POWER. 107 



one of the knottiest problems in the whole advance of American in- 

 dustrialism has been involved in the necessity for providing the 

 requisite capacity on the side of transportation. The problem is seri- 

 ous enough at best. But when the item of power in the form of 

 freight-hauled coal is added, the requirement calling for additional 

 elasticity in the mechanism of transportation is almost doubled a 

 second time, and the situation becomes well-nigh impossible to meet. 

 So long as power is provided by means of freighted coal in its present 

 heavy proportion, the transportation of the country is bound to cause 

 serious trouble, if not to break down, during every period of sudden 

 industrial expansion. 



The relations of balance, as given above, are not in strict accord 

 with statistical figures. Various other factors come in to qualify 

 the figures, and incidentally to complicate the issue beyond the reach 

 of simple analysis. Nevertheless the contrast noted is indicative of 

 the general situation. The requisite degree of elasticity has not been 

 attainable for transportation, and the lack of it has become increas- 

 ingly conspicuous with the growth of the industrial order. The 

 tendency has been to provide a surplus of slack in lieu of elasticity 

 by maintaining facilities of transportation in excess of normal re- 

 quirements. Such a condition constitutes a standing invitation to 

 inefficiency and wastefulness, tending in the long run to nullify the 

 potential advantage of readiness for industrial expansion, and hence 

 is forecast for failure when put to the test. With industrialism less 

 mature and less aggressive, these matters were less conspicuous, but 

 their untoward propensities under present conditions of growth are 

 becoming steadily more pronounced.* 



Thus transportation is the neck of industry through which all 

 of its materials enter and emerge. Upon the size and flexibility of 

 this throat depends the rate at which industry can grow. Pressure 

 here acts as a throttle; if severe, there results congestion, choking, 

 even strangulation. Transportation, then, is crucial. Either we 

 must pay unremitting attention to facilitating transportation by 

 every means available, or else be prepared to see industry retarded 



1 The current situation In the United States does not differ fundamentally from that 

 abroad, although the consequences have not appeared In equal measure in the two in- 

 stances. The disparity Is one of degree ; but the unusual weight falling upon trans- 

 portation in the economics of American industrialism has turned this difference into high 

 significance. The outcome appears in present conditions : the United States has been 

 building a bulky and cumbersome fuel requirement, Incapable of sustained growth, ready 

 to fall under influence of rapid industrial expansion, and due to display Its weakness, 

 on the first occasion in the breakdown of organized transportation. This is not to be 

 regarded as offered in specific explanation for the trouble this countiT Is experiencing 

 as an outgrowth of the war. As a matter of fact, the present work was projected 

 over a year ago and the summation of conditions set forth above was outlined at that 

 time. Its purpose in respect to present difficulties Is in the direction of diagnosing an 

 organic weakness which rendered the country peculiarly susceptible to attack by the 

 disrupting influences now so unconcernedly borne on the basis of a passing trouble. 



