lization. Under present world conditions
such a step would be disastrous.

10. Government ownership has been proposed as a means of facilitating
the introduction of conservation measures. In the United States there is
yet no major movement in this direction. In England the question of
nationalization of coal mines is an extremely live political problem
(see pp. 343, 345-347).

Little progress has been made in conservation measures which involve
legal enactments of the kinds above listed.

=(D) Distribution, and transportation of coal.= It has been argued that
conservational results would ensue from:

1. Cheaper transportation.

2. Larger use of waterways.

3. Improvement in distribution of the product by partition of the market
and by larger use of local coals. For effectiveness this proposition
would have to include control of the agencies of distribution, in order
to minimize excessive profits of middlemen.

4. Purchasing and storage of coal by consumers during the spring and
summer months in anticipation of the winter requirements, in order to
equalize the present highly fluctuating seasonal demands on the mines
and railroads, and to eliminate the recurring shortages of coal in the
winter months. This was particularly recommended by the United States
Bituminous Coal Commission in a recent report.[57]

5. Where conditions allow it, conversion of coal into power at the mine
and delivery of power rather than coal to consuming centers. This type
of conservation is being put into practice on a large scale above
Wheeling, on the Ohio River, where there has recently been built a two
hundred thousand kilowatt installation for steam-generated electric
power. Some of the power will be delivered to Canton, Ohio, over fifty
miles away. This plant uses local coal and the cost of coal is figured
at two mills per kilowatt-hour.

Under this heading of distribution and transportation of coal, might be
considered certain international relations. The international movements
of coal are summarized in another place (pp. 115-117). Anything in the
way of tariffs or trade agreements which would tend to interfere with or
to limit the great natural international movements of coal--which in a
free field are based on suitability of grade, cost, location,
transportation, etc.--would be anti-conservational from the world's
standpoint, although they might be of local and temporary advantage. For
instance, the coal exported from England,