power: its significance and needs. 
15 
adequacy of American economic practice, which relies upon competi- 
tion and the automatic working of the natural law of supply and 
demand to bring all good things to pass, neglectful of the fact that 
in the by-product realm supply is conditioned otherwise than by 
demand, that pending the creation of a proportionated demand the 
discrepancy of overweight on the side of supply is rejected as waste. 1 
In such manner have the three principles of transportation de- 
veloped in American economic practice. In the realm of common 
carriage, competition has been found to be out of place and is no 
longer relied upon, community interest taking its place. In the 
realm of advance preparation, competition has proved effective ; and 
its free operation there is desirable. In the realm of full utilization, 
competition alone has been unable to achieve adequate results; and 
the need for constructive help to make competition effective here is 
coming to be recognized. These principles have registered among 
mineral resources in the main; they have failed dismally to find 
lodgement in the field of power resources. It remains to determine 
why the contrast and what the remedy. In the attempt, the three 
aspects of the situation will be considered in the reverse order of their 
presentation above. 
FULL UTILIZATION OF POWER MATERIALS. 
r6le of multiple production. 
The power materials are coal, oil, and water, and, in the present 
connection, it is desirable to examine how fully the amount trans- 
ported is utilized. Water, of course, is not carried considerable dis- 
tances for purposes of power generation and therefore presents no 
problem in this connection. Oil, on the contrary, is in part inade- 
quately utilized, but this matter involves many complexities, which 
are given in detail 'elsewhere 2 and accordingly may be passed over 
without further comment here. This limits our consideration, under 
the present head, to coal. 
Current demand calls for the annual transportation and distribu- 
tion of about 700 million tons of coal. 3 Much of this demand could 
be satisfied with no other commodity or form of energy, while any 
change in the part open to modification can take effect only slowly. 
1 This important matter is examined in greater detail in Petroleum : A resource inter- 
pretation, Bulletin 102, part 6, of this series, pp. 67-70. 
2 Petroleum : A resource interpretation, Bulletin 102, part 6, of this series. 
3 In 1917 this country produced 640 million tons, but the requirements for 1918 will 
be over 700 million. While roughly only two-thirds of the output is used for power 
generation, the other third being employed for the manufacture of coal products (chiefly 
coke) and for domestic heating, the principle of full utilization applies to the total 
amount. 
