The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-15
SOLVING A PROBLEM.
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 Oakland, Cal, street cars are now run by an electric current generated by a wa teFfali l<9 miles distant. In few days the San Jose cars, 1s0 miles from the source of the power. will be run in the same way.
 The average newspaper reader. if he reads that paragraph at all. will pass it by as a matter of mere local inter- est, probably affecting nobody but the people of San Jose and Oakland. Like many other short items which appear in all the papers. it attracts no attention from the majority of readers. and is not half so interesting as the account of a ball game or horse race.
 Yet within those few lines Is con- densed an idea which is the germ or starting point for the solution of one of the most difficult problems now con- fronting thoughtful and anxious men the question of fuel. It Is we'll known ahead of 1t. It Is equally well known that the consumption of coal is in- creasing enormously, that the possible supply in the earth ia ttIe subject of cai- culation. and that statisticians are even now fixing a date when the coal supply of the earth will be exhausted.
 It Is true that occasional new sources of supply are being discovered, and 1t is also true that some of the deposits are larger than had been supposed. l. (,rr tr,t hot tion of the earths volume has not yet been explored. and no one can predict with any certainty whether there Is or is not coal in those unknown regions. And we may also add that substitutes for wood and coal as fuel are contin. ually being discovered or invented. ell of which may help to prolong the life of these substances for producing heat and power. Yet with all these provisos and conditions, investigators and stu dents are predicting the time when the supply of fuel will be exhausted. That time may be several centuries ahead. but that Is all.
 The information conveyed in the paragraph quoted Is the key to a solu- ton of the difficulty. There is praeti- cally no limit to the distance which electric power can be transmitted. If, as in the case mentioned, it can be practically carried 140 or ls0 miles. 1t can be carried any other distance, just as telegraphic message can be sent to London as certainly as to Atlanta, It costs more to prepare for sending 1t the longer route. and that is all.
 All people who live in cities are fa- miliar with the use of electricity as motive power. but so far that power Is in nearly all cases produced by machin- cry driven by steam, and the steam Is produced by coal or wood, so that there Is little economy. comparatively. in using the new power. however much 1t may be convenient and desirable in other respects. The plant which Is be- ing erected at Tallsssee will be the first in this region to substitute water for steam power in the formulation of elee- trlc energy. but it is hardly to be doubt ed that the experiment will be sue cessful and that it will be extended.
 No one but thorough expert can tell what amount of power can be obtained by utilising. all the water and the fall at that one point, but 1t would be enormous. and we suppose no one need hesitate to say that all the stationary power needed in Montgomery, together with that required for street cars, can be brought from that place and prob ably all the other towns and cities around could also get their power from that one plaa.. That, however, is a matter of little consequence as the en- tire State, especially Middle and North / labaml. abounds in water power, and in other parts of Alabama 1t iS not entirely Unknown, At all events, 1t Is safe to cay that the water power of Alabama can supply electricity to drive all the machinery and all the street cars of the State.
 But that Is not all. If electric power will drive a street car around and across the city of Montgomery, why