power: its significance and needs. 
13 
three of them. The energy in coal, for example, is not concentrated 
before shipment, but is hauled in its substantial, bulky form; while 
the coal at its destination is not used so as to yield anywhere near 
its full service . 1 With industry in general, conformance with these 
three principles has been automatic, a natural outgrowth in connec- 
tion with the development of the various types of operations; with 
power supply, on the contrary, a sufficiency of natural incentive 
toward such an outcome has evidently been lacking. It is desirable, 
then, to seek to determine what is back of this apathy in the excep- 
tional instance of power. 
The first of the three principles of transportation, the employment 
of suitable equipment, involves a community interest. The facilities 
best suited for bringing to the market the corn raised by one farmer 
will haul grain from the entire corn belt with equal ease. Moreover, 
with slight qualification, the same facilities will serve to transport all 
the material necessities of the region. Hence there have developed 
common-carrier systems, represented chiefly by the railways, to which 
the performance of this function is delegated. These common-carrier 
systems, it is needless to say, are essential to modern conditions and 
derive their existence from the community interest which they rep- 
resent. In consequence, the element of competition, which is the 
exact antithesis of community interest, is entirely out of place within 
the confines of such an activity. In the nature of things, accordingly, 
any response to the promptings of special interests amounts to a 
violation of a trust. Formerly this was not fully realized, and it has 
not been long since the evil influence arising from the promptings of 
special interests within the great common-carrier systems of the 
country was playing havoc with American industrialism. It is now 
firmly established, however, that the great arterial complex of trans- 
portation is founded on the principle of community interest and must 
be maintained in scrupulous accord with that principle. In the viola- 
tion of this trust a common carrier has in itself the power to make or 
break any industrial enterprise, hence the method of control must 
afford the maximum assurance that the trust will not, and can not, 
be violated. Thus the successful application of the first principle 
underlying effective transportation, from a national viewpoint, re- 
quires a common carrier system not only adequately equipped as to 
organization and mechanical facilities, but of public-service integrity 
established beyond question of doubt. 
The second principle of transportation, the advance elimination of 
superfluous weight, is a matter requiring individuality of treatment 
throughout. The conditions here are the reverse of those pertaining 
to the actual facilities of transportation. The responsibility attaches 
1 See Coal : The resource and its full utilization, Bulletin 102, part 4, of this series. 
