CONDITIONS IN PARTICULAR INDUSTRIES. 325

whole export lumber industry—inside and outside of the combination—might
 gain through an increased demand for their product
abroad, created by the propaganda work of the combinations. The
benefits to the nation, as a whole, from the work of these combinations
 may be mentioned in more detail. They would come through
increasing the stability of an industry which employs a large working
population, and the increase in the national wealth due to the economies
 effected by the combinations in the conduct of the export
business. They would come through the sale abroad of high grades
of lumber at relatively much higher prices than the conditions of the
domestic market warrant; through any increase in export lumber
prices due to the effective action of unified bargaining power in
dealing with the combined purchasers of foreign markets; and through
the profitable sale of common and low-grade material, which otherwise
 would be left to waste in the forests because of insufficient
demand for it in domestic consumption. Through all these ways
the country not only receives from the foreign consumer a more adequate
 return for a great American natural resource, but a higher degree
of utilization of that natural resource is also made possible.
SECTION 9. COAL.

INTRODUCTION.

Coal is one of the most promising commodities for the future
development of a heavy export trade from the United States. This
ountry has the greatest deposits of coal of any in the world. Its
reserves are estimated to be greater than those of all other nabions
 combined.! It has an abundance of coals of especially fine
quality for all the uses to which this mineral is put, from household
purposes to the most exacting metallurgical and steam demands.
fmmense producing fields are near enough tidewater to facilitate
export business. Suitable coal-handling equipment is already in
use at many ports. The production of coal has been developed on
a larger scale, with a greater use of mechanical equipment, and at
a lower average cost per ton than in any of the important Furopean
coal-producing countries. In 1913, the last complete year prior to
the war the United States was credited with 89.5 per cent of the
world’s output, while Great Britain contributed but 22 per cent
and Germany but 20 per cent of the total.?
With all these advantages in its favor, however, the United States
was exporting much less than either Great Britain or Germany.
In fact, British exports of coal were three and one-third times thosa

1The Coal Resources of the World, Executive Committee of the Twelfth International
Geological Congress, Canada. 1913, Vol. I, pp. xviii and xxxiii.
3U. 8. Geol. Survey: Mineral Resources of the United States, Part 1I, 1913, Production
of Cual, p. 781.