42 
BULLETIN 102, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
a force now working against the unification of economic purpose 
into a national policy, 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 . 1 
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 opportunit}? 
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 . 2 
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 circles 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. 
2 The gains in inland waterway transportation and in western irrigation that would 
come as incidentals in a broad development should not be overlooked. 
