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

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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 manufacturing.
 Only compact populations could use such