e,
I leveled the fire, I dished the cinders in to thicken the heat, and I
watched the cobbles. During the melting of the pig-iron the furnace had
to be kept as hot as coal could make it.

Before the use of coal was discovered, the ancient iron makers used
charcoal. So iron could only be made where there were forests to give
fuel. Even as late as 1840 the iron smelters in Pennsylvania were using
wood in their furnaces. Our forefathers did not know that coal would
burn. And yet here lay the coal, the ore and the limestone side by side,
which meant that Pittsburgh was to be the iron capital of the world. But
Americans will not long sleep in the presence of such an opportunity.
Other races will. The Chinese have slumbered for five thousand years
above a treasure trove of oil, coal and iron. They never discovered
its uses. Instead of oil they lit themselves to bed with mutton tallow.
Instead of burning coal they put on two pairs of pants when winter came.
In place of steel plows drawn by oil-burning tractors they scratched
the ground with a wooden stick, and when the crop failed they starved to
death by millions. With our steel ships we send bread to China to
save them. If they had the wit to use their resources they could save
themselves. In man's fight against the hostile forces of nature, his
safety lies in applying his wit to the resources that nature gave him.
The Americans can do that. There are others that can not.

I was riding on a train in Indiana when a gypsy-looking youth came in
and sat beside me. His hair was black, his skin was yellow and he was
dressed in flashy American clothes. He had a cock-sure air about him
that attracted my attention. I have seldom seen a young man more pleased
with himself. He was entirely too cocky for me. He began talking. He
said he was a Syrian and was worth a thousand dollars. Soon he would be
worth a million, he said. He was already putting on his million-dollar
airs.

While selling bananas and ginger pop, he told me, "I made some money
and learned the American ways. I have a brother in South Bend who has
made some money shining shoes. I am going to get my brother and we will
go back to the old home in Asia Minor. The hills where we were born are
full of coal. The people call it black stone. They do not know that it
will burn. We will go back there with our American knowledge and set the
world on fire."

There is a people who have been kicking coal around for five thousand