OCR Text |
Show WATER POWER GUTS cost of imm Census Figures Show Reduction Reduc-tion hi Electric Rates, United States census figures show that one of the few commodities, if not the only one, which costs less now than a few years ago. Is electric current cur-rent While the cost of living generally gener-ally has been mounting skyward in the last ten or fifteen years, the price of electricity for light and power has been steadily going downward. The census reports for 1912 show the average gross Income of commercial and municipal central stations in cents per kilowatt-hour since 1002 to have been as follows: 1912 1007 1902 United States 2.C2 2.M 3.42 New England 3.37 3.91 4.32 Middle- Atlantic 2.G1 2.3 2.91 East North Central 2.C7 3.34 3.C2 West North Central 4.05 4.11 4.30 South Atlantic 2.43 2.SS 3.4G East South Central 3.33 3.93 3.41 Wost South Central .... 5.31 5,23 4 CS Mountain , ,. 1.74 2.31 2.S9 Pacific 1.71 1.9G 3.44 These figures show the averago price of electric power in 1912 in the entire United States to have been only two-thirds two-thirds what it was ten years earlier. These reductions do not tell the entire benefit to the consumer, as they show only the price of current nnd offer no suggestion as to the economics brought, about by Improvement in electric lamps, motors and other appliances for utilizing electricity. In lighting alone the improvement in electric lamps In the last fifteen years has given the consumer con-sumer from three to five times as much illumination with tho same amount of current. That is, one cent's worth of electricity now produces five times as much light as it did fifteen years ago. One of the most impressive facts shown by tho above table of electric prices is the effect that water power development has had upon power costs. It will bo seen that In the Middle At- , lantic, West North Central and East ; South Central States, whero there has 1 been little water power development tho rates remained nicest the same : t2L tenveur8t while in the West South ! CentralStates, where tEoro 13 no water power development worth mentioning, the cost of power actually increased. In New England and the South Atlantic Stntcs, where there has been consider- nblc use, of water power, the price dropped off one-third, while in the '. Mountain nnd Pacific states, where the greatest development of water power . has taken place, the reduction was fully fifty pfcr cent. These figures tell the story very impressively im-pressively of what may be expected In the way of benefit to tho industries of the entire country when the 5-1,000,000 horse powor of wator now running to waste Is harpessed and put to work. |