DOMESTIC FUEL. 27 



electric power, thus relieving coal of unnecessary duties, and by- 

 improvements in utilization, thus destroying the over-dependence 

 upon high-grade coals which now necessitates undue haulage. 



The wastes in utilization may be done away with by establishing a 

 method of separating the energy-producing constituents of coal from 

 the commodity values and using the products to their common 

 advantage. The most logical point of attack is the municipality, 

 to which may be attached a public utility plant converting raw coal 

 into smokeless fuel — artificial anthracite plus gas, or gas alone — and 

 valuable by-products, ammonia, benzol, and tar. Such a plant would 

 supply the fuel needs of the community and ship the surplus by- 

 products to serve as raw material for a coal-products industry, devel- 

 oped thereby to proportions consistent with its importance to social 

 progress. 



Integrated mining will lessen the increased costs that will come 

 with the impending extraction of thick-seam and easily obtainable 

 coals. 



Reduced coal transportation will remove an unnecessary burden 

 from the railways and prevent the repetition of the congestion 

 difficulties so acutely felt during the winter of 1917-18. 



By-product utilization will give cheaper fuel through the advan- 

 tageous disposition of all the values contained. It will also end the 

 smoke nuisance, relieve transportation, and cause the growth of a 

 great coal-products industry with ultimate possibiHties ranging 

 beyond the grasp of the imagination. 



This paper does not presume to set forth the exact methods whereby 

 these results may be attained; the procedures remain to be worked 

 out in detail. Its purpose, however, has been to present a line of 

 attack, drawn up on the basis of the character and extent of the 

 resource, which may be followed to specific advantage. There are 

 no serious technical obstacles in the way; the chief requisite for 

 progress is a popular appreciation of the fact that coal contains 

 greater values than society is getting from it. From this realization 

 will spring a public demand that scientific and technical knowledge 

 be used, not merely in making improvements in the details of present 

 practice but in revising that practice itself and shaping a policy of 

 administration more in keeping with what is known to be the poten- 

 tiality of coal. "Mankind," writes John Dewey, "so far has been 

 ruled by things and by words, not by thought * * * jf QyQj. 



we are to be governed by intelligence, not by things and words, 

 science must have something to say about what we do and not merely 

 how we may do it more easily and economically." ^ 



' It should be borne in mind that fundamental changes in coal economics are capable of just as much 

 harm if handled ill-advisedly as of good if competently directed. Unless a tj'pe of public management 

 superior to anything this country has developed in the past can be put forth, the whole matter might 

 better be left in its present state of inadequacy. 



