"Coal, the source of a vast proportion of our industrial power as well as our chief source of heat and light, is a commodity the production of which is itself an index of our economic life. Coal output since the armistice has been greatly reduced, the weekly production of anthracite for the first half of 1919 being from 1,200,000 to 1,800,000 net tons, as against 1,800,000 net tons to 3,000,000 net tons for the corresponding period of 1918. Bituminous production was 9,147,000 net tons for a typical week in 1919, as against 12,491,000 net tons for the corresponding week in 1918. Coke production for the week ending June 28, 1919, amounted to only 287,000 net tons, as compared with 627,000 net tons for the week ending June 29, 1918. The total amount of coal produced up to July 5, 1919, was 261,000,000 long tons, as compared with 364,000,000 long tons for the corresponding period of 1918." The production of iron and steel which was greatly stimulated by the war was allowed to decline as soon as the concentrated effort of the nation to win the war was abandoned. The resulting condition is succinctly described by the Council: "The record of our after-war steel and iron output furnishes us with another warning that we have been neglecting to keep pace with the established American rate of industrial improvement and expansion and foresighted preparation for future requirements and progress. "The iron and steel business was considerably stimulated by war-time requirements. There was a governmental agency whose business it was to for see the war needs and to place orders so that those productive forces which are wrapped up in the steel industry might be utilized to capacity. The steel industry's activity has, however, since the armistice greatly declined. Pig-iron production for April, 1919, was 82,607 tons per day, as against 109,607 tons in April, 1918. Birmingham properties are reported to have been working in April, 1919, at about 50 per cent. of the 1918 production. For the period January to May, 1919, pig-iron production was only 2,114,000 tons, as against 3,446,000 tons during the same period in 1918. Steel-ingot production fell in the spring of 1919 to lower figures than had been reached in more than two years. In fact, a regular decline in production was in evidence after December, 1918. "The figures representing the unfilled orders of the United States Steel Corporation at the end of May, 1919, were smaller than they had been since 1915." [Illustration: Copyright Underwood & Underwood Women Doing Night Farming Girls running a tractor plow and harrow at Farmingdale, Long Island.] RECOMMENDATIONS The Council summarized its findings and recommends remedial measures as follows: