What Electrical Energy Means 

 to California 



O factor is destined to play a more important part in the in- 

 dustrial life of California than the development of the vast 

 power available from California's mountain streams. 



In the fact that electricity is now extensively used for 

 power, illumination and transportation purposes lies its almost 

 universal usefulness toward the development of the State. 



The greatest factories, and the smallest, can be run by electricity; 

 for in its divisibility electric power offers special encouragement to the 

 small manufacturer. He can use as much or as little of the power as he 

 requires. Electrical power from mountain streams is used to run street 

 cars, mines, factories, shipyards, foundries, elevators, machine shops, 

 dredgers, elevators in distant cities and small manufacturing shops where 

 the force employed consists of perhaps only the proprietor and two or 

 three assistants. 



Electrical energy will revolutionize transportation methods in this 

 State. Already there are electric railways operating under steam road 

 conditions. They give a more frequent and consequently a better service 

 than the steam roads. Within the next generation California will be grid- 

 ironed with electric railway lines. No less than five electric railway sys- 

 tems are projected at the present time for the Sacramento Valley alone. 

 Electric railways are of especial advantage in the mountains where they 

 climb the steep grades and round the sharp curves in a manner almost im- 

 possible to the steam line. 



There is no single factor which has done as much to build up the 

 suburbs of great cities as the electric railway. It settles the country, too, 

 and brings the farmer and his products nearer town. The influence of 

 electric railways in settling up the regions through which they run is 

 shown by the fact that where electric railways have paralleled steam lines 

 not only have the electric lines handled trade to their full capacities, but 

 the business of the steam lines serving the same regions has almost invari- 

 ably increased. 



This statement, of course, relates more particularly to the building 

 up of the more unsettled districts. It would not be true when competi- 

 tion increases, but population and products are stationary. 



There are few greater opportunities for investment than in the erec- 

 tion of power plants. All the power companies in California are running 

 with practically their whole output in use, and more in demand. The 

 great number of mountain streams with their perpetual flow of water and 

 the vast storage of water throughout the whole length of the Sierras 

 argues that only a very small fraction of the available power in this State 

 has been developed. 



The development of electrical energy from mountain streams does not 

 consume one drop of water, but only the energy furnished by its fall. On 

 issuing from the water wheels the water is re-diverted for the purposes of 

 irrigation. 



With electric power at hand close to the abundant sources of raw 

 material electricity will play a great part in manufacturing. 



Electrical energy is the most marvelous, convenient, universal, and 

 economic commercial factor in Twentieth Century progress. 



And California promises to lead the world in its development. 



