i6o TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



convenient access to the anthracite regions, like the Lackawanna and 

 the Eeading; but other companies maintain that the cost of the coal 

 and of changing their boilers prohibits the introduction of anthracite. 



There is always some reason for not doing the obviously proper 

 thing ! 



It is to be hoped, however, that the despatch of June 17 from 

 Chicago is well founded. It reads to the effect that 



The general managers of railroads centering in Chicago claim that a deter- 

 mined campaign has been begun to secure greater economy in the use of coal, 

 and at the same time reduce the smoke nuisance. Perhaps the most virtuous 

 exponent of fuel economy is the Pennsylvania, the management of which has 

 just started a campaign of education among its firemen. 



To sum up : The elimination of the smoke nuisance, so far as the 

 railroads are concerned, is feasible. Primarily it is a matter of proper 

 firing and the use of the right sort of materials. The railroad officials 

 are considering the question from various standpoints; some with a 

 sincere desire to do all that possibly can be done as quickly as possible ; 

 others as rapidly as they are forced to do it by the law and by a militant 

 public opinion; and a rear guard of hold-backs who are still closing 

 their eyes to the obviously inevitable. These men will some day be 

 disagreeably awakened, for the public is awakening on the subject and 

 it expects everybody else to be. 



