a traffic point of
view, in an area which has been more
blessed through the close proximity of
wonderful fuel than has any other
area of the worlds surface perhaps
In Eastern Pennsylvania. in a very
small area, due to a strange geological
happening of an earlier age, we find
those rich deposits of anthracite. whose
presence was noted in the little red
geography Of your school days. Out Of
the ground in that area has come in
the last hundred years a flow of the
most perfect household fuel that ex-
lists on this planet.
Nowhere else has there been any
such industrial development for the
benefit of mankind, and nowhere else
Is there found in this land an anthra-
cite coal OF anything like its wonderful
quality"
Representative Brumm of Pottsville
interrupted Coyle to announce that he
had recently changed apartments be-
cause OF the smoke prevailing in the
district where he resided. This nuis-
ance," Brumm said, ought to he RENE
died"
Coyle said thai Sn the anthracite
fields Of Pennsylvania there existed "a
nev "a of good will and understand
ing" as result of the efforts of Presi-
dent Hoover when he was Secretary of
Commerce and that a steady flow of
anthracite coal could be produced to
supply the District of Columbia.
The P0Hcsylvanian said that the pres
ent century probably would see the ex-
haustion of the natural oil and gas re-
sources and urged that he use Of an
thracite would delay that sine.
Use of bitulninous coal or prepared
sizes OF bituminouS which might be
classed as -hituminolIs coal hv the