CRISIS IN COAL: CRISIS IN COAL

The Cure Is Drastic But Essential

IN the midst of the nation's greatest boom, one major U.S. industry is gravely ill. Coal, once prince of U.S. power, has become a pauper. In the past 30 years, its work force has shrunk from 884,000 to 400,000. One-third of the remaining force is out of work or has gone into other jobs. During the past year more than 130 mines closed down, and in six years annual production of coal has dropped from 630.6 million tons to an estimated 440 million tons this year—less than was produced in 1912.

Such statistics are evidence that coal...

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