Keokuk, Iowa. Congress granted the company a franchise to build a dam across the Mississippi River at this point provided that it would build and turn over free to the United States government a dry dock, a canal and locks, to ensure the passage of river traffic. The company not only has done this, but it also furnishes free to the government the power to operate the dry dock, its machine shops, and the locks.

Most of the

electricity generated at this plant is sold to the city of St. Louis, 144 miles away. A number of neighboring municipalities also buy their power from this plant.

Central Power Plants. When it is transmitted to distant cities, power from central plants similar to these is usually carried by wires supported on giant steel towers. The modern tendency is for a number of communities to buy their electricity from one large central plant, either hydro-electric or steam generating, rather than to build smaller local plants. The Boston Edison Company now supplies electricity within a radius of 500 square miles. The Public Service Company of New Jersey furnishes electricity, gas, and street car service to

more than 200 different municipalities. In 1912 the Pacific Gas and Electric Company of California owned or operated properties in thirty counties. It supplied these communities with electric light, power, gas, water, and street railway service. Consolidation such as this makes the cost of power much cheaper. The expense of delivering coal to a great number of small scattered local plants is eliminated. Even street car companies are tending to stop manufacturing power and to buy it from central plants. In 1912 the street car lines of Chicago and Philadelphia were buying their power from the central plants located in those cities.

In 1910 an electrical engineer suggested that it would be cheaper and better to install great steam-generating electric plants at England's coal mines, to turn all the coal into electricity right there, and to sell electricity in place of coal for all purposes. In the United States there are electric generating plants, notably in Pennsylvania, located near mines and using the low grade of coal that is not worth shipping. This saves coal that has been hitherto wasted, and turns it into light and power.

5. CENTRAL STATION HEATING

Unlike lighting, heating is still largely a matter that the individual must take care of for himself or depend upon his landlord to furnish him. Houses are still heated by individual furnaces, though there are a few instances where groups of buildings and even whole communities are heated from central heating stations.

Of recent years, the necessity for economy in the use of coal has brought increased attention to projects for central heating plants. There is no doubt that a great deal of coal is wasted by the average householder who takes care of his own furnace, and by the hired furnace man. A central plant, in the business of purchasing supplies of coal and turning it into heat to sell to the community, would not only practice every means of economy in cutting down its coal bill, but could afford to hire

experienced engineers to devise methods of conserving the amount of coal used.

The first central heating plant in this country was installed at Lockport, New York, some fifty years ago. Here a com

munity boiler house supplies steam heat to houses within a radius of three miles. The steam pipes, covered with asbestos to reduce the loss of heat to a minimum, are laid underground. The steam supplied by the plant is used to heat water and for cooking, as well as for general heating. The street pipes are installed at the expense of the company, but the house installa

tions are charged to the consumer at varying amounts, depending on the size of the building to be heated. The installation charges range from $150 for a small house, to $500 for larger buildings.

The village of Arcade, New York, was another pioneer in the field of central station heating. For a number of years Arcade had owned and operated its electric lighting plant, in which steam was used to generate electric power. The surplus steam was wasted. The familiar puffing white clouds issued from an exhaust pipe in the roof of the plant. Now this waste steam is utilized to heat the business center of the village as well as two school buildings. The consumer gets an ample supply of heat at a cost equal to what he used to pay for his coal bill alone, not counting the labor of taking care of the furnace and removing the ashes.

In a number of our large cities groups of business buildings

buy their steam for hot water and heating from central heating plants, privately operated.

When a householder buys his heat from a central plant he is relieved of the necessity of installing a furnace, or furnishing a coal storage room, coal, ashes disposal, and of the work of firing and cleaning. All this is taken care of at the central plant far more cheaply and efficiently than the householder could handle it. When the plant is located near a railroad the cost of hauling coal is greatly reduced. Another great advantage of central station heating is that it removes one source of fire danger. Radiators replace stoves and furnaces in homes and business buildings. The cost of insurance is correspondingly lowered.

The service of furnishing communities with heat from central heating plants may at some future date be as much of a public utility as that of furnishing lighting or water.

6. PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OR CONTROL OF LIGHTING AND HEATING PLANTS

Our cities either own their lighting plants or buy their gas and electricity from privately owned plants. In 1912 there were 5,221 central electric light and power stations in the United States. These were divided into two classes:

1. The 3,659 privately owned commercial plants, selling light and power.

2. The 1,562 municipally owned plants, supplying light to public thoroughfares, parks, and public buildings, and sometimes selling light and power to individual consumers.

Public Control of Privately Owned Plants. The privately owned gas or electric plant tends to become a monopoly, by buying up its competitors or by driving them out of business. When a company has a monopoly of a necessary product it can, if left alone, ask any price it wants, and get it. Only a few years ago some of our cities were paying exorbitant prices to private companies for their lighting. Yet these cities had granted the companies franchises to lay wires, poles, or conduits

and pipes over or under the city streets.

To remedy this situation the lighting companies have been classed with the other public utilities and placed under the control and supervision of state-chosen bodies of public officials, usually known as Public Service Commissions.

Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and New York were the first states to include the lighting and power companies among public utilities subject to regulation. In general the Public Service Commissions of the various states have the following powers and duties:

1. To set standards of service. Good service to the public is insisted upon.

2. To adjust disputed cases of service, and complaints as to rates charged. Although the rate which the company is allowed to charge its customers is usually based on the cost of the service, yet it must not be prohibitive. Anyway, lower rates are usually found to be more profitable than high rates, because they tend to attract a larger number of individual consumers, and hence increase the volume of service, which cuts down costs.

The Public Service Commissions protect the companies as well as their customers:

1. They do not permit competing companies to operate in communities where a second company is not really needed. The law recognizes that a public utility is necessarily monopolistic in character, and allows a second utility only where the public welfare demands it.

2. They assure the company a reasonable rate of return upon a fair valuation of its plant.

Publicly Owned Plants. Although the municipally owned plants are fewer than those privately owned, they seem to be increasing in number in recent years. In 1912 there were 310 more municipally owned plants than in 1907; while during the same period only 197 new commercial plants were started. Most of the municipal plants, however, are in the small communities, the majority of them in towns having less than 5,000