Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1917 — Future of United States As Industrial Nation Rests on Conservation of Coal [ARTICLE]

Future of United States As Industrial Nation Rests on Conservation of Coal

By W. L. SAUNDERS

of New York

- TheUniLedESLates leads TfieTworld in industrial activities, and our natural resources form the basis of this success, so it is natural that it we wish to maintain this enviable position in the industrial wofld it is essential that we conserve our natural resources. We are an industrial, not an agricultural nation. It is because wc have advanced from the farm to the workshop that we have grown great and rich. The true measure of ah industrial nation is its consumption of coal. The first result of partial mineral exhaustion will be increased prices. This, of course, will restrain industry. It will also restrain our ability tc defend ourselves in war, for everyone knows that the supremacy of a nation in war today depends on its strength and capacity in oil, coal,'iron and other minerals. Plenty of soldiers, and even plenty of money are not sufficient to resist attack. In the matter of coal, competitive struggle of operators to maintain a place and to keep out of bankruptcy obliged them to mine only the easy places in the seam, leaving the rest of the ground perhaps never to be utilized. Federal experts in the forest service have pointed out that in the lumber industry practically the same conditions exist as in coal.