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



dirt for their fuel dependency? Anthracite is fast becoming a 

 luxury. Is the public ready to curtail the use of automobiles and 

 motor transport within the next few years because of the rising 

 cost of gasoline ? The petroleum resource is already showing signs 

 of exhaustion. Is it wise for this country to ignore its water-power 

 resources ? Under present conditions water-power sites, with choice 

 exceptions, can not be developed. If we are prepared to answer 

 these questions in the affirmative the whole matter may be dis- 

 missed. Otherwise, the present situation must come up for revision. 



These are the most immediate points of practical contact with the 

 energy problem. They all involve issues of the day — transporta- 

 tion, domestic fuel, motor fuel, water power. But these are not all. 

 What are the civic losses due to smoke ? What of the values going 

 to waste when raw coal is burned? Can these be saved and made 

 to contribute to a lowered fuel cost? What are the chances of 

 building up a large coal-products industry in this country? Has 

 chemistry as yet wrested its full count from coal tar ? What will we 

 miss by not cultivating this field? Can coal solve our nitrogen 

 problem? What are the by-product possibilities in petroleum? 

 Wliat will the far west do for fuel when its oil supply begins to run 

 out ? Why is hydroelectric power much cheaper in foreign countries 

 than in the United States ? What bearing will this have upon the 

 upgrowth of electrochemical industries? What can we save by 

 reconstructing our energy situation? And what can we gain in 

 addition to what we save ? Can the United States afford to ignore 

 this field in view of what is being done in this direction abroad ? 



These matters are pressing forward for attention. They are all 

 involved in the single problem of our energy resources. This study 

 has sought to face these questions squarely and to record the 

 answers that the resource group itself provides in the light of modern 

 technological attainments and current economic practice. We have 

 a certain but bountiful measure of material resources; the amount is 

 fairly accurately known. The aggregate of scientific knowledge 

 bearing on the utilization of these resources is considerable; progress 

 here is rapid and the field responds readily to cultivation. The 

 employment of the energy resources is now directed by certain types 

 of economic institutions and procedure; some are satisfactory, 

 others can be made so upon modification. Here are the three factors 

 in the situation — ^resources, technology, economic procedure. The 

 resources are material things, with limitations fixed by the laws of 

 physics, chemistry, and geology. Technology is a human product, 

 limited only by the genius of man; thus far in the history of the 

 world it has developed largely in response to specific needs; its 

 power as a broad force, to be mobilized and directed to a given end, 

 has scarcely yet been tried; heretofore it has been a tool in the 



