PART III. 



POWEE.1 



In the struggle for existence man has attained superiority through 

 a facility for turning the forces of nature to account. In modern 

 life the expression of this facility is industrialism — the cooperative 

 employment of mechanical power for useful work; the delegation 

 of service to machines energized by coal, oil, and water power; the 

 organized gaining of a livelihood. Mankind is therefore depend- 

 ent upon industrialism and industrialism is contingent upon a 

 supply of power.2 Power represents the substitution of mechanical 

 energy for human energy, of mechanical work for human labor. 



INFLUENCE OF POWER UPON CIVILIZATION. 



• Modern nations expend far more energy than the combined mus- 

 cular ability of their populations and beasts of burden. The margin 

 is covered by the employment of mechanical energy in the form of 

 power. To accomplish the work done annually in the United States, 

 or at least the equivalent in such kind as men could perform, would 

 require the labor of three billion^ hard-working slaves. The use 

 of power gives to each man, woman, and child in this country the 

 service equivalent of 30 servants.^ Modern civilization arises from 

 this organized employment of mechanical energy.* 



1 A contribution to the solution of the transportation problem. 



2 Industry requires raw materials, power, and labor, and is activated by business enter- 

 prise. The factors concenied in the supply of raw materials and power are no less im- 

 portant than the human elements of labor and business enterprise, though the former 

 have thus far received attention far short of their deserts. The fact that the reserves 

 of raw materials are decreasing and the conventional sources of power are shifting, 

 while both the potential supply of labor and the scope of business enterprise are enlarg- 

 ing, make for a situation in which raw materials and power must come in for consider- 

 able attention. It is with this prospect in mind that the present series of papers (parts 

 4, 5, and 6 of Bulletin 102) have been written. 



^ These figures are very rough, based on an assumed power utilization of 150,000,000 

 horsepower (which may be fairly wide of the mark) and the equivalence of 20 man- 

 power for 1 horsepower. As a matter of fact, this country has no adequate record of 

 its total power consumption. The conventional man-power equivalent of 1 horsepower 

 is 10, but taking into account the fact that man-power can not be sustained, the ratio 

 of 20 to 1 is chosen as representing a fairer comparison. 



* " The power of Greece, whereby she achieved such great things in all directions of 

 human progress, was largely based on the work done by the servile class. On the average 

 each Greek freeman, each Greek family, had five helots whom we think of not at all 

 when we speak of the Greeks, and yet these were the men who supplied a great part 

 of the Greek energy. In Britain, we may say, each family has more than 20 helots to 

 supply energy, requiring no food and feeling nothing of the wear and tear and hope- 

 lessness of a servile life." (James Fairgrieve, Geography and World Power, 1917, p. 316.) 



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