POWER. 143 



raw materials of the commonest and cheapest kinds, such as sand, 

 lime, coke, and others. Further products, too numerous to specify, 

 are being commercially launched or are in the experimental stage in 

 the works and laboratories of that electrochemical center. An im- 

 portant industry has also developed in the electrolytic manufacture 

 of sodium and chlorine, and their numerous compounds, used in 

 large quantities in a wide variety of other industries, which are 

 made from common salt— a widespread and cheap material. It 

 would appear that one striking characteristic of electrochemistry 

 is its ability to convert into useful products the commonest and 

 cheapest of everyday materials. It holds forth in this sense the 

 prospect of the highest type of constructive economic service. 



On the whole, then, electrochemical industries and applications 

 have developed in the United States to some extent in spite of high 

 electric-power rates, but the lines of development have been those 

 in which the advantages to be gained were conspicuous and the opera- 

 tions have been largely confined to Niagara Falls. In the vaster 

 range of possibilities, in which the opportunities were not so out- 

 standing, high rates and lack of available power have been suffi- 

 cient to head off an incalulable range of prospective enterprises, to 

 the country's serious economic loss. Indeed, if electric power were 

 made available in quantity at rates half the prevailing tariff, the 

 upgrowth of electrochemical industries would overwhelm the previous 

 attainments along this line.^ 



The Avhole field of electrochemical development in the United 

 States is dependent in the last analysis upon the quantity and price 

 of electric power. And in both respects the power situation as it 

 now stands is inadequate. Unless we are prepared to see the electro- 

 chemical industries which we now have emigrate in part to foreign 

 countries, and unless we are also willing to face a stagnant condition 

 in respect to a wide range of important industrial developments, 

 the whole matter of our power supply must come up for attention. 

 This matter does not concern one section or one class; the field is 

 country wide; the outcome concerns both industry and the public 

 interest. And labor in particular will find a concern in this affair, 

 for only by cheapened mechanical power can a generous rate of 

 human compensation be sustained in the face of cheaper labor, both 

 human and mechanical, on the European market. 



SUIUMARY. 



Modern society is dependent upon industrialism, the material 

 framework of civilization. 



1 There is a great stir in tlie South at present over the prospects of a great electro- 

 chemical Industry growing up within the reaches of the Government nitrate plants at 

 Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The price of power will, of course, be the critical factor con- 

 ditioning the outcome. 



