Electricity and goal mining

While the far western states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) are known much more for metal mining than for coal, their ultimate natural wealth in coal nevertheless far exceeds that of all combined metallic resources. Government estimates place the combined coal tonnage in the above mentioned states as only a trifle less than 50 per cent of the total coal tonnage of the entire United States, yet these states now produce less than five per cent of the annual output of the United States. Utah alone is credited with having within its boundaries nearly 200,000,000,000 tons of coal and to date has mined less than 100,000,000 tons or about 5/100 of one per cent, annual tonnage mined being around 5,000,000. From the above it will be seen that coal constitutes a vital part of the resources of the West and while water-generated electricity is a strong competitor of coal, yet much of the coal mined goes to generate electricity and on the other hand electricity enters very actively into the mining of coal. Consequently the subject of electricity and coal mining is of decided interest to the West as well as to all of the rest of the United States, but as it is a very broad subject, this paper will be confined chiefly to influence of electricity at the mines rather than including the broader subject of influence on markets.