forests, and the Department of the Interior administered the power projects situated on the Indian reservations and public domain.

The 1920 legislation aimed to provide a uniform policy under which the permissive actions of the Government might be managed and at the same time leave the field activities, comprising the investigation of applications, the supervision of construction, and the control of operations, undisturbed in the respective departments. The necessary correlation of the efforts of the departments was effected by creating the commission composed of the heads of the three departments concerned, and providing it with a small headquarters staff.

With the constant increase in the number of projects authorized and the numerous problems arising out of their construction, the demands upon the time of the cabinet members forming the commission grew beyond that which could properly be spared from their other responsibilities and a reorganization of the commission was recommended by the President in his message to Congress on December 3, 1929, which stated:

The Federal Power Commission is now comprised of three Cabinet officers, and the duties involved in the competent conduct of the growing responsibilities of this commission far exceed the time and attention which these officials can properly afford from other important duties. I recommend that authority be given for the appointment of full-time commissioners to replace them.

It is also desirable that the authority of the commission should be extended to certain phases of power regulation. The nature of the electric utilities industry is such that about 90 per cent of all power generation and distribution is intrastate in character and most of the States have developed their own regulatory systems as to certificates of convenience, rates and profits of such utilities. To encroach upon their authorities and responsibilities would be an encroachment upon the rights of the States. There are cases, however, of interstate character beyond the jurisdiction of the States. To meet these cases it would be most desirable if a method could be worked out by which initial action may be taken between the commissions of the States whose joint action should be made effective by the Federal Power Commission with a reserve to act on its own motion in case of disagreement or nonaction by the States.

Several bills were introduced which aimed to accomplish the reorganization suggested and also to include within the scope of the commission's authority regulatory jurisdiction over certain interstate power transactions. Owing to the complexities of the latter problem, Congress finally restricted the legislation to the reorganization question, and the following act was approved by the President on June 23, 1930:

AN ACT to reorganize the Federal Power Commission

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That sections 1 and 2 of the Federal water power act are amended to read as follows:

"That a commission is hereby created and established, to be known as the Federal Power Commission (hereinafter referred to as the 'commission') which shall be composed of five commissioners who shall be appointed by the President,

by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, one of whom shall be designated by the President as chairman and shall be the principal executive officer of the commission: Provided, That after the expiration of the original term of the commissioner so designated as chairman by the President, chairmen shall be elected by the commission itself, each chairman when so elected to act as such until the expiration of his term of office.

"The commissioners first appointed under this section, as amended, shall continue in office for terms of one, two, three, four, and five years, respectively, from the date this section, as amended, takes effect, the term of each to be designated by the President at the time of nomination. Their successors shall be appointed each for a term of five years from the date of the expiration of the term for which his predecessor was appointed, except that any person appointed to fill a vacancy occurring prior to the expiration of the term for which his predecessor was appointed shall be appointed only for the unexpired term of such predecessor. Not more than three of the commissioners shall be appointed from the same political party. No person in the employ of or holding any official relation to any licensee or to any person, firm, association, or corporation engaged in the generation, transmission, distribution, or sale of power, or owning stock or bonds thereof, or who is in any manner pecuniarily interested therein, shall enter upon the duties of or hold the office of commissioner. Said commissioners shall not engage in any other business, vocation, or employment. No vacancy in the commission shall impair the right of the remaining commissioners to exercise all the powers of the commission. Three members of the commission shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and the commission shall have an official seal of which judicial notice shall be taken. The commission shall annually elect a vice chairman to act in case of the absence or disability of the chairman or in case of a vacancy in the office of chairman.

"Each commissioner shall receive an annual salary of $10,000, together with necessary traveling and subsistence expenses, or per diem allowance in lieu thereof, within the limitations prescribed by law, while away from the seat of government upon official business.

"The principal office of the commission shall be in the District of Columbia, where its general sessions shall be held; but whenever the convenience of the public or of the parties may be promoted or delay or expense prevented thereby, the commission may hold special sessions in any part of the United States.

"SEC. 2. The commission shall have authority to appoint, prescribe the duties, and fix the salaries of, a secretary, a chief engineer, a general counsel, a solicitor, and a chief accountant; and may, subject to the civil service laws, appoint such other officers and employees as are necessary in the execution of its functions and fix their salaries in accordance with the classification act of 1923, as amended. The commission may request the President to detail an officer or officers from the Corps of Engineers, or other branches of the United States Army, to serve the commission as engineer officer or officers, or in any other capacity, in field work outside the seat of government, their duties to be prescribed by the commission; and such detail is hereby authorized. The President may also, at the request of the commission, detail, assign, or transfer to the commission engineers in or under the Department of the Interior or Agriculture for field work outside the seat of government under the direction of the commission.

"The commission may make such expenditures (including expenditures for rent and personal services at the seat of government and elsewhere, for law books, periodicals, and books of reference, and for printing and binding) as are necessary to execute its functions. Expenditures by the commission shall be allowed and paid upon the presentation of itemized vouchers therefor, approved

by the chairman of the commission or by such other member or officer as may be authorized by the commission for that purpose."

SEC. 2. Subsection (c) of section 4 of the Federal water power act is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new sentence: "Such report shall contain the names and show the compensation of the persons employed by the commission."

SEC. 3. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 1 of this act the Federal Power Commission as constituted upon the date of the approval of this act shall continue to function until the date of the reorganization of the commission pursuant to the provisions of such section. The commission shall be deemed to be reorganized upon such date as three of the commissioners appointed as provided in such section 1 have taken office, and no such commissioner shall be paid salary for any period prior to such date.

SEC. 4. This act shall be held to reorganize the Federal Power Commission created by the Federal water power act, and said Federal water power act shall remain in full force and effect, as herein amended, and no regulations, actions, investigations, or other proceedings under the Federal water power act existing or pending at the time of the approval of this act shall abate or otherwise be affected by reasons of the provisions of this act.

PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION OF ELECTRICITY

The new census figures have made possible for the first time since 1920 reliable calculations of the per capita production of electricity. These statistics strikingly demonstrate the extent to which all sections of the country are making wider use of electric power. For the country as a whole the per capita demand has more than doubled in the last decade, increasing from 391 kilowatt-hours in 1920 to 800 kilowatt-hours in 1930. The significance of the present use of electricity is shown by the fact that if the work done by a man in a year's time is assumed to be 200 kilowatt-hours, then the electricity now being used corresponds to an average of four electrical servants for every man, woman, and child in the country.

Corresponding figures for the per capita consumption for the various States and geographical regions are not directly obtainable on account of the fact that the statistics available relate only to the amount of electricity generated in each State, which often differs from the amount consumed in the same State, owing to interstate transfers of power. The figures for per capita consumption given in the accompanying tabulation are, therefore, based on estimates obtained by adjusting the corresponding production figures to allow approximately for interstate transfers of power. Such consumption data are given only for 1930, information being lacking as to the interstate transfers in 1920. It is to be noted, however, that both in 1920 and 1930 the consumption of each geographical region was approximately equal to its production, notwithstanding considerable transfers of power between the various component States.

It will be seen that both in 1920 and 1930 the Pacific and Rocky Mountain regions made the largest use of electricity in proportion to population and the South Central regions the least. The former

averaged about 1,412 kilowatt-hours per capita in 1930 and the latter about 401. Among the individual States, Montana is far in the lead, with a use in 1930 of about 2,823 kilowatt-hours for each person. This remarkably high rate of utilization is due largely to the large amount of electricity used in the great metallurgical enterprises within the State as compared with the relatively small population. Other States showing notably intensive use of electricity are California, Washington, and Utah, with 1930 per capita consumptions of about 1,585, 1,570, and 1,549 kilowatt-hours, respectively. In the East, New York and North Carolina lead with per capita consumptions of about 1,165 and 1,048 kilowatt-hours.

With reference to the relative rates of growth of per capita use in the various localities, it is interesting to note that the table shows a marked tendency for the rate of increase to vary inversely with the intensity of use. Thus the same South Central regions which had the lowest per capita consumption in both 1920 and 1930 showed the greatest percentage of increase during the decade-about 215 per cent― and the Pacific and Mountain regions, which had the highest per capita use, showed the lowest percentage increase-only about 67 per cent.

From the standpoint of water-power development, it is significant that in general the regions having the highest per capita consumption are also those in which a large proportion of the energy is generated from water-power sources. This indicates that the availability of lowcost sources of water power has in the past been an important factor in promoting liberal use of electricity. On the other hand, the greater rate of increase in per capita use in the other regions during the past decade probably reflects the increasing attractiveness of fuel power which has resulted from the marked economies effected in recent years in the production of electricity by the use of fuel. The modern steam electric station now offers keen competition with the hydroelectric plant, and with the wide distribution of cheap fuel supplies the cost of producing electrical energy has been equalized throughout the country to a considerable extent. It is to be expected that the per capita consumption of power will reflect a similar trend after making allowances, of course, for the heavy uses of large industrial concentrations and the higher cost of serving districts of sparse population.

The relatively lesser rates of increase in the per capita consumption. of regions already showing high per capita use may also be due in some measure to their somewhat nearer approach to what might inaccurately be termed the saturation point. There is, of course, no definite saturation point in the possible per capita use of electricity, nor is such a point likely to be reached or to become apparent, at least for a long time to come. Nevertheless, it appears reasonable to expect that after a certain concentration of use has been reached further increases in per capita consumption will follow more gradually, and probably

with increasing slowness. Thus, for example, the West, where the per capita use is already comparatively high, can not look forward to any appreciable increase from the wiring of existing houses, as can some of the older sections of the East, for there most of the houses are relatively new and, therefore, already wired and using electricity. However, the moderate present per capita use in various sections of the country, as compared with the relatively large use which in other sections has been demonstrated to be attainable, is convincing evidence that opportunities for expansion in the use of electricity remain to be met before any saturation point needs generally to be looked for. TABLE NO. 3.-Electric power per capita