MINEEAL INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES— CO AL PRODUCTS. 7 
Within the immediate range of vision of a great share of the 
public, anthracite offers an even more familiar sight than the bi- 
tuminous grades of coal ; and, as a matter of fact, quite apart from 
the more intimate nature of its relationship to household economy, it 
furnishes nearly a fifth of the total for consumption. In the face of 
this ratio in consumption, the extent of the country’s resources in 
the two directions provides a contrast replete with significance in 
connection with the domestic fuel situation. From the evolutionary 
sketch it comes as a natural inference that the occurrences of anthra- 
cite are restricted, but the degree of limitation affecting its occur- 
rence is not generally appreciated. A map of the United States 
showing the areal distribution of the two is reproduced on plate 4, 
and a graphic expression of the comparison in terms of bulk is 
included amongst others on plate 3. A glance at these is sufficient 
for the conclusion that the responsibility imposed on anthracite coal 
is out of all proportion to the resources at hand. 
The present purpose is not concerned in the moral issues involved 
between anthracite production and consumption. It is enough that 
there exists the national predicament of a household fuel dependency 
so restricted as to be open to control by the merest few operators 
acting in concert. Furthermore, whatever the call for the exercise 
of a corrective influence over the conduct of the operations, funda- 
mentally the predicament, with all of its unfortunate tendencies, 
arises as the normal outgrowth from an ever-increasing demand 
upon resources of an altogether disproportionately limited order. 
Accordingly the mere heaping of condemnation upon what, despite 
any incidental shortcomings, constitutes one of the most efficient 
types of producing organization in American industry is as futile 
as it is superficial. Substantial relief is to be found only in some 
form of fundamental revision opening up enlarged domestic fuel 
availabilities. 
Only the unsubstantiated imagination can range beyond the use of 
coal in one guise or another as a fuel basis, so for direct practical 
results the country must turn to its vast bituminous coal resources. 
The prospect opening up directly in the extended use of raw bitumi- 
nous coal is not a refreshing one, however, for aside from the dis- 
comfort it means to the individual user, it brings a vision of disaster 
impending over the work of civic betterment. Smoke, it is true, 
merely implies incomplete combustion, or, in other words, the escape 
of distilling volatile matters before they may be consumed, and 
insuring complete combustion would in itself obviate the smoke-pro- 
ducing objection to raw bituminous coal; but complete smokeless 
combustion as a result from the general use of bituminous coal in 
the home at least may safely be regarded as an unattainable ideal. 
Smokeless combustion as a generally applicable reality can result 
