In Alaska in the Matanuska and Bering River bituminous fields, and in the Nenana lignite field, the government has offered the coal for leasing purposes at 2 cents a ton for the first period, under restrictions providing for conservation of coal and reasonable prices to consumers. Some units have been taken up in the Matanuska and Bering River fields, but, as the measures are badly contorted and the coal beds difficult to trace, progress has been slow and production has scarcely begun. Temporarily, the Alaskan Railway Commission is working some mines at Chickaloon and Eska Creek, to obtain a supply of coal pending the development of other mines by lessees. Congress, in opening the coal lands in the Matanuska and Bering River fields for leasing, has reserved tracts of not exceeding 7,680 acres and 5,120 acres respectively for the use of the Navy. The United States still owns large areas of coal and lignite lands in the western states. Most of these lands are remote from railroads and difficult of access, but they contain enormous reserves. At present, outside of Alaska, only one mine, the Gebo mine, Gebo, Wyoming, is leased by the government, but extension of a leasing system similar to that of Alaska has been recently effected. In the United States the anthracite industry is well organized, and its railroad connections make it notably efficient and powerful. Bituminous coal, on the other hand, is so widely distributed on both public and private lands that no private organization has attempted to control the industry. Such control has always been opposed by Congress and the general public. Except during the war, neither Great Britain nor the United States has attempted any control over commercial mining and the sale of coal. Each country created a fuel administration, and the coal was shipped under government instructions and paid for at prices fixed by the fuel administration. In the United States this government control has practically disappeared with the war, but in England the Coal Control has so far been continued, and the tendency is for the government to retain for the present a strong guiding hand on the various “key” industries. Certainly, in the final analysis, coal mining is a public utility and should be supervised and adjusted by the government accordingly, allowing free latitude for private initiative.