138 BULLETIN 102, VOL. 1, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



a force now working against the unification of economic purpose 

 into a national polic}-, but capable of direction toward such an out- 

 come, the whole matter becomes a fundamental issue which may not 

 be ignored. In short, a coordinated and balanced development of 

 the coal and water-power resources of the country, which will fol- 

 low from the establishment of an adequate common-carrier system 

 of transmission lines, will serve to equalize industrial opportunity 

 and therefore to unify the economic interests of the country so that 

 a constructive economic policy aggreable to all sections may win 

 country-wide support.^ 



But in addition to its bearing upon national policy, a distribution 

 of power advantages will make for an indirect but very significant 

 gain in the matter of transportation; for industry may then strike 

 a more perfect balance between the location of raw-material sources 

 and markets. As the matter now stands, the adjustment is a com- 

 promise between three main factors, of which the position of the 

 fuel source is dominant, and the industrial centralization resulting 

 is in considerable measure responsible for the " bottle-neck " re- 

 strictions in the transportation layout of this country — a pattern 

 that has become a conspicuous source of transportation weakness 

 during the past year. The nationalization of industrial opportunity 

 through equalized power supply will permit the upgrowth of new 

 industrial activities in positions which will impose a lessened rela- 

 tive burden upon the railways and diffuse the intensification of 

 responsibility that is now bearing with growing force upon the 

 necklike restrictions in the neighborhood of present industrial cen- 

 ters.^ 



ENLARGEMENT OF INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITY. 



We have seen that power supply constitutes a strong attractive 

 force, leading under natural conditions to marked industrial concen- 

 trations in certain parts of the country. The unfavorable bearing of 

 this circumstance upon the attainment of a national economic policy 

 is noteworthy and constitutes an argument for directing the section- 

 alizing force of power supply into more distributive channels than 

 it seeks of its own accord. The most effective means toward a better 

 balanced industrial growth in this respect is afforded by electricity, 

 which lends itself to generation at fixed points in coal regions and at 

 water-power sites, and to transmission thence to adjacent areas in 

 such manner that, if the growth as a whole be properly shaped, a 



1 In a sense we come here upon one of those circlos which so often block progress ; 

 a constructive economic policy Is essential to a proper development of the power supply; 

 such a policy is hindered from coming into existence by the present haphazard status of 

 the power supply with its contribution to economic sectionalism. 



•The gains in inland waterway transportation and in western irrigation that would 

 come as incidentals In a broad development should not be overlooljed. 



