CONSERVATION THROUGH ENGINEERING ' 



By FRANKLIN K. LANE. 



In an age of machinery the measure of a people's industrial 

 capacity seems to be surely fixed by its motive power possibilities. 

 Civilized nations regard an adequate fuel supply as the very founda- 

 tion of national prosperity indeed, almost as the Very foundation 

 of national possibility. I am convinced that there will be a reaction 

 against the intense industrialism of the present, butj~as it must 

 be agreed that the race for industrial supremacy is on between the , 

 nations of the world, America may well take stock of her own power 

 possibilities and concern herself more actively with their develop- 

 ment and wisest use. 



THE COAL STRIKE. 



The coal strike has brought concretely before us the disturbing 

 fact that modern society is so involved that we live virtually by ' 

 unanimous consent. Let less than one-half of 1 per cent of our 

 population quit their work of digging coal and we are threatened \ 

 with the combined horrors of pestilence and famine. 



It did not take many hours after it was realized that the coal 

 miners were in earnest for the American imagination to conceive 

 what might be the state of the country in perhaps another 30 days. 

 Industries closed, railroads stopped, streets dark, food cut off, houses 

 freezing, idle men by the million hungry and in the dark this was 

 the picture, and not a ver}^ pleasant one to contemplate. There was 

 an immediate demand for facts. 



How much coal is normally mined in this country ? 



By whom is it mined ? 



What is its quality ? 



To what uses is it put ? 



Who gets it? 



1 Extract from the annual report of the Secretary of the Interior for the fiscal year 

 ended June 30. 1919. The page numbers are the same as those in the report. 



1 



