COAL 183 



States has been coincident with the rapid advancement of 

 this country in the last few years to the front rank among 

 the industrial nations of the world. Indeed, the country's 

 progress has been due largely to the abundance and cheapness 

 of its mineral fuels, chief among which is coal. Most of this 

 development has taken place during the last two decades 

 and has far exceeded the growth in population, indicating 

 a rapid change from an agricultural to a manufacturing nation. 

 A comparison of the growth in population with the increase 

 in production presents some interesting facts in support of 

 this statement. The ninth census was the first which took 

 separate cognizance of the mining industry, but the United 

 States geological survey has compiled from such records 

 as are available an approximate statement of the annual 

 coal production of the United States from the year when the 

 first anthracite coal was mined in Pennsylvania (1814) to 

 the close of 1902. 



At the taking of the census of 1820 the production of 

 coal in this country was less than 500 tons, all of which was 

 Pennsylvania anthracite. The population of the United States 

 in that year was 9,638,453. In 1830, when the population 

 had grown to 12,866,020, the production of coal amounted 

 to 318,072 short tons. At the end of the next decade the 

 population of the United States was 17,069,453, and the coal 

 output was 1,785,574 short tons. The production per capita 

 in that year (1840) was 0.105 ton. This was the first census 

 year in which the coal production amounted to 0.1 ton for 

 each person. In 1850, when the inhabitants numbered 

 23,191,876, the output of coal mines amounted to only 6,445,- 

 681 short tons, or 0.28 ton for each person. The census of 

 1860 gave a population of 31,443,321, and the coal produc- 

 tion was 16,169,736 short tons, or 0.51 ton per capita. When 

 the ninth census was taken the coal production w^as still less 

 than 1 ton for each inhabitant, the population being 38,558,371 

 and the coal production amounting to 36,806,560, or 0.96 ton 

 per capita. 



In 1880, when the population had increased to 50,189,209, 

 the production of coal had grown to 76,157,944 short tons, 

 or 1.52 tons per capita. The mining census for the calendar 



