Economies urged by the Fuel Administration resulted in the saving during the first half of 1918 of 12,700,000 tons of coal. Although the coal mining industry lost 100,000 or more workers to other war industries and to the fighting forces, the speeding program of the Fuel Administration resulted in a production of bituminous coal during 1918 of 585,883,000 tons, setting a new high record and exceeding the production of the previous year by 34,000,000 tons. Notwithstanding the enormous and constantly growing increase there had been throughout the preceding eighteen months in the consumption of coal for war purposes, at the end of hostilities the country faced the approaching winter with stocks of coal on hand greatly in excess of previous years. CHAPTER XXIX THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE There could not have been a spirit more eager for service, more inspired by patriotic zeal, more willing to do whatever would aid the Government in its prosecution of the war or support the efforts of the fighting forces than was manifest among the great masses of the American people. Whatever they were asked to give to provide the means of war, whether by taxation, by buying of bonds, by outright gift, by sacrifice, by personal effort, they gave with ungrudging heart and overflowing hands. They offered their sacrifices and volunteered their effort without waiting to be asked and they spontaneously aligned themselves in every organized activity for the war and joined their voluntary efforts together for the nation-wide team-work that alone would make it a success. The sense of personal responsibility, the understanding of the importance of individual effort, had a new birth in their hearts and the deep-lying springs of love of country gushed forth anew at the call of her need. There could not have been a more triumphant vindication of the worth to humanity of American institutions and American ideals than was given by the spirit manifested by the American people throughout our participation in the world war. So high, eager and intense, indeed, was the general wish for rapid progress in war production and war making that its desires frequently outran possibilities and led many to demand results that only a miracle could produce.