ELECTRICITY-THE NEW HOUSEHOLD SERVANT

...It is by the utilization, first, of the w:.ter powers of the company, and, second, by many of the coal mines to be used in connection with them...

...Her home consists of eight rooms...

...The 1.85 cents per kilowatt hour includes an item of amortization which in thirty years' time will pay off the entire capital invested and leave nothing but operation and depreciation to be paid for by the consumers...

...Electricity was generated and given to the Alabama Power Company...

...The passages date from Roman times and run for miles under the earth...

...It has not been many years since most of the cities were supplied with water by private corporations, but water was a necessity in the home, and because the most economical results in a city could be ( .ained by a monopoly of the business, the pec- gradually demanded that such a monopoly should be owned by the people and that profit should be taken entirely out of it...

...The other 304 kilowatts she had to pay for at the rate of lc per kilowatt hour...

...On the west of the territory covered by this plant was another system consisting of many plants hooked together...

...They had enough electricity for themselves but they had none to spare...

...It is rapidly becoming a necessity and it will not be long until no house will be considered modern unless it has electricity and all the electric appliances known to science...

...These fascinating passages are now being opened, cleared, and equipped with lights...

...This kind of power is called primary power, and that which any hydroelectric system generates for any less time or for only a portion of the year is called secondary power...

...There is no reason why the home should not be supplied with this unseen and but little understood power that would bring about more comfort and more happiness to humanity than any other one thing...

...When in one community the peak load in on, some other community will have a surplus that is going to waste...

...The effect of this was to transfer to North Carolina, without loss, enough electricity to save a catastrophe, although the distance between Muscle Shoals and North Carolina is about 800 miles...

...By GEORGE W. NORRIS (United States Senator from Nebraska) TANDING at the threshold of the American home is Miss Electricity, a new household servant, anxious to take upon herself the drudgery of housekeeping...

...If any plan can be devised by which secondary power can be converted into primary power, we have therefore practically made something out of nothing and that something is very valuable...

...The city of Toronto is not an exception...

...Clearing the passages is an arduous task...

...This gives you an idea of what can be accomplished with electricity at cost...

...Every waterpower in the United States owned by the people ought to be put to work for the people...

...The greate...

...We are just beginning to realize that there is scarcely an activity in human existence that cannot he simplified arid relieved of many of its difficulties and much of its drudgery by the use of electricity...

...LABYRINTH OF TOLEDO It is expected that European tour conduetors will soon list the underground passages of the old Spanish city of Toledo as an important part of their itinerary...

...She had an electric iron and washer, a toaster, a range on which she cooked the year around—in fact, every electrical device necessary for the comfort and convenience of the home...

...In the United States there are many publicly owned plants selling electricity as low as 3 to 5 cents per kilowatt hour...

...They are of great interest to all students of history and art...

...She is the wife of a mechanic v.-ho works in .the shops in that city...

...It is human nature for a monopoly, w i^h its grasping fingers, to take all it can possibly get, and if a necessity of life is in the control of a monopoly, then the people who must use the article thus controlled are helpless...

...They, however, had no electricity to spare and could do nothing...

...She works while we sleep and her rate of wage decreases as the volume of her work increases...

...We under- . stand enough about its generation and distribution now to know that the price can be very materially lowered...

...In fact, in all privately owned systems the tendency is always to increase the capital rather than decrease it, so that the capital in the United states was greater at the end of the year than at the beginning of the year...

...This can be brought about only through monopoly...

...All these plants are included in the average of lxk cents per kilowatt hour in the United States...

...Is it right that this unseen power contained in the flowing streams of the country should be converted into electricity for private gain and for private profit...

...Next to North Carolina, in the eastern part of Georgia, was a comparatively large system having many generating plants...

...This receipt is for one month and they consumed in that home 334 kilowatt hours of electricity...

...During the balance of the twenty-four hours, much of the electricity generated has escaped and is...

...Some of the street cars would have ceased to operate...

...There is nothing to be gained by joining up the system, in one town with that in another, whereas in electricity the case is dilferent...

...from 30 to 40 kilowatt hours per month...

...Secondary power, to a great extent, in any plant standing alone, has but little value, and the only power that can be counted on in constructing a plant, therefore is primary power-that which is good all the time...

...This is, in fact, to a great extent, accomplished by hooking up various electric plants into one vast system, known as super-power or giant power...

...Moreover, in the United States ni-j price does not include an|»amortization of capital...

...The only electricity that is really valuable is that which can be generated every day in the year...

...I.ow Kates in Canada DURING the last year the average price of domestic consumption of electricity in the homes of the United States was T'.g cents per kilowatt hour...

...But just west of the Alabama Power Company was the Government steam plant at Muscle Shoals, with a power capacity of 60,000 horsepower...

...There are no limits to such a system...

...We are just entering an electric age...

...The testimony before the Senate Committee c:i Agriculture in the hearings on Muscle Shoals a few years ago, showed that the development of the Government dams on the Tennessee River and the development of the Coosa River along another watershed in Alabama, if combined, would increase the combined output of both of those systems by more than 100,000 horsepower...

...Harness Every Stream EVERY stream that trickles down the mountainside will in time be harnessed and electric energy carried to every fireside...

...After all, what excuse can be given for the existence of a monopoly by private individuals or corporations organized for private profit...

...She will cook the meals, wash the dishes, sweep the floors, clean the rugs, dust the furniture, wash the clothes, do the ironing, beat the water when it is cold and cool it when it is, hot, keep the refrigerator at a zero temperature, do the family sewing, supply the kitchen and the bath with hot and cold water, light the entire house, and operate fans to keep us cool when the weather is .hot...

...Cullom had lived in the city of Washington during that month and used the same amount of electricity, she would have been compelled to pay under the rates here, $23.18...

...Modern society is going to demand that it shall be brought into every home at a price that will enable people of ordinary means to apply it to ¦ every household use to which it is applicable...

...Cheap Rates in Canada IHOLD in my hand a photostatic copy of a receipt for electricity paid by Mrs...

...And how is this monopoly to be brought about...

...J. Cul-lom, who lives.at No...

...During the same period of time, in the super-power system and operated by the public.in Ontario, the average domestic price of electricity in the homes of Ontario was 1.85 cents per kilowatt hour, and during the same period the average price paid by the commercial users of electricity in Ontario was less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour and the average price paid for power was less than $25.00 per horsepower per year...

...In the bathroom and kitchen the water was heated by electricity...

...Like an angelic messenger she comes from the clouds, trips down the mountainside, through the hills and across the meadows to the sea, . everywhere along her pathway relieving life of its tiresome drudgery and adding to the joys and comforts of mankind...

...This should be suppler mented by the use of coal that God has placed, in the bowels of the earth for the benefit of man...

...We must have a combination more gigantic than any that has ever been conceived by man...

...Two cents as the maximum, running down to one cent per kilowatt hour, is a common thing in the cities of the Province, and there is no reason why, on this side of the line, our people should not be supplied with electricity at as cheap a rate...

...It is not practical to carry electricity to exceed about 300 miles, but if we had a system covering the United States that could circumvent this difficulty by a system of r lays, we would in effect accomplish the same result as though we could transfer electricity practically an indefinite distance...

...In fact, there is no way known to science today by which the cost of electricity can be reduced to its minimum except through the instrumentality of such a giant system...

...The company in turn gave power to the next company and it gave to the North Carolina distribution system, and thus was relief brought by this relay system and North Carolina supplied with all the electricity she needed...

...But if Washington were tied up with New York, with Baltimore, and with Philadelphia, then by the pushing of a button the surplus electricity in one city could be transferred to another to help out during the peak period...

...Many priceless relics have been unearthed...

...One entrance was found beneath the home of E) Greco, famous painter of the seven-' teenth century...

...It will be found, I think, that we will never be able to get what we ought to get out of a great super-power monopolistic system unless the property now owned by the people and which will be the basis of that monopoly is retained by the people and operated by them, not for profit but for service...

...Who supplies the source of all this power that ought to be used for the happiness and the comfort of mankind...

...For an hour or two in the morning when the street cars are overloaded, and for the same length of time in the afternoon, much more electricity is required than during the middle of the day or the latter part of the night, and any system supplying the city must be prepared to generate enough electricity to supply the demand at its highest point...

...Fires were started in these Engines...

...Experience shows that its use becomes universal as the price is lowered...

...When electricity is recognized as a necessity, a:u that its generation and distribution can be the most economically brought about through a monopoly, it would seem that the same reasoning should apply to it...

...It was going to be necessary, unless some relief came, to close down some of the factories...

...This means that in her home she has practically every electrical device known to science...

...In order to bring about its universal use in the home its price must be lowered...

...In the generation of electricity, particularly by ¦water power, in order to get the best economic results, all the generating plants must be tied in together...

...It will be considered more of a necessity than water...

...And, after all, who owns the rivers and the streams that flow from the mountains to the sea...

...If Mrs...

...All this demonstrates that in order to get the benefit of cheap electricity we must have monopoly...

...It can operate the machinery in the largest and most powerful factory in the world, and it can with equal regularity and accuracy relieve the housewife of most of her dreaded labors...

...She never asks for a day off, and works twenty-rfour hours in every day...

...For nearly twenty years they have been opcraling this k.vstem and the example stands out now before the entire world, not only unsurpassed but not equalled by any system anywhere in civilization...

...Her bill amounts to $3.55 for that one month—the month of July, 1922...

...250 Victoria avenue, Toronto, Canada...

...But wonderful as this appears to be, it does not tell all the story...

...The power that supplies the city of Washington, for instance, must generate enough electricity to fill the demand at its peak...

...Usefulness Not Appreciated THE USEFULNESS of electricity in the home is not yet fully understood nor appreciated...

...for, the accumulations of centuries are protected by swarms of poisonous snakes, spiders and insects...

...a total loss...

...The most material gain conies when the generating systems are combined and united into one great superpower system...

...There is no activity in life that it cannot make more pleasant and agreeable...

...And remember that in this amount there is an item for amortization which, when the capital has all been paid off, will be eliminated, so that we can expect a still further reduction...

...When the water is low on one watershed there may be a surplus on the other side of the mountain...

...The figures given for the Canadian home are just the reverse...

...The Alabama Power Company spread this electricity through its system and in turn was then able to grant to the power company in Georgia, electricity equal to the amount it had received from Muscle Shoals...

...West of this company was the Alabama Power Company, operating over a large portion of Alabama and having quite a large system with many hydro-electric and several steam plants locked together...

...She enjoys herself better when she is kept continually at work...

...You will notice she used 334 kilowatts...

...If out of property owned by the public, a private monopoly is formed for service to the public at private profit, can we expect to get the maximum use of this power or to get it at a price that the ordinary citizen can afford to enjoy it ? If a monopoly is formed out of Government-owned property, should not the Government own the monopoly...

...If the women of the country really knew how the burdens of housekeeping could be relieved by electricity there would be such a demand for its employment that it could not be resisted by man...

...I cannot conceive of a free people long submitting to the exactions of monopolistic control of a necessity of life...

...Using the Full Flow THIS was well illustrated in 1922 when in the State of North Carolina, on account of unprecedented dry weather, some of its streams had ceased to flow and all of them were very much diminished in the volume of their flow...

...It has more beneficial uses than any other one agency...

...Hook-up of Localities IN THE generation of electricity by hydroelectric power the amount generated varies in different seasons and in different periods of the same season...

...Objects of art of Moorish, Roman, and Spanish civilizations are being carefully preserved within the passages, or taken to museums, as discovered...

...Because electricity cannot for practical purposes be stored, it must be used as soon as it is generated or its usefulness is gone forever...

...People Should Control IT IS thus seen that by joining together the various systems we cannot only help out on the peak load that occurs daily, but we can help out on account jai shortage that lasts during several months of the year...

...the system, the greater are the economy and the possibilities of transferring electricity from one point to another...

...People will demand the maximum amount of electricity at the minimum cost...

...The greatest publicly owned super-power system of electric generation and distribution is in Ontario, Canada...

...Some of the cities and towns would have been left in darkness...

...A house of eight rooms in America, as a rule, would use...

...Cities Supply Water IN ALMOST every city in the United States the homes are supplied by water from a system owned by the municipality...

...They could not give North Carolina any current because they had none to spare...

...In other words, it is a means by which we convert secondary power into primary power...

...She had to pay 2c a kilowatt hour for the first 30 kilowatts...

...Monopolies are always obnoxious to a free people...

...So I might go on all through the Province of Ontario...

...She never scolds, never finds fault, id never talks back...

...But the most wonderful thing about this servant is that the harder she works the less she charges...

...and every home in our land, if we apply the same principle that has been applied in Ontario, would be getting electricity today so cheap that one would not bother to turn it off when he went to bed at night...

...Indeed, the reason is still greater because the monopoly in the case of water applies to only one municipality...