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350 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
more than a drop in the bucket. Can
this country sit idly by and let the coal
and railway industries in their inefficient
way attempt to supply the needs of the
nations? For our own sakes, if not for
the remainder of humanity, the government
will have to control coal and perhaps
railways for some time. High
prices with a surplus of coal waiting to
be removed from the ground seem
absurd. Inadequate transportation facilities,
in like circumstances, seem equally
absurd. Till the great world crisis and
its aftermath are over, it looks as if these
two great industries in the United States
must go on under temporary government
ownership.
Two vital reasons, then, require Federal
control of mines. The first is a war
measure; the second is an industrial
measure—after the war. Our own
needs demand the first; the needs of the
world demand the second.
But why will war so greatly increase
the already huge and insistent demand
for coal?
Progress in chemical science is the
answer. Scientists and efficiency engineers
are unanimous in declaring that for
every ton of raw coal that is fed into the
furnaces, the smelters, the heating systems
of the United States today—costing
approximately six dollars per ton—between
two and three dollars' worth of
valuable by-products that could have been
saved with little or no detriment to the
fuel qualities of the coal are ignorantly
wasted.
In case of war, the United States
would have a tremendous need for the
low-temperature distillation products of
coal. These products are many, but the
ones most needed are coal tar and coal
gas. The first is the crude material
from which the giant powder is made
that bursts the huge shells fired from
the mouths of our cannon. The second
is an invaluable illuminant and fuel.
Neither is to be had in any quantities
in this country today, because we never
have considered a coal shortage or a war
of serious importance in the light of
present-day probability. Consumers have
demanded raw coal; private industry—
represented by the coal dealers—has not
seen fit to educate the public up to using
coke. This condition also has been fostered
by the deplorable fact that we have
not known what to do with our coal derivatives.
We have been throwing
literally precious millions into the street
by converting all our low-temperature
distillation products into paving pitch.
An inertia and ignorance exists in private
industry, which the United States,
in the present exigency, cannot afford to
wait to cope with. One of the very best
preparedness measures which we could
inaugurate today would be an immediate
confiscation of all coal properties.
This would be temporary, of course, and
would imply a complete reimbursement
of all present owners for such loss as
they would suffer.
Then would come complete reorganization.
It is a problem for the war department
and its corps of chemical experts,
largely, but it is probable that the reorganization
would mean the establishment
of huge distilling plants in each of
the coal-mining States; these plants
would send out every particle of coal in
the form of coke, and would divert to
government uses all the valuable distillation
derivatives that now are being
wasted.
It may be presumed then, that, as a
wise precaution, with the outbreak of
hostilities the Federal Government will
take over the operation of all our coal
mines. In like manner it may be presumed
that the Federal Government will
take over the operation of all our railway
systems.
With that much accomplished, the
maintenance of such control after our
war for as long a period as necessary,
should not be found to be particularly
difficult.
This much, we feel certain all will concede—that
to leave these matters in the
hands of private industry during the
period of strife would be a great mistake,
fraught with peril to the nation.