The Washington herald., 1914-03-28
HISTORY BUILDERS.
Westinghouse Prophecy of Southern
Development.
(wrtten Expressly for The Heraid.)
BY DIR, y. J. EDWARDS.

l..
(written' Expressly for The Herald.)
BY DIR. y. J. EDWARDS.
The late George Westinghouse was In
vited by a commercial association or 50
called congress of the South to address
meeting Of that body which was to bs
held at Atlanta. Georgia, in the sprins
of 1911. He gladly accepted the invi
tatIon. although II involved the prepara
tion and delivery Of an address. Mr.
Westinghouse was always diffident abou,
! speaking In public, but he sometimes pre-.
pared communications for the newspaper
press which. aside from their inherent
Importance, furnished a fine revelation
of the clearness with which he thought
and the facility with which he expressed
his thought in appropriate and very
lucid language.
Shortly after his return from Atlanta
Mr.. Westinghouse asked me to call upor
him. / found him apparently in a hap.
pier state of mind than he had mani
Tested since the money panic of 1907.
He said: II never. enjoyed an ex.
cursion OF the kind better than the ons
l have just made to the South. / thini
that i was able to enlighten some OF the
able men who are members of the South
ern association. with respect to the op.
portunities that are ready for Immediate
development In that section of the land
For some years have regarded the
South as sure to become possibly the
greatest industrial section OF the United
States within the next twenty-five OF
thirty years. Certainly 1t will be a.
great In that respect as any other in the
country
Il wanted to tell the people Of the
South what the especial advantage wa.
which they possess. They have enormou.
water power in the South. II there has
been any especially great development
or the utilization OF electricity for in
dustrial purposes. II has been through
the employment OF electric energy for the
production of power. both Industrial and
for the hauling OF cars.
made some study of water power
opportunities In the South, and. OF course,
L knew something about the generation
Of electricity through the utilization OF
water power.
wanted to say to the people of the
south that we have at last discovered n
means by which electricity can be car
ried Ter long distances without any ap-
preciable loss Of its energy. That is a
strong point In favor of the South's in
dustrial development They can. at COM
Po'eea''is ~" NoSt, capture enormous
water power that has been going to waste
for years. convert IL at that point into
electric energy. and then carry the energy
10 commercial advantage to points as
far distant as 100 miles. even more. II
is the cheapest possible way of securing
power. ] felt that ! might SO speak to
the Southern Congress of Industries as
to show the members that by utilization
OF this power they could operate at low
cost hundreds Of miles Of trolleys, could
by and by run their steam railways and
could operate factories established at
convenient distributing points. although
100 miles at least from the place where
the electric energy was obtained.
II tell you" said Mr.. Westinghouse.
speaking with great earnestness, that
II the energetic men OF the South will
make use of this wonderfully great nat
ural resource for obtaining commercial
power cheaply the country will witness
within the next twenty-five years an in
dustrial development in many parts of
the South. perhaps as great in the ag-
Eregate. as that which has been charac-
teristic of my own home district, Of which
Pittsburgh is the center"
Copyright. lsI)