CONSERVATION THROUGH ENGINEERING. 21 



not merely of convenience as to size, but in terms of service as to its 

 power. We should save it, if for no better reason than that we may 

 sell it to a coal-hungry world. We should develop water power as an 

 inexhaustible substitute for coal and if necessary compel the coordi- 

 nation of all power plants which serve a common territory. New 

 petroleum supplies have become a national necessity, so quickly have 

 we adapted ourselves to this new fuel and so extravagantly have 

 we given ourselves over to its adaptability. To save that we may use 

 abundantly, to develop that we may never be weak, to bring together 

 into greater effectiveness all power possibilities these would seem 

 to be national duties, dictated by a large self-interest. 



I have gone only sufficiently far into this whole question to realize 

 that it is as fundamental and of as deep public concern as the rail- 

 road question and that it is even more complex. No one, so far as I 

 can learn, has mastered all of its various phases ; in fact, there are 

 few who know even one sector of the great battle front of power. A 

 Foch is needed, one in whom would center a knowledge of all the 

 activities and the inactivities of these three great industries, which in 

 reality are but a single industry. We should know more than we 

 do, far more about the ways and means by which our unequaled 

 wealth in all three divisions can be used and made interdependent, 

 and the moral and the legal strength of the Nation should be be- 

 hind a studied, fact-based, long-viewed plan to make America the 

 home of the cheapest and the most abundant and the most imme- 

 diately and intimately serviceable power supply in the world. If 

 we do this, we can release labor and lighten nearly every task. We 

 will not need to send the call to other countries for men, and we 

 can distribute our industries in parts of the country where labor is 

 less abundant and where homes will take the place of tenements. One 

 could expand upon the benefits that would come to this land if 

 a rounded program such as has been but skeletonized here could be 

 carried out. I am convinced that within a generation it will be ef- 

 fected, because it will be necessary. 



The simple steps now obviously needed are to pass those primary 

 bills which are already before Congress or are here suggested. But 

 beyond this there is imperative need that some one man (an assistant 

 secretary in this department would serve) some one man with a 

 competent staff and commanding all the resources of this and other 

 departments of the Government shall be given the task of taking a 

 world view v as well as a national view of this whole involved and 

 growing problem, that he may recommend policies and induce ac- 

 tivities and promote cooperative relationships which will effect the 

 most economical production of light, heat, and power, which is 

 more than' the first among the immediate practical problems of 



