26 BULLETIN 102, VOL. 1, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



be to relieve the further upward tendency from the acute increase 

 which present conditions will inevitably create. The result, in fine, 

 will be to prolong to the utmost the period of cheap coal.^ 



The advantages of integration in coal production are well known in 

 other countries. The thin seams of the eastern coal fields of Canada 

 can only be worked under a cooperative system, as pointed out by 

 the Canadian Department of Mines. Belgian mining law imposes the 

 obligation of cooperative measures upon the coal-mining concession- 

 aire. Cooperative coal marketing has been successfully practiced in 

 many parts of the world, notably in Germany and in the Transvaal. 



In short, coal as a resource demands cooperative measures of 

 development. This is true of coal in pecuHar degree and holds 

 equally for few other resources. The reason is twofold. In the first 

 place, coal deposits do not lend themselves, as do many other types 

 of mineral deposits, to a graded extraction of values according to the 

 strength of economic demand. In the second place, coal as the major 

 source of power is the basis of modern life, and as such imposes upon 

 organized society a direct responsibility to insure its most effective 

 disposition. 



SUMMARY. 



Coal is a resource requisite to the functioning of every other re- 

 source. The home, industry, and commerce are entirely dependent 

 upon its adequacy. Coal is the basis of organized life. Other raw 

 materials are merely parts of the social fabric — incidental to it; iron, 

 for example, does not come to the consumer as such, but coal is com- 

 fort and energy as weU as a commodity to be manufactured. Coal, 

 therefore, in its far-reaching consequences, has assumed a responsi- 

 bility equalled by no other substance. 



Under present conditions, coal fails to measure up to that responsi- 

 bility. It is wastefuUy mined, wastefully distributed, and wastefuUy 

 utilized. It is wastefuUy mined because of the conditions of competi- 

 tion which society imposes upon its exploitation. It is wastefully 

 distributed as a result of the unnecessary transportation in regions 

 supphed with water power or with coals less desirable than those con- 

 sumed. It is wastefuUy used due to the lack of by-product recovery 

 as an accepted economic practice. 



The wastes in mining may be decreased through integrated opera- 

 tions, which wiU obviate the economic, necessity for waste. Coal 

 submits itself to integration as a public utUity. 



The wastes in distribution may be reduced through the develop- 

 ment of hydro electricity and the coal-field generation of carbo- 



1 It need scarcely be pointed out the advantages of by-product utilization may be realized without the 

 gains of integrated mining, but the first may be largely nullified through the neglect of the =PCond. 



