Evening star., 1923-07-15
SUPERPOWER PROJECTS
GAINING RAPIDLY in i. s.
Linking Electric Plants Over Big Areas
Said to Assure Great In
dustrial Advance.

sending Pacific coast power to the
Atlantic coast, or Southern power to
New England. 1t simply means. for
example, using Rocky Mountain pow
er to relieve drain in the territory
west of the Mississippi. 1t would
work like a lake fed by a number of
streams. If a community drew its
water supply from one of those
streams it might suffer in a dry
spell. but If all communities in that
neighborhood drew their water sup
ply from the lake fed by all the
streams the level of flow and supply
would be maintained. The inter-
connection transmission system aims
to maintain the level of pressure
constant.
Pfnchot's State Begins Survey.
Pennsylvania, under Gov. Pin
chot, is starting a survey of the
states resources under what he calls
his giant power" scheme.
The reason for superpower simply
is that in this way we can get more
power and get it cheaper.
What modern industry needs is
more and cheaper energy, more me-
chanical power and less man power.
Mechanical power has no restriction
on how much 1t will do or how long
it will work, or what wage you must
give 1t. Those are things you have
to consider In dealing with manual
labor. If we are going to raise the
social standard in this country what
we must work for is turning the la
Dor of men into lines of activity
where more than mere dexterity is
required. We must use men in places
where you have to have brains,
and use machines where you have to
have mere dexterity.
So that, while relieving the coal
lem, superpower would be going a
long way toward helping with the
greater problem of labor. Because
the more you can get cheap mechan-
ical labor into industry, the more
you can afford to pay in wages and
cut down on the hours of employ
ment for the sake of raising the So
cial standard without increasing the
cost of production, In fact, super
power can work both ways at once,
raise the social standard of labor
and lower the costs of production.
Longtime Proposition.
It's comparatively longtime prop
osition, but we are moving toward it
much faster than most people realize.
The development of electric power
didn't start until 1890, with the first
plants in California,
Oregon and Colorado transmitting
power only a few miles. The entire
of the electric-power in
dustry has taken place. in the last
thirty years, and the greater part of
it in the last ten years.
The Pacific coast superpower zone
was referred to as an illustration of
what the northeast Industrial zone
may achieve. But the whole picture
of superpower in the western states
was not given. Throughout the west
ern states they are pretty we'll hook
ed up into large units which are not
yet connected between themselves,
zone in California. But
only a few hundred miles Of line are
required to make a loop connecting
the transmission lines Of eleven
Idaho, Washington,
Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah,
Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and
The largest gap is be-
CoN
Expect Gap to Be Filled.
These eleven states are roughly
United States Undoubtedly the cou-
Pile of hundred miles Of interconnec-
tion will be put in as soon as we get
the Colorado river development diff
culties over, which will probably. be
out in the next few
The existing development in the
southeast includes Alabama, Georgia,
North and South Carolina and Ten
nessee.
The superpower project for the north
east includes: New Hampshire, Yer
mont, Massachusetts,, Rhode Island, I
New York, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, New Jersey. Maryland and
the District of Columbia. When 1t
gets going it will also take In West
hitting big coal and water
power resources.
Could Use WateFpovver.
One important advantage of SUPER
pouar deyaIonmeot IN fha aasf would
be the opportunity to use a great
deal of waterpower, which is running
to waste all up and down the country
from Maine to Tennessee. That
hasn't been used before because the
east has been developed on a steam
basis. coal was cheap and tho people
didn't want to change over to hydro
electric power.
But big hydroelectric projects are
now under way in the east that
would work into such a superpower
scheme, on the st. Lawrence, in
western New York, western Pennsyl-
vania and West Virginia There is
now before the federal power COM
mission application for a project on
the Susquehanna river, which is ex-
pected to develop 100000 horsepower.
and for a series Of projects in West
Virginia on the Cheat river estimated
to develop 100000 horsepower.
Those would be important develop
ments to hook In with the New Eng
land superpower zone, and with the
southeastern superpower zone. They
would bring New England and the
South together, with waterpower on
either end and coal in the middle.