Enough has been said, perhaps, to indicate how vast are the fields of
coal which this country holds. It may be that any day some genius will
release from nature a power that will make of little value our
carboniferous deposits save for their chemical content. By the
application of the sun's rays, or the use of the unceasing motion of
the waves of the sea, the whole dependence of the world upon coal may be
upset. That day, however, has not yet come; and until it does we may
consider our coal as the surest insurance which we can have that America
can meet the severest contest that any industrial rival can present. It
is more than insurance--it is an asset which can bring to us the
certainty of great wealth, and if we care to exercise it, a mastery over
the fate and fortunes of other peoples.
Next to the fertility of our soil, we have no physical asset as valuable
as our coal deposits. Although we are sometimes alarmed because those
deposits nearest to the industrial centers are rapidly declining and we
can already see within this century the end of the anthracite field, if
it is made to yield as much continuously as at present, yet it is a safe
generalization that we have sufficient coal in the United States to last
our people for centuries to come. An extra scuttleful on the fire or
shovelful in the furnace does not threaten the life of the race, even if
some Russian or Chinese of the future does not resolve the atom or
harness the hidden forces of the air. Whatever fears other nations may
justifiably have as to their ability to continue in the vast rush of a
machine world, there can be no question of our ability to last.
The present strike, however, makes quite clear, perhaps for the first
time, that it is not the coal in the mountain that is of value, but that
which is in the yard. And between the two there may be a great gulf
fixed. Therefore, we are put to it to make the best of what we have. We
turn from telling how much coal we use to a study of how little we can
live upon and do the day's work of the Nation. And this is, I believe,
as it should be. Indeed I feel justified in saying that the problem of
this strike is not to be solved in its deeper significances until we
know much more about coal than we know now, and this especially as to
the manner in which it is taken from its bed and brought to our cellars.