Prosperity Through Power Development: A Compilation from Papers Presented at the First World Power Conference Held at London, England, July, 1924National Electric Light Association, 1925 - 59 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
advantage agencies American capacity capital central station century charges cheaper coal competition Consulting Engineer consumer cooperation cost distribution diversity economy dustry economic electric industry electric power industry energy exemption experience fair value Federal Power Commission fuel Giant Power Herbert Hoover Hoover horsepower improvement increase interconnection INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE Julius H labor legislation lines load Manufacturing ment method monopoly nation NATIONAL REVIEW necessity organization ownership and operation political possible power development power plants power production power resources power stations power systems practicable present principle private companies private initiative private ownership problems profit Progressive Industries proposals public interest PUBLIC OWNERSHIP public utility question reasonable rates Relation to Power reliability Samuel Insull secure sinking fund social sources of power standardized steam power sumer superpower development superpower systems supply taxation taxes tion traffic transmission transportation Tripp United Vice-President W. S. Lee water power wealth World Power Conference
Popular passages
Page 53 - It must never be forgotten that, while the state may regulate with a view to enforcing reasonable rates and charges, it is not the owner of the property of public utility companies, and is not clothed with the general power of management incident to ownership.2 The applicable general rule is well expressed in State Public Utilities Commission ex rel.
Page 44 - I believe that we are, almost unnoticed, in the midst of a great revolution — or perhaps a better word, a transformation — in the whole super-organization of our economic life. We are passing from a period of extremely individualistic action into a period of associational activities.
Page 53 - The commission is not the financial manager of the corporation and it is not empowered to substitute its judgment for that of the directors of the corporation; nor can it ignore items charged by the utility as operating expenses unless there is an abuse of discretion in that regard by the corporate officers.
Page 37 - If the producing plants are owned by private capital, individuals or groups of individuals have the chance to try these experiments at their own risk. The gambling instinct is sufficiently strong in human nature that each man is ready to back his own guess as to what he can do with all the money that he himself can afford, or get his friends to supply him with. Most of this is lost. The profit on the invention that succeeds or on the method that proves useful seldom equals the aggregate loss on the...
Page 41 - We find many people enthralled with the notions of 'superpower' or 'giant power' who conceive it a superimposed financial and industrial structure over all existing systems. At once they envisage a gigantic and grinding trust in the background. "As a matter of fact no superstructure of this sort is possible, Superpower means interconnection of systems and larger central stations (coal or water) scattered over the whole Nation.
Page 34 - This kind of exemption also has a bad effect on the morale and efficiency of a government industry. If the manager of a private company has to pay interest and taxes in order to show a balance on the right side, and the managers of a government property can do so by paying interest alone, the latter tends to overestimate the excellence of the work he is doing and content himself with a lower standard of efficiency and economy. "It is sometimes said that the exemption of a public enterprise from taxation...
Page 34 - They claim that they are able to do this by their exemption from taxation and by the fact that they are not trying to make a profit as private companies do, but are content to pay interest and perhaps contribute to a sinking fund. Now I shall try to show that looking at the question as a matter of economic theory, both these methods of lowering costs are wrong in principle — harmful rather than helpful to the community and particularly harmful under conditions as they exist at present. The proposal...
Page 36 - In his remarkable work on The State in Its Relation to Trade, Lord Farrer, for many years Permanent Secretary of the British Board of Trade, has shown the folly of attempting to reduce rates by limiting profits. The laws controlling the gas companies of England, which were based on this idea, had the opposite effect to that which was intended.
Page 1 - That this conference is of the opinion that the world's most crying need to-day is greater production and manufacturing activity among its peoples under conditions which will promote individual prosperity and happiness, and that this can be largely achieved by the fuller development of national power resources and by the establishment of the most economical means for the general distribution and utilization of energy.
Page 36 - England, which were based on this idea, had the opposite effect to that which was intended. They prevented reduction, because they took away the motive for reduction. If dividends were limited to a fixed amount, there was no longer any stimulus for introducing new methods which would lower costs and increase sales. "This disability which was imposed upon the gas works of England in the nineteenth century, and which people are trying to impose upon the railroads of America in the twentieth...