Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1898 — Boom Indiana Coal. [ARTICLE]

Boom Indiana Coal.

State Geologist Blatchley believes that the people of Indiana should think more seriously of the n b'lif’ S '<■ H r ql field o of the State then of the failing gas supply. His forthcoming report will deal with this exhaustively. In his leet report Mr. Blatchlev called attention to the fact that the gas fields gave every indication that the supply could not last more than four years in any considerable quantities, and that the people, both manufacturers and householders, would be compelled to return to the use of coal at an early date. In speaking of this recently he said that the sections of the State in which the coal deposits are being worked are destined, withiu a comparatively short time, to be the manufacturing center of Indiana. He will show in his report that there is cosl enough to last two centuries. As the industries in the gas belt are obliged to seek new fields on account of the failing supply of gas, they will be irresistibly attracted to the coal field. Mr. Blatchley says it is his personal opinion that the heart of the gas belt will supply gas for manufacturing purposes only two or three years more, and within that time the real value of tne Indiana coal deposits will be realized as they never have been before.