ELECTRIC POWER DISTRIBUTION 349 



frankly say — and with a showing of truth — that they handle 

 a bond issue of millions with no more labor than one of a 

 hundred thousand, and with ten times the profit. 



To my personal knowledge, there are scores of water 

 powers in New England able to furnish preposterously cheap 

 power for small investment by transmission of trivial length, 

 but they are cases for private investment and not for " finan- 

 cing." By utilizing such privileges it will often be possible 

 for small industries to obtain power at less than half the cost 

 paid by their larger competitors. The present adverse fac- 

 tors are mainly due to transportation. Putting aside the in- 

 stances of deliberate discrimination in rates — which are alto- 

 gether too common — there is a strong general tendency toward 

 punishing the industries in small places situated on non-com- 

 petitive lines. At this point the electric railway is beginning 

 to come in as an ameliorating influence, and if its develop- 

 ment is allowed to go on unimpeded, much good will be done. 

 Every electric railway network means a readier market for 

 every point touched, and when light freight haulage becomes 

 more general the influence will be strongly felt, unless the non- 

 urban communities are foolish enough to allow electric systems 

 to be captured by the steam roads which now hold the field. 

 The small hydraulic powers already referred to are well able to 

 furnish cheap motive power for transportation, if given the 

 chance, and thus to make the regions served more self support- 

 ing and self reliant. 



The effect of cheap electric power in encouraging and con- 

 serving small industries has already been well demonstrated, 

 particularly abroad. In several regions on the continent its 

 introduction has preserved the industrial automony of large 

 groups of villages threatened with extinction by the very 

 forces more conspiciously active in the United States. Since 

 the existence of a small industrial center means increased 

 prosperity in all the region about it, the value of such a policy 

 to the country is all the more evident. 



Bearing in mind the cost of transportation, the manu- 

 factures which can profitably be carried on in small places 

 having cheap power available are especially those in which 

 the value of the finished product is due mainly to the expendi- 



