POWER. 105 



activities. Just as steam power opened up the coal fields of the 

 world and freed the employment of power from the geographic 

 restrictions inherent in the use of the pressure of falling water, so 

 electricity reinstates water power on terms of equality with coal, 

 offers the means for the transmission of energy devoid of bulk, and 

 affords a readiness of subdivision and ease of application that con- 

 siderably enlarges its range of applications.^ 



Thus the third and current stage in the growth of power utiliza- 

 tion, and that is to say, of industrialism, is marked by the introduc- 

 tion of water power on terms of parity with coal, by the establish- 

 ment of facilities for extracting energy from coal at the mines and 

 transmitting it to the points of use, and by the development of means 

 for greatly facilitating the range of service that energy may be 

 called upon to render. It will be observed that although the three 

 lines of advantage have been open for some years, the first has met 

 with but partial acceptance, the second has been entirely ignored, 

 while only the third has enjoyed any considerable measure of service. 

 This status of affairs, of course, is the outcome of commercial selec- 

 tion, but it is desirable to examine whether industrialism can continue 

 to grow in adequate measure without utilizing more fully and com- 

 prehensively the opportunities held out by electricity. 



RELATION OF POWER TO TRANSPORTATION. 



The United States places special emphasis upon the use of power. 

 With national prosperity, abundance of resource wealth, and dearth 

 of labor, American industrial enterprise has naturally turned to 

 the creation of labor-saving machinery and provided for its efficient 

 employment through the medium of standardized volume-production. 

 Thus the fabric of American industrialism is colored by the machine 

 process and the large-scale operation to a degree not equalled else- 

 where in the world ; while mechanical appliances and mechanical serv- 

 ice have reached out into domestic life in a pervasive manner. These 

 conditions have created and sustained a scale of living without 

 parallel amongst other nations. To support this situation, this 

 country consumes nearly half of the world's output of coal and over 

 half of the total production of petroleum, not to mention the em- 

 ployment of water power, natural gas, and minor sources of power.^ 



^The advantages of electricity arise from tlie fact that this strange and even mysterious 

 manifestation of energy is virtually energy itself — not energy locked up in a material 

 condition and subject to the laws and limitations of matter, but energy, the capacity to 

 do work, freed from substantial form. 



* Of the coal and oil consumed, only about two-thirds goes into the production of 

 motive power, although much of the service outside this field is closely related, such as 

 the production of heat, light, and chemical work. Before the war the consumption of 

 coal in this country was between one-third and one-half of the world's total ; the pro- 

 portion is now approaching one-half. 



