Notes

Abstract

THE Electricity (Supply) Bill, which passed the report stage in the House of Commons on Tuesday, is a laudable attempt by the Government at constructive economy. In almost every business, combination and standardisation lead to great economies, and this applies in a very special manner to the supply of electricity. An attempt was made on Monday to prove that the Bill in its present form was a breach of the agreement made in the Act of 1888 whereby a term of forty-two years was granted to the companies to carry on their supply without Government interference. This is perhaps technically right, but the companies have no real grievance. The Bill leaves their distributing business undisturbed, and guarantees to supply them with electricity as cheaply as they could generate it for themselves. Lord Moulton and others have laid great stress on the economy, from the point of view of the conservation of coal, of using gas for heating instead of electricity. Many electrical engineers will agree with this view. But although electrical supply companies will provide energy for heating —generally at prohibitive rates—when they are specially asked, they regard the heating load as of minor importance. Electrical heating forms only one of the manifold uses of electricity. Every engineer knows that cheap power is essential to many of our most important industries. Our supremacy as a commercial nation depends on a plentiful supply being available. A cheap and abundan-t supply would soon effect an industrial revolution, and be a special boon to the manual workers. Another objection that has been urged against the Bill is the danger of strikes. If a national system of supply were adopted, and if the electric workers went on strike, the work of the nation could be held up at any moment and the nation forced to grant the demands of the workers, however unreasonable they were. The experience gained by the workers, however, during the recent railwav strike ought to discourage similar action against the community in the future.