6 CONSERVATION THROUGH ENGINEERING. 



the largest item. It follows that the short year is a source of loss to 

 both operator and mine worker and is a tax on the consumer. 1 



With substantially the same number of mines and miners working 

 this year as last, the accumulative production for the first 10 months 

 of this year is 100,000,000 tons less than that mined in the same 

 period last year. This 25 per cent loss in output means that both 

 plant and labor have been less productive, and, in terms of capital 

 and labor, coal cost the Nation more this year than last. For in the 

 long run both capital and labor require a living wage. 



The public must accept responsibility for the coal industry and 

 pay for carrying it on the year round. Mine operators and mine 

 workers of whatever mines are necessary to meet the needs of the 

 country must be paid for a year's work. The shorter the working 

 year the less coal is mined per man and per dollar invested in plant, 

 and eventually the higher priced must be the coal. It is obvious that 

 the 264 short tons of coal mined by the average British miner last 

 year could not be as cheap per ton as the 942 tons mined by the 

 average American mine worker, backed up as he was with more 

 efficient plant. (A proud contrast!) 



It would clearly appear that the coal business may be stabilized, 

 not wholly, but in a very large measure, in some of the western fields, 2 

 if the public does not regard its supply of coal as it does its supply 

 of domestic water, which requires only that the faucet shall be opened 

 to bring forth a gushing supply. Coal does not have pressure behind 

 it which forces it out of the mine and into the coal yard. It rather 

 must be drawn out by the suction of demand. And herein the public 

 must play its part by keeping that demand as steady and uniform as 

 possible. 



1 In spite of the strike order, effective the last day of the week, the production of 

 soft coal during the seven days Oct. 26-Nov. 1 was greater than in any week this year 

 save one. The exception was the preceding week, that of Oct. 25, which full reports 

 now confirm as the record in the history of coal mining in the United States. The 

 total production during the week ended Nov. 1 (including lignite and coal made into 

 coke) Is estimated at 12,142,000 net tons, an average per working day of 2,024,000 tons. 



Indeed had it not been for the strike, curtailing the output of Saturday, the week of 

 Nov. 1 would have far outstripped its predecessor. The extraordinary efforts made by 

 the railroads to. provide cars bore fruit in a rate of production during the first five 

 days of the week which, if maintained for the 304 working days of full-time year, would 

 yield 715,000,000 tons of coal. It is worth noting that this figure is almost identical 

 with the 700,000,000 tons accepted early in 1918 by the Geological Survey and the 

 Railroad Administration as representing the country's annual capacity. During these 

 five days, therefore, the soft-coal mines were working close to actual capacity. There 

 can be little doubt that the output on Monday, Oct. 27, was the largest ever attained 

 in a single day. (U. 8. Geol. Survey Bull.) 



a It is the western and southern fields that are most affected by the seasonal demand. 

 As a typical example, Illinois may be cited, with 18 per cent of the year's production 

 in 25 per cent of the time, April, May, and June, in 1915, and 15 per cent in 1916. 

 Retail dealers received 27 per cent of the coal from Illinois in the period from August, 

 1918, to February, 1919, compared with 4 per cent from the Pittsburgh, Pa., field. 



