PowRii. 137 



illustration of centralized industry, establishing itself first in New 

 England and migrating later to the Central Atlantic States and thence 

 westward, the South displays a regional deployment of industry, 

 nowhere intensely focussed, but spread, on the contrary, in diluted 

 form over a large area. The contrast is suggestive ; for permanence, 

 for national well-being, for the common good, it would appear that 

 a balanced economic life in which each section manufactures, in large 

 measure, its own products is preferable to a highly intensified manu- 

 facture setting up its own interests in opposition to the more extensive 

 producing areas. The South presents an example of power supply 

 disposed to create a normal development from within, with minimum 

 detraction from the opportunities peculiar to other sections.- 



These are but two illustrations of fields in which power supply is 

 a strong economic force. Each section of the country, in point of 

 fact, has its own peculiar reflex to this matter. The Pacific coast, 

 for instance, has a specialized and acute power problem to meet; 

 there the rich oil fields of California launched a period of industrial- 

 ism which this source of power can not much longer sustain. The 

 industrial life of this whole section is threatened by the impending 

 decline of its oil fields. Similarly with the Southwest. The power 

 influence, then, is country- wide — here throttling established indus- 

 try; there leading to overbalanced growth; elsewhere retarding 

 needed developments; rarely promoting well-rounded economic 

 growth; on the whole, making for divergence of economic interest. 



This situation, undesirable as it stands, is bound to* grow worse 

 if matters are left to untrammelled evolution. Human labor is mo- 

 bile; it is becoming standardized, even nationalized; cheap labor 

 locally restricted is disappearing. Thus the factor of labor supply 

 is losing its distributive effect upon industry. In consequence, 

 the presence of mechanical labor (power) will become an even 

 greater centralizing force than heretofore; manufacturing dis- 

 tricts will tend to be more strikingly developed than ever. The 

 natural tendency, in short, will be toward the building up of cen- 

 tralized industry enjoying monopolistic advantages of power sup- 

 ply, a condition in itself constituting a restraint in respect to the 

 adequate unfoldment of other industries beyond the reach of the 

 favored source. 



Such an interplay of economic forces is complex and proclivities 

 can not be expected to travel far undeflected by new conditions, but 

 whatever the uncertainties of the matter, the power situation merits 

 attention in respect to its present untoward bearing on economic 

 policy. If a constructive economic policy is desirable for this coun- 

 try, and if the conclusion is valid that the power supply represents 



* The Government project at Muscle Shoals may prove to be a disturbing factor in the 

 present distributive unfoldment of soutborn industry. 



