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



here and there where conditions are favorable to its development. 

 The coal applied to the production of power amounts to a half billion 

 tons, and is hauled chiefly by the railways to its multitudinous 

 points of use, although as much as a quarter of the supply is in many 

 instances there turned into electric power. This method of using 

 coal power imposes a tremendous burden upon the railways, leading 

 to congestion and shortages in periods of business prosperity when 

 the demand for coal enlarges and the amount of other materials 

 claiming transportation at the same time increases. The use of 

 fuel oil and crude petroleum for purposes of steam raising and the 

 like, . which is considerable and represents over half of the total 

 consumption of petroleum and its products in point of bulk, sustains 

 a gross overproduction of petroleum, and in consequence contrib- 

 utes markedly to a premature exhaustion of the resource, with 

 initial effects aheady in sight. The relative lack of emplojrment 

 of water power adds to the overburden falling upon transportation 

 in respect to coal, not to mention its bearing upon the portion of coal 

 and oil used to support the delinquency on the side of water power. 

 It, moreover, leads to an unnecessary centralization of industry 

 with undue differentiation of economic interest, as is apparent in 

 view of the complementary distribution of coal and water power. 



Industrialism has grown up upon the basis of the distributive use 

 of coal. The economics of the situation rests in this status, although 

 the technology of power usage has advanced beyond this state. 

 Power stations centralized in respect to the coal fields and distribut- 

 ing electrical energy to the points of utilization represent the most 

 economical method of coal-power usage. Apparently such a devel- 

 opment has not promised to be profitable to private enterprise, 

 otherwise we would have it. The development is technologically 

 feasible. The lack is due to the fact that the common-carrier sys- 

 tems of the country are equipped for carrying coal, not for carrying 

 energy. Hence industrial enterprises find it more profitable to pur- 

 chase coal hauled by the railways than to provide themselves with 

 special facilities for the transmission of electricity. The railways, 

 also, have not gone into the matter; hauling coal has been one of 

 their most important and profitable items of freight, which they 

 have been loath to give up ; moreover, they have been subjected to 

 a type of Federal control in respect to rates such as would make 

 them stand to lose the benefits of economies in this direction. 



Although hindered by legal restrictions growing out of a public 

 sentiment that disfavored any action savoring of commercializa- 

 tion in respect to scenic beauty, water power has not developed 

 because of the high cost of money demanded by current financial 

 conditions for water-power projects. Since three-fourths of the 

 running expenses of a hydro-electric plant is interest money on the 



