GREATEST COAL SHORTAGE IN HISTORY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 287, 30 August 1919, Page 10

GREATEST COAL SHORTAGE IN HISTORY

WHAT AMERICA PACES NEXT WINTER. The National Coal Association of America has sent out an appeal to the public to buy ooal now in anticipation of a coun-try-wide shortage that is likely to send prices up to a prohibitive figure. "Tho greatest coal shortage in history" is predicted for next winter unless production is stimulated 25 per cent, or more immediately. At the present rale of production, it is said, one industrial plaJit out of every eight in the United States will have to shut down next winter for lack of coal. For- the first twenty-four weeks of 1919 the production of bituminous coal is 1)5,000,000 short of what it should be to meet the nation's requirements of 530,000,000 tons, according to the statement of tho National Coal Association. Various causes are given for the failure of the mines to keep up production, among them tho refusal of many miners who were laid off during the warm last winter to return and the emigration of thousands of European workmen. Evidence is not wanting ofm world-wide shortage of coal because of tho extraordinary demands for industrial purposes since tho ending of the war. At tho present time America is by far the oheapest markot in which to buy.