New-York tribune., 1918-10-21
Wealth Markets and Commerce @
ment are not able to keep.pace with


tne urgent requirements.
The increased electric power facili:
ties now required for war purposes Will
not be idle after the war. Our manu-
facturcrs are being forced into an era
Of electrification. Labor will continue
to be expensive and short of the de-
mand, due to cutting off Of immigra-
tion and other causes, and it must be
made more productive by the increas-
ing use of automatic machinery and
labor saving appliances. Our newly es-
tablished Importance in the industrial
world must be continued after the war
in fact, must be increased if our 25,-
00,O00-ton merchant marine is to be
given cargoes. 1t is our good fortune
that effective measures to meet i'm
mediate vital needs will fit in with
comprehensive plans for the future.
After the war an efficient and con-
prehensivc plan Of supplying power
will constitute one of our most crucial
lean standard of living is recognized as
due, more than to any other single
cause, to our greater per capita use of
power, resulting in greater per capita
productiveness. But the inefficient and
wasteful methods by which this power
has been obtained cannot long con-
tinue. The fundamental consideration
is coal. Our consumption of coal, dis
regarding the great increases brought
about by war conditions, has been in
creasing at a normal rate of Z per cent
per annum. If this rate were to con-
tlnue, our best and most accessible
coal reserves, those of Pennsylvania.
West Virginia and adjacent states, ac-
cord!ng to estimates of the United
States Geological Survey. would be ex-
hausted within tifty-six years. This
means that we must cut down our rate
of increase in coal consumption. 1t
means, also, that coal is to be increas-
ingly expensive. Unless there is to be
development, power generation must be
made to embody every feasible econ-
omy in fuel consumption.
There must be full utilization Of
water powers within economic limits
as to coast, but in the East we must
depend for our additional future re-
quirements primarily upon huge steam
stations, taking advantage of every
economy made possible by large size
OF units, Capitalization and intercon-
nection. These stations must in the
main be located near the mines, in or
der to do away with the unnecessary
and uneconomical railroad transporta-
ton of huge hulks of COAL The inten-
slve industrial reorganization of Euro
pean nations is threatening to carry
those nations far beyond US in eff
clency. Plans for power supply of
broad scope and under governmental
supervision are already under way with
our allies in Europe pe-interconnected
water power developments in France
ana huoe interconnected mine-m mouth
steam plants in England. 1t is reported
that Germany and Austria, even under
stress OF war conditions and in face
or their acute shortage of materials,
have developed largo electrical trans
MISSION systems fed by water powers
and mlne-mouth steam stations.
Much is already being done in our
country along these lines. In the stu
atlons. however, whore both needs and
opportunities are greatest. the work is
yet IN tentative stage The diversity
and the great aggregate amount of the
power requirements, which tend to
make comprehensive organization diff
hcult. make it all the more essential
The work is too big a proposition for
any private enterprise or any single
government agency. The need is essen
TALLY national, and government assist
ance and government direction are nee
sary. Speed is vital if ary material as
sistance is to be given TO the 1919 war
production end if we are to be ready
1or even greater production in 1926.
me surest way to have the war last
TWO years IS to prepare for only one.