THE WORLD'S NEED OF COAL AND THE UNITED 

 STATES' SUPPLY. 



BY O. P. AUSTIN. 



[Oscar Phelps Austin, chief of the United States bureau of statistics, treasury depart- 

 ment, United States; born in IlHnois; a writer throughout his business hfe as reporter, 

 editor, correspondent; author of Uncle Sam's Secrets, Uncle Sam's Soldiers, Colonial 

 Systems of the World, Colonial Administration, Commercial China, Commercial Japan- 

 Commercial India, Commercial Africa. Commercial Central and South America, Sub- 

 marine Telegraphs of the World, Great Canals of the World, and kindred works.] 



Our modern industrial system is so closely dependent 

 upon an adequate supply of mineral fuel that any disturb- 

 ance of normal conditions in the coal trade reacts immediately 

 upon the general state of industry. Under these circum- 

 stances a study of the world's production and consumption 

 of coal and the conditions of the coal trade in this country 

 presents special interest. 



One of the most characteristic features of modern in- 

 dustrial development has been the rise of the coal industry. 

 Modera society relies upon coal as the fuel and source of 

 power, and the terms iron age, machine age, and age of steam 

 may all be translated the age of coal. 



The rapidity with which the production of coal has in- 

 creased may be appreciated when we consider the present 

 volume of that production and reflect in how recent a time 

 the production formed but a very small fraction of that quan- 

 tity. In 1902 the total coal production of the world was 

 880,000,000 short tons. Until as late a period as 1878 the 

 world's production had never been half so great, being only 

 292,000,000 metric tons in that year, and not until 1868 had 

 the world's production been as much as a third as large as it 

 is at present. By 1864 the world's production was only 

 174,000,000 metric tons, or less than 29 per cent of the pro- 

 duction of 1896. 



The statistics of the world's production for still earlier 



186 



