pends largely on the perfecting of the processes of mining the coal, preparing it for market, and burning those portions which are now waste products.

In the past the general practice of mining has been to leave so much coal standing as pillars between the chambers out of which the coal is being taken as to keep the roof rock from falling, the amount required for this purpose varying from one-quarter to one-half of the whole content of the bed. The waste from this source will be greatly reduced in the future by some of the various methods practised in European countries, such as blasting down the overlying rock and building of this material walls to serve as pillars, so that the coal pillars may be taken out.

After the coal has been hoisted from the mine, a large percentage is destroyed for practical purposes in the process of breaking and screening it into sizes suitable for marketing, which two operations are technically termed "preparing" the coal. These operations result in reducing a large proportion of the coal to sizes too fine for the market, the percentage of waste from this source varying very greatly, being comparatively small where the coal is tough and the best appliances for breaking are used, and large where the coal is friable and the breaking machinery is unsuitable. On the whole, the average waste in "preparation" in the past has not fallen much short of twenty per cent of the coal hoisted from the collieries. This has been much diminished of late years chiefly by the utilization of the smaller sizes of coal. This economy has progressed so far that whereas not more than ten years ago most of the coal was thrown away that was of sizes smaller than pea coal, which corresponds in size to an ordinary chestnut, there is now a general marketing of all sizes of coal down to "No. 2 buckwheat," which is about the size of grains of Indian corn. This is an enormous saving, for these sizes, which were wasted ten years ago, amount at some collieries to more than twenty per cent of the whole production.

And this process of rescuing fuel from the waste heaps is destined to go much further, in the more general use of the finer particles of coal, whether by improved appliances for burning the smaller coals, or by combining them into larger pieces by pressure after the admixture of some adhesive substance, or by teaching the consumer that much of that which he now rejects because of its unsightly appearance is fuel of excellent quality; as, for instance, that which is called Lehigh "bony" coal, and which is discredited on account of

dull streaks running through it, is known locally, and has been proved by chemical analysis, to be exceptionally pure coal, capable of producing as good results as that which is most lustrous. On the whole, it may not be going too far to suppose that improved methods of mining and of preparing the coal, and the increased utilization of the coal waste, may enable us to use as fuel one-half of the coal now remaining, so that we may assume that there are still 5,960,700,000 tons of anthracite available before the beds shall be wholly exhausted.

This is perhaps an extreme estimate. It is certainly much larger than the one I made in 1880, when it was my duty to study this subject in connection with a report on the Reading coal lands. But most of the improved and more conservative methods of mining, preparing, and burning coal that justify the present estimate had not then come into use, and that estimate was intentionally conservative, while this one is intentionally liberal. It is likely that under favorable circumstances the mining of the next twenty years may realize a larger percentage than one-half of the coal in the ground, and the enhanced price may in the future act as an extraordinary inducement to economy in mining; so that results of which we now have no conception may be realized. All that it is safe to say in regard to any prediction on this subject is that it will probably be falsified by the event. I can only remark now that I cannot conjecture whether this one is more likely to err on the side of excess or of deficiency.

The time that will elapse before the total exhaustion of the anthracite supply depends, of course, on the rate at which it is used. We have, as before stated, reached an annual consumption of 40,000,000 tons, and this consumption has been for some years increasing at the rate of four per cent per annum. But it is not likely that this rate of increase will long continue. The whole coal field is so well supplied with collieries, and some parts of it are now so near their probable maximum rate of yield, that it may be assumed that the annual output will never be increased more than fifty per cent above the present amount. If the limit of annual product is placed at 60,000,000 tons, we should have coal at this average rate for about 100 years, though this period may be somewhat prolonged by the diminution of the output as parts of the field cease altogether to produce.

The recent consolidation of the interests of several of the largest transporters of anthracite, which together carry to market about fiftyseven per cent of the total product, has caused much comment and provoked some criticism. The projectors of this movement expect to

benefit themselves without injury to the consumer by mining more cheaply, which they can do through the cessation of work at the expensive collieries, thus permitting the more constant operation of the profitable ones; by transporting more cheaply, because the business will be better systematized, and, moving more regularly, will not require so large a transportation equipment; and by marketing more cheaply, as each interest need no longer employ agents to undersell the others. A firm maintenance of the published prices may prevent the largest purchasers from obtaining such advantages over the smaller consumers as they have been able to get in the past; but the price of coal need not be advanced to the ordinary buyer, and very considerable gain to the producer and transporter can be made out of the conservation of the energy which has been hitherto wasted in the friction of the parts.

This movement is one of many attempts which are now being made to get away from the false idea that competition is the sole law which should regulate trade, and to base industrial operations on the truer thought that business should rest on organization, co-operation, and reasonable consideration for the prosperity of others. In other words, it is beginning to be recognized that industrial warfare is no better a regulator of business than private warfare is of social intercourse. It is this feeling-for it has scarcely yet come to be a governing thought-that has led to the organization of labor on the one hand, and to the organization of capital on the other, labor seeking to reduce its hours and increase its earnings, and capital, which is crystallized labor, striving to prevent the dissipation of what it has so laboriously gathered. Each is wrong in its aims when it seeks exclusive domination; both will be right when they learn that they are forces which must work in harmony to carry out the ancient command to subdue and replenish the earth. Strikes and trusts are the clumsy attempts of the giants, Labor and Capital, to carve out each a world in which he shall be sole lord. Co-operation will be the form in which they will work together when they realize, as they are coming to do, that as enemies they can only harm each other, while as allies they are masters of the world.

JOSEPH S. HARRIS.

THE GERMANS AS EMIGRANTS AND COLONISTS.

THE impulse to leave old homes and to seek elsewhere more favorable conditions of existence is an important progressive factor in the history of mankind, whether it be that uncultivated territories are opened to immigration, that more hopeful and stronger elements take the place of weaker and lower ones, or that the union of different races produces a more vigorous generation But although the change of homes is constantly recurring, its forms differ, for it may be either forcible conquest or peaceful colonization. One great cause of emi gration, namely, religious and political persecution, is to-day, with the exception of the barbarous persecutions in Russia, extinct, and the main cause of modern emigration is the disproportion between the population and the means of subsistence. Men leave their overcrowded homes in order to find more profitable employment in foreign parts. France has scarcely any emigration, because her population does not increase, nay, has decreased; Russia has none, because her scanty population has unlimited elbow-room in that huge empire; but, on the other hand, Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany furnish the largest proportion of emigrants because they are over-peopled. Overpopulation has operated the more intensely in the period from 1830 down to the present day, because progressive civilization has furnished the means to avoid the gaps which formerly were created by famine, contagious diseases, and wars. By the Thirty Years' War, Germany lost more than half of her population; the continuous wars of the eighteenth century and of the period of the French Revolution had a similar effect, and in 1815 the country was decidedly under-peopled. But during the ensuing long period of peace the population rose fast, as is shown by the following table:

This increase is the more noteworthy, as the total German emigration from 1820 to 1888 is estimated at about 6,000,000, whilst the immigration was quite insignificant. The population has, therefore, more than doubled in a comparatively limited period. It is true that a country is not necessarily over-peopled if it have more inhabitants than its soil can support, for it may buy abroad the requisite food which is paid for by the products of its industry. This is the case with Germany. Formerly an agricultural country, it has become more and more an industrial one. In 1830 its total commerce per capita was $6, and in 1882, $35. Formerly self-supplying with food, it now imports more than $100,000,000 worth of corn a year. It, therefore, has principally to rely on the export of manufactured goods, which have to struggle with many difficulties. Geographically, Germany does not form a compact economic territory like France and England. Most of our largest industrial districts are obliged to go for import and export service to foreign ports, such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Havre, which, on account of their more favorable maritime situations, outstrip Hamburg and Bremen by several days. Our richest coal-mines are far distant from the sea.

German industry, therefore, in order to compete successfully in foreign markets, is obliged to produce at cheaper prices, which involve lower wages, and consequently the workmen are frequently underfed and overworked. Constantly new inventions make greater the economy of human labor, which, with the increase of the population, has the result of making the supply of labor in excess of the demand. Of course this struggle for life would be still more intense but for emigration, which furnishes somewhat more room for the remaining inhabitants. But, on one hand, large as this emigration appears, in comparison with the increase of the population it is by far too small to act as a sufficient corrective. From 1872 to 1876 the excess of births over deaths was 8,656,644, whilst the emigration amounted to only 1,500,000, its total from 1820 to 1888 being about 6,000,000 and the increase of the population 23,000,000. On the other hand, emigration, if it somewhat alleviates the condition of the remaining population, is by no means an unqualified boon, for most emigrants are in the prime of life. A given number of emigrants represents a far larger amount of productive power than the same number of the average population. Besides, the emigrants do not belong to the class of paupers, for these have neither the necessary capital for paying the passage and the cost of the first settlement, nor generally the capac