THE FUTURE OF GAS
The Passing of Coal as Fuel.—Leaders of American industry
believe, and are constantly preaching, a coming era of effective
conservation of all natural resources and efficient and economical
use of the public services. They foresee the time not only when
oil will be reserved for purposes of transportation by land and
sea and air, but also when the burning of raw fuel of any kind,
including coal, will be forbidden. They believe that the necessity
for conservation, together with the growing sense of the
nomic waste and the loss of health and efficiency as a result of
smoke, will result in coal being used exclusively as a raw material
rather than as fuel. It is believed that perhaps 70% of the
potential efficiency of coal is wasted in the average home and
where from 25 to 75% in industrial plants. A ton of coal used
in the manufacture of gas will produce approximately 1,400 lb.
of smokeless fuel (coke), i0,000 cu.ft. of gas, 25 lb. of ammonium sulphate, r gal. of benzol, and r o gal. of tar.
Smoke pollutes the atmos phere, injures the health and destroys property. It is claimed that more persons are devitalized, disabled and poisoned by the impurities contained in smoke-polluted air than by the noxious ingredients in food or water. Density of atmospheric smoke in creases pneumonia and causes other illnesses. As smoke diminishes sunlight and increases the humidity during both cold and warm weather, it is certain it exerts an important influence upon the health of all persons who live in a smoky city. The Mellon Insti tute estimates the annual smoke loss and damage in Pittsburgh is $10,000,000, or almost as much as the city's yearly bill for domestic fuel. Since Chicago has nearly five times the population of Pittsburgh, it is probably a conservative estimate to put the annual cost of smoke damage in that city at $20,000,000, or nearly double that of Pittsburgh. The total volume of air-diluted gases discharged from smoke stacks in Chicago each day amounts to approximately 47,000,000,000 cu.ft., or 58 times as much as the average daily consumption of manufactured gas.
Conservation of our natural re sources, including coal, is one of the big problems of the age. Few people realize the enormous amounts of coal and oil burned every year. Back in the days of the Civil War, roughly 33,000,000 tons of coal were produced annually and the consumption of petroleum, which was then just coming into use, was about gal. per caput. Today, about 3.8 tons of coal and 139 gals. of petro leum are consumed annually per person. Coal and oil sup plies will not last forever and they must be used in such a way that we will derive the maximum efficiency from them. As has been pointed out, electrification of the railroads of the country would effect an enormous saving in the amount of coal burned each year. Use of gas and coke for heating would also effect big savings, in addition to making possible the reclamation of valuable products from coal which now go up the chimney as smoke. When the day of electrification of railroads and gas-heated cities be comes possible there will no longer be any smoke nuisance and life in the cities will become more pleasant and healthful.
In America gas com panies and other utilities, such as electric light, telephone and street railway companies, are not only owned by those employed to manage them, but by thousands of investors. It is through sales of the securities that funds are provided for building the plants for the service of the people. These companies are regulated by State commissions in practically all States of the Union, which commissions fix the rates and supervise the service of the gas companies and other utilities. State laws require gas companies and other public utilities to render adequate service at just and reasonable rates. While rates thus imposed which afford less than a fair return are confiscatory and hence unjust and unreasonable, rates that happen to afford something more than a fair return are not for that reason exorbitant. Earnings and profits may have an important bearing on the question of reasonableness, but the value of the service to consumers must also be considered. Nor mally a reasonable rate should be higher than compensatory and less than exorbitant. The difference between the value of the service to the customer and the cost of producing and selling it, including cost of the necessary capital, must be equitably divided so that both parties profit by it. The question is rather one of economics than of arithmetic or mathematics.
Neither gas companies nor any of the other public utilities are allowed to charge rates that are high enough to enable them to make further additions to their plants from earnings. As the companies are permitted to earn only a fair return on the property, extensions and additions must be built with new money raised by the sale of additional securities. These securities are sold after the regulatory commissions have investigated and are satisfied that the money is to be spent for needed improvements.
(A. FOR.; R. B. HR.)
