tons would be transported to your Weirton steel by water if these improvements we are seeking are made.

Mr. LAUGHLIN. All of it, Senator Neely.

Senator NEELY. The whole 1,800,000 tons?

Mr. LAUGHLIN. Yes, sir. That would be the only satisfactory way to move it.

Senator NEELY. You are speaking now of only one of many industries that would be greatly benefited by the making of the improvements under consideration.

Mr. LAUGHLIN. Yes.

Senator KILGORE. Might I ask him another question? Is it not a fact now that they are running towboats up the Ohio River from the Kanawha Valley to get coal into the Pittsburgh area?

Mr. LAUGHLIN. That is correct; they are.

Senator KILGORE. That is a more costly way than downstream? Mr. LAUGHLIN. Oh, much more.

Senator SPARKMAN. We have received numerous telegrams, letters, and statements regarding this, and they will be placed in the record. Senator NEELY. Our next witness is Mr. Bangert.

Senator SPARKMAN. We are very glad to have you with us.

STATEMENT OF H. A. BANGERT, REPRESENTATIVE OF GOV. OKEY PATTESON, OF THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

Mr. BANGERT. I have a prepared statement here, representing the Honorable Okey Patteson, Governor of the State of West Virginia, which I would like to hand to you to be submitted for the record. I would like to have it included at this point, and I would like to state orally here that aside from the industrial angle of this matter, it is also a very vital improvement from the point of view of national defense.

Large tonnages of coal may some day be needed for the production of synthetic oil and gasoline from coal. There are several hundred years' supply of coal along the upper Monongahela River that could be used for synthetic fuels.

In 1944 Congress passed the Synthetic Liquid Fuels Act, appropriating approximately $30,000,000 for research and development along this line.

Pilot and demonstration plants have been erected, and laboratory and field tests are now being made by the Government at Morgantown and in Pittsburgh and other sections of the United States.

Although at this time we are not confronted with any known shortage of petroleum, we must, however, from the military standpoint be prepared as we cannot depend on oil concessions in foreign lands in time of war, as the risk would be too great to rely on these

sources.

In time of war this country cannot be faced with the risk of importing oil but must be prepared, if necessary, to produce synthetic gasoline from domestic coal and from that section, the Upper Monongahela, with several hundred years of supply of coal, is where you are going to have to look for this coal in the event of having synthetic fuel.

As late as May 1949, Secretary of Interior J. A. Krug made a statement to the effect, and I quote:

Liquid fuels can be made of coal at a price not too far above oil prices.

Further in his speech, Mr. Krug stated on May 9:

The vast coal deposits of the Nation can now be accepted as part of our liquid fuel reserves, thus enormously expanding our known reserves of liquid fuels. In the event of this country being confronted with the necessity of resorting to synthetic fuels, it is apparent that the billions of tons of coal available along the Upper Monongahela River will be necessarily used for this purpose.

The New York Times, under date of September 12, 1948, made the following statement, and I quote:

The United States is on the threshold of a profound chemical revolution. The next 10 years or 15 will see the rise of a mass of new industries which will free us from dependence on foreign sources of oil. Gasoline will be produced from coal, from air, and water on a scale so huge that it will dwarf even the giant synthetic rubber industry born in desperation during World War II.

As a closing remark, I would like to state further that the participation of Germany in World War II would have been of short duration had not it been for her synthetic fuels.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Senator SPARKMAN. Thank you very much. The statement you referred to will be placed in the record at this point.

(The document referred to follows:)

STATEMENT OF H. A. BANGERT

My name is H. A. Bangert and I appear here today as a representative of the Honorable Okey Patterson, Governor of the State of West Virginia, in the interest of the modernization program of the upper Monongahela River in West Virginia. Our ancestors settled their communities and later their industries along the rivers and they are located there today because of the rivers. Pittsburgh, the steel center of the world, owes its growth to river facilities. Our industrial growth in recent years has been rapid along the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers, particularly the coal industry. On the lower Monongahela River near the mouth of the river in the Pittsburgh district, river improvements have for years kept pace with industrial expansion. More than 15,000,000 tons passed through lock and dam No. 2 on the Monongahela near Pittsburgh in 1946. A great part of this tonnage consisted of coal to feed the vital steel industry. With the improved locks and dams and 9-foot river depth in this area, the above tonnage was made possible. While the lower Monongahela River in the Pittsburgh area kept pace with expanding industry and brought prosperity to that district and security to the Nation, the upper Monongahela for the past 45 years remained unimproved, discouraging the expansion of industry and the opening of new coal fields in that

area.

The Federal Government first started its participation in the navigation improvements of the Monongahela River in 1872 when Congress authorized extension of improvements upstream by the construction of locks and dams Nos. 8 and 9 in the State of Pennsylvania. The River and Harbor Act of 1896 authorized the extension of the Monongahela lock and dam system upstream into West Virginia by the construction of locks and dams Nos. 10 to 15. This was the beginning of the lock and dam system on the upper Monongahela River in the State of West Virginia. These locks and dams were constructed during the period from 1897 to 1903 and have been in use to the limits of their capacities since then without any further improvement or modernization. In spite of the lack of improvements on the upper Monongahela in West Virginia with its 1903 model locks and dams and shallow water, tonnage between Morgantown and Fairmont, W. Va. increased 2,000 percent during the period 1938 to 1946 and will rapidly increase further if the desired improvements materialize.

The coal from mines bordering almost the entire length of the Monongahela River has been transported by barges to the Pittsburgh area largely for consumption by the steel industry. In the early days, this coal movement originated from mines along the river near Pittsburgh which resulted in short hauls to the steel mills in the Pittsburgh vicinity. Now these mines have approached exhaustion. The steel and other industries have now shifted upstream into West Virginia from whence the future coal supply must come.

This movement upstream into West Virginia for vital coal has been anticipated for some time. The Army Engineers predicted 26 years ago in 1922 in a report made to Congress that this upstream shift would occur. At that time, the Army Engineers were farsighted and in a statement to Congress stated, "Eventually it will be necessary to go farther upstream or farther inland to obtain coal for river shipment. The prospect for rapid growth of commerce on the Monongahela River with the increased demand for coal from the upper river, now very little used, with almost certain increase in trade with the Ohio and Allegheny Valleys is very bright." So reads the Army Engineers' forecast in 1922 and we see that the eventualities predicted in the Engineers' report of 26 years ago have become the actualities of today.

However, more important than economic and industrial expansion is the matter of national security. Metallurgical coal is essential in making steel and wars cannot be fought without steel. The present fields now supplying the steel industry with metallurgical coal are being rapidly depleted. The steel industry is looking to the upper Monongahela area in West Virginia for metallurgical coal as evidenced by its activities in the West Virginia district. Millions of dollars are now being spent to recover this known metallurgical coal in counties in West Virginia bordering on or near the upper Monongahela River. Today this area is one of the largest and best coal fields in the world and is practically unscratched with an estimated 3,000,000,000 tons of coal in Monongalia and Marion Counties alone, with a conservative estimated coal life of more than 150 years.

During these troublesome times of unsettled world affairs and conditions abroad, it is vital in the matter of national defense and security that the proposed improvements on the upper Monongahela be realized at the earliest possible date so that these river facilities, now obsolete and inadequate, may become an additional arm of transportation and aid to the railroads. Our water transportation facilities on the upper Monongahela River are lagging far behind our production facilities.

Of vital importance will be the need for large tonnages of coal for the synthetic production of oil and gasoline from coal. In 1944 Congress passed the Synthetic Liquid Fuels Act appropriating approximately $30,000,000 for research and development work. Pilot and demonstration plants have been erected and laboratory and field tests are being made by the Government at Morgantown, W. Va., and elsewhere. Although, at this time, we are not confronted with any known shortage of petroleum, we must, however, from the military standpoint, be prepared as we cannot depend on oil concessions in foreign lands in time of war as the risks would be too great to rely on such sources. In time of war, this country cannot be faced with the risk of importing oil but must be prepared if necessary to produce synthetic oil and gasoline from domestic coal. There is always the danger that the United States will depend upon import until the supply problem has become critical. Recent experiments in industrial and governmental synthetic fuels research have shown conclusively that our liquid fuel supplies do not depend entirely on petroleum but can be supplemented from our much larger reserves of coal in the Monongahela River section where, including a number of counties, approximately 1,000 years of coal are available.

As late as May 9, 1949, Secretary of Interior J. A. Krug, made a statement to the effect that, "Liquid fuels can be made out of coal at a price not too far above oil prices." Further in his speech, Mr. Krug stated on May 9, 1949, "The vast coal deposits of the Nation can now be accepted as part of our liquid fuel reserve, thus enormously expanding our known reserves of liquid fuels." In the event this country is confronted with the necessity of resorting to synthetic fuels, it is apparent that the billions of tons of coal available along the upper Monongahela River will of necessity be used for this purpose.

The New York Daily Times, under date of September 12, 1948, made the following statement: "The United States is on the threshold of a profound chemical revolution. The next 10 years, or 15 will see the rise of a mass of new industries which will free us from dependence on foreign sources of oil. Gasoline will be produced from coal, air, and water on a scale so huge that it will dwarf even the giant synthetic rubber industry born in desperation during World War II."

As a closing remark, I would like to state further that the participation of Germany in World War II would have been of short duration had it not been for her synthetic fuels.

Senator KILGORE. Mr. Bangert, is it not possible to extract distillates in the coking process and still have your coke left for the produc

tion of steel, certain portion of your coke left for the production of steel?

Mr. BANGERT. Yes.

Senator KILGORE. In other words, you take off your gases?

Mr. BANGERT. That is right.

Senator KILGORE. And from that you get liquid fuels, and you can still withhold enough coke to take care of your steel industry, thereby utilizing the coal for a double purpose.

Mr. BANGERT. That is right; that is a volatile matter.

Senator KILGORE. That is right. You can also get in the extraction road tar for building roads.

Mr. BANGERT. Many other matters, perfumes.

Senator SPARKMAN. Who is the next witness, Senator Neely?

Senator NEELY. Col. Walter L. Hart, editor of the Morgantown Dominion-News, an important and popular newspaper in West Virginia. STATEMENT OF WALTER L. HART, EDITOR, DOMINION-NEWS; CHAIRMAN, TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE, MORGANTOWN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Mr. HART. My name is Walter L. Hart, and I might say also that I am acting in a dual capacity, being with the paper mentioned, and chairman of the transportation committee of the Morgantown Chamber of Commerce, and after a few brief remarks, Mr. Chairman, I would like to have leave to enter into the records my own statement as chairman of the transportation committee of the Morgantown Chamber of Commerce.

Senator SPARKMAN. That will be included at that point.

Mr. HART. I do not want to take your time other than to say, Senator, that in 30 years of experience as a newspaper reporter-and I choose to be called a reporter rather than an editor; many people are editors, there are very few good reporters-I should like to say that it has not come to my attention that there is any place where the United States Government, from a national-defense standpoint as well as from an economic standpoint can get so much for so little invested.

If you can imagine billions of tons of coal, if you can imagine the same Collinsville region, once the core, the hard core, if you please, of the coke industry, gone-coal gone the mining industry has had to come up the river, as we call it, and between Morgantown and Fairmont there are billions of tons of coal; in addition to that there are billions of tons of limestone; in addition to that there is a syntheticliquid-fuels plant that is one of the few of its kind in the world, and upon which during the time of World War II, the Allied Powers depended for more than 70 percent of hexamite that went into their block-busting bombs. This is along that river.

There is, too, along that river one of the synthetic-liquid-fuel laboratories. Senator Kilgore, you will remember, with Senator Neely, that is now in the process of developing an economical method of taking this almost unlimited supply of coal and making it into gasoline. If these locks are constructed, or more, it will be possible to ship this raw material direct into Lake Charles, La., in a full barge, not 700 tons or not 900 tons, but 1,000 tons, and it seems to me that

although the sum is large, we recognize that fact, but it seems to me that here, with billions of tons of metallurgical coal nowhere else to be found in such quantities, and needing an auxiliary, if you please, transportation system, if I might put it that way and if you choose to call it that, because during the war the railroads were unable to provide cars in spite of, shall we say, the yoemanlike work of the Senators and all the rest of us to get cars; if this river is deepened to the proper channels, I know again nowhere in the United States where the Government can get so much for so little in national defense and in economic prosperity of the basic industry of this country, which is coal and steel.

Thank you.

Senator SPARKMAN. Thank you, Mr. Hart.

At this point we will place in the record the statement you wished placed.

(The document referred to follows:)

WEST VIRGINIA NEWSPAPER PUBLISHING Co.,

Morgantown, W. Va., July 13, 1949. Re hearing on improvement of the Monongahela River in West Virginia south of Morgantown, W. Va., to the headwaters at Fairmont, W. Va.

UNITED STATES SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE.

HONORED SIRS: (1) The basic economy of West Virginia is coal.

(a) Without adequate transportation facilities there cannot be the full development of this industry.

(2) The geographic location of the vast coal field in the Morgantown-Fairmont area indicates that only through adequate water transportation can this field be properly developed not only for the economic benefit of the State and Nation but

(3) These vast reserves contain millions upon millions of tons of coal especially adapted to steel production.

(a) Presently, the inadequate channel in the river south of Morgantown does not permit either efficient or economical operation of river barges due to necessity of light loading or transloading when deeper pools north of Morgantown are entered.

(4) It is highly questionable whether these vast coal reserves can adequately be developed in the interest of the national defense, through tonnage availability, as well as the general ecoonmy, without additional locks and dams south of Morgantown.

(5) Construction of additional locks, deepening the channel and shortening the locking time for standard size and loaded barges will make possible development of the vast coal acreage, as well as kindred developments, on a basis tending to be of major importance to the national defense and economy.

Respectfully submitted.

WALTER L. HART, Editor, Dominion-News.

Senator SPARKMAN. Senator Kilgore, did you want to ask any questions of Mr. Hart, or you, Senator Neely?

Senator NEELY. In my opinion, no questions are necessary. Richards, will you please proceed.

Mr.

STATEMENT OF ERNEST RICHARDS, PRESIDENT, LOCAL 5650, UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA

Mr. RICHARDS. My name is Ernest Richards, and I am president of the local union of the United Mine Workers, 5650. I have been president for the last 14 years; I still have two years to go, and I am a delegate to the House of Delegates of the State of West Virginia. I have a brief statement here that I would like to hand to you. Senator SPARKMAN. What is your home town?