The Bozeman courier., 1921-09-14
A REVOLT AGAINST COAL TYRANNY

A point Wnlch the coal producers OF the
country will do well to consider along with their
present high prices is their future low prices. If
they drive the industry of the nation to the use
of more economical and more efficient electric
power-particularly hydro-electric power-they
will at the same time make it possible for the
domestic consumers of the country to use what
will then be a cheaper, cleaner, and more easily
handled source of heat.
The M electrical year book, in an article
on potential and probable-note the probable
future development of hydro-eectric power in !
this country estimates that this development will
mean saving of from S1,OOO,OOOOOO to $2,OOO,-
100000 in fuel annually. Such figures would be
greatly increased by hooking up of hydro
electric and steam power plants such as is now
under consideration for the railroads and indus
tries of the northeast Atlantic seaboard. Com
menting on this super-power plan, w. S. Murray,
consulting engineer, of New York City, writing in
the Journal of the American Institute of Electric
Engineers, says it will mean a saving of 30000,-
900 tons of coal a year in the district between
Boston and Washington, or a cash saving of $780,
100000 year in the supply of energy and an ad-
ditional saving Of $150,O000O0 year in reduced
cost of maintenance of machinery, reduction of
train miles, ETC., making total saving of $780,
100000 year for this district alone.
This would be accomplished by hooking up
all the most economical power stations in the
district in order to equalize the load and decrease
the ordinary loss in transmission. Such hooking
up of power systems is logical development of
the increase in use of electricity, both from steam
and hydro plants. The Atlantic coast, particularly
in the region within $50 miles of New York, is
maze Of such connecting transmission lines 1t
represents an advance in the economical produc-
tion of electrical energy, which is also far ad-
vanced in California and is rapidly being applied
to all industrial districts in the middle west
Eventually electric transmission lines will be
connected as widely as railroad lines are now
connected and with as great advantage to the
consuming public.
! Thus it is possible with comparatively little
building of either new stations or new trans
mission lines to hook up the power of Nigra Falls,
Muscle Shoals, and the Keokuk dam, the three
greatest sources of electric power in the United
States, and by suppementing those hydro-electric
sources with steam plants placed at advantageous
points near sources of fuel and as near as pos
sible to the points of consumption, to provide
power which will make the coal men take to the
woods.
The ease with which this can be done is illus
trated in the diagram of the main transmission
lines in Illinois in the accompanying map. 1t
will readily be seen how little construction is nee
essary to unite all the chief transmission lines in
Illinois, Michigan, Indiana Ohio, Wisconsin, Ken
tucky and to a less extent the other middle west
ern states have a similar of electrical trans
mission lines which can be poined with almost as
! little effort and expense.
2 The result would be a maze of electrical
energy produced and sold at minimum cost
throughout the entire district within and touch
ing upon a line drawn roughly from Nigrara Falls
to Erie, Pa, thence southwark to Pittsburgh, tx
= Fairmont, W. Va, to Parkersburg, W. Va, t.
Charleston, through the hydro-electric power
source in the mountains of Virginia, eastern
Tennessee, and western North Carolina, into th
;. western tip of South Carolina, to Chattanooga
to Muscle Shoals, to Birmingham, Montgomery
and Mobile, to New Orleans, and thence north
! ward to Jackson, Miss. Memphis, Carlo, ST. Louis
KeOkuk, Davenport, and on to Minneapolis. Thi
system would be roughly dissected by line from
II Keokuk across Illinois to Indianapolis and theme
l. to Cleveland to connect with an extension iron
IS Niagara by way of Erie. On the west it nigh
g be extended by a line across Missouri from 81
e Louis through Jefferson City to Kansas City an
e thence northward to st. Joseph and Omaha t
n connect with a line from Keokuk through De
k Moines to Omaha, and thence northward perhap
n to Sioux Falls, whence it would run northwest