132 The Stock Market Crash—dAnd After 
America’s New Frontier published by the Middle- 
West Utilities Company. This company serves four 
thousand communities of less than ten thousand 
population, 
Mr. Insull finds a tremendous saving in the far 
greater productivity per unit of electric power dis- 
ELECTRICITY DISPLACES OTHER POWER 
INDUSTRIAL POWER 
USA 
80) 
OTHER 
\" 
PURCHASED 
Coarere] 
"REN 
JE 
_ PURCHASED 
ELECTRICAL POWER 
PERCENT OF ALL 
POWER USED IN 
INDUSTRY 
20 
30 
20 
oO 
dui 
IRQ0 
14). 
[=] 
0 
it~ 5 1925 1927 
CHART 15~—Total primary factory power applied through electric 
motors increased, 1919-1927, from 55 per cent to 78 per cent. Inset: 
50 per cent purchased, 28 per cent made locally. 
tributed to small communities, as compared with 
power units in the congested cities. 
Until 1910-1912, neither steam power nor early 
electric power could be distributed beyond the length 
of the leather transmission belt. Invention came 
in to permit long-distance transmission. Until then 
the big cities had had it all their own way in manu- 
facturing. Only compact populations could use such