CHEAP COAL AN IMPERIAL NECESSITY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 192, 9 May 1919, Page 3

CHEAP COAL AN IMPERIAL NECESSITY

W. A. Bone, of tho Imperial College ot Science and Technology lecturing on "Fuel Economy" at the Kovnl Society of Arts reoently, said that tho world power of the British Empire was due to the supremacy of its mercantile marine, .and that supremacy was bound up with cheap coal and iron. Tho cost of getting coal was largely tho cost of. wages, and.'tho'. question of wages was very largely the question of the cost of food. We could not have at the same timo dear food and relatively cheap coal.andirithout the latter he did not think our commeroial position could bo maintained. A feature which was at present germano to tho Coal Inquiry was that of output. The thing which gnvo him most misgiving in the coal; situation wits that, owing to shallower mines, thicker seams, easier won coal, and employment ot' machinery, the output in the United States had risen to (151 tons per man employed in and above ground, whereas die output in this country had fallen to between 2-50 and 2WJ tons per man.