POWER. 135 



to be unified into a few nationalities on the strength of social bonds, 

 which, with one or two exceptions, have nowhere been dissevered by 

 subsequent economic influences. Thus the United States is a nation 

 of many parts bound together by social unity, but separated bj^ a 

 divergence of economic interests. The development of natural re- 

 sources has given rise to a marked differentiation in the quality of 

 opportunity opening up to the different sections, while the boun- 

 daries of the economic provinces set up in this wise are further 

 emphasized by a general conformity to topographic features dis- 

 favoring intercommunication. Thus this country is displaying a 

 steady drift toward economic variation and specialization among its 

 members. 



But national well-being is dependent upon economic unity no less 

 than upon social unity. The Civil War, in the last analysis, had its 

 origin in discordant economic sectionalism. A military expression 

 of domestic discord is outgrown, but civil strife is not the sole mis- 

 fortune that may arise from cross interests. Without economic unity 

 a definite economic policy is nationally unattainable. And with no 

 formulated economic policy, one of the two prime functions of gov- 

 ernment is reduced to the rank of partisanship, and industry is left 

 to the paralyzing influence of uncertainty as regards the future of 

 prospective operations. Thus far the divergent economic interests 

 of the various sections of the country have not permitted the estab- 

 lishment of a constructive economic policy satisfactory to the Nation 

 as a whole.^ 



Elements too numerous to specify enter into this sectionalism of 

 interest, but the most conspicuous contributor to the outcome is the 

 presence or absence of resources productive of mechanical energy. 

 Given a region endowed with an ample supply of coal, for example, 

 and all the other elements of industrial activity gather in the manner 

 of an accretionary growth. Even the crudest raw materials tend 

 to be drawn to the sources of energy in greater measure than is found 

 true of the reverse relation. Other attractions, to be sure, such as 

 labor supply, markets, and transportation facilities register strong 

 claims tending to diffuse and spread the focus of development, but 

 industrial concentration never migrates beyond the convenient reach 

 of power, which therefore sets the outside bounds to industrial range. 

 Thus certain naturally favored sections of the country have come to 

 have a predominant interest in manufacture, while other sections in 

 the role of producers and consumers for the manufacturing areas 

 are led to react to motives and economic interests foreign and even 



iThe lack of a constructive economic policy in the United States is more than a nega- 

 tive matter. The deficiency is responsible for such items as a nitrogen problem, a potash 

 problem, a manganese problem, and others, which war conditions made apparent — 

 to cite merely a few examples in the realm of mineral resources. 



